The Life without Electricity from Uganda

Comment by Andrew Jensen on March 21, 2010 at 3:35am

Wow, 10 miles to charge a cell phone. There's a place for bicycle generators. Pedal just as much and you make your own charge.

And here's a tip for the iron: You can cut plastic bags (The kind you find as litter everywhere) flat and stack them on top of each other. Put them between 2 sheets of paper and iron it, and you can make strong plastic sheeting that makes a decent tarp.

Comment by David Perner on March 21, 2010 at 4:03am

I've been very curious about this, so maybe you can help me. How do you see Ugandans wanting to use electricity if they had access to it? Would they want to cook with it, use it to light their houses at night, charge their cell phones, or something else I have missed? What would be the first thing they would want it for? Thanks :)

Comment by Lim Wei Chiang Bryan on March 21, 2010 at 5:07am

Lol to Cornelia! Yes these are still prevalent in the '60s and '70s. If you take a trip down to local Chinatowns, you'll still see them. I've used one of them and boy the charcoal's hard to prepare and it's really dangerous! no wonder my grandmother's got huge arms.

back to the subject, if you really want to know how this feels, try searching for a powerpoint for 2 hours and realising how inconvenient it is...really bad i would say!

+1 for you

Comment by Nick Heyming on March 21, 2010 at 6:42am

Thanks for the perspective. I'm glad to hear how resourceful people are, but I'm sure there are amenities and services that you'd appreciate...

Comment by David Dewane on March 21, 2010 at 8:08am

Great post. I'd love to see part II, part III, part IV...

Comment by E B on March 21, 2010 at 3:41pm

Thank you for the feedback, encouragement and discussion.
@Andrew Jensen: Thanks for the new tip of ironing using plastic bags. Reminds me of another way of ironing using hot water in a calabash.

@David Perner : The first people want the electricity is mainly for light, charging cellphones, and for radio. It mostly has to do with keeping the electricity bills low.

Thanks again to you all. I like your ideas and the discussion.

Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on March 21, 2010 at 3:46pm

+1LI. I have "fond" memories of the charcoal iron.

Comment by John D. Boyden on March 21, 2010 at 5:09pm

Thank you for a clear display of realities +1 local insight

Comment by Mirthe on March 22, 2010 at 7:46am

It's a good post in terms of realizing that a lot of people in the world don't have electricity. The problem is that using wood as a heating source is highly unsustainable, a lot worse for the environment than using electricity. So for the people in the world that do have electricity this is not something to follow in terms of sustainable energy resources.

Comment by E B on March 22, 2010 at 9:53am

@Mirthe, thank you for putting that clear. Indeed, situations like in this post, is what inspires me my missions. Burning wood is not good at all: Produces a lot of smoke (thus indoor and outdoor pollution). Moreover, it is also impacts on the forests.

The applies for Kerosene powered lamps. I remember studying for my Primary School exams on these lamps. The smoke is feasible that it even paints the roof of the house black. Plus the lighting range is so small, so you have to be as close as possible to the lamp.

Thank you all once again for the discussion.

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