A bright spot in the rain

The inevitable happened just as predicted, although the weak whine was unexpected.  As voluminous raindrops quickly turned the deep red earth an even darker shade, we scrambled to shield our newly assembled solar equipment.  An afternoon that was supposed to be spent testing our equipment was instead spent testing our reflexes.  With wires tangling feet and the fifty-pound battery protruding like a potbelly out of the lime-green inverter box, we barely avoided short-circuiting the equipment.  A mad minute, the faint whine of the inverter signaling the error “insufficient sunlight” injected a degree of dry humor into the commotion.  I caught the eye of our translator, Khadijah, who cracked a narrow smile and nonverbally communicated the fact that she new the rain was coming.   “Saa,” she said pointing out to the increasingly powerful rainfall.  Although I had been using the word in a collegially Ghanaian way to exclaim disappointment, Khadijah taught me not ten minutes before that it also meant “rain” in Dagbani.  From stripping thick wires with her teeth to tactfully placing double entendre for the observant, Khadijah continues to impress us.

Our Equipment, Minutes Before The Rain

We’ve spent the past couple of days learning from the success of others. Traveling to three villages outside of Tamale, we visited water purification and solar charging businesses that have been implemented by Saha in the past few years. Yes, projects just like the one we are doing already exist. We are not reinventing the wheel here. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our project, we aren’t taking any structural risks. Saha has supported the opening of over 70 water and 8 solar businesses in total and has a 100% rate of success. We like those odds.

Tomorrow is a big day.  The kind of day that you prepare for by probing the annals of the market for Kola nuts – a local stimulant with ceremonious connotations.  Tomorrow is the first day we travel to our implementation site: the village Nomdu One.  We wish we could tell you what to expect – the characters at play, the scenery, exactly how impossible it would be to drink in the car measured by the bumpiness of the road.  But it’s all a mystery that tomorrow we will begin to illuminate (sorry…there are going to be a lot of solar puns going forward). Wish Lauren luck tomorrow.  She will be leading our chief meeting that will outline our solar business proposal and seek his approval.