A small solar powered music box and solar powered green and red lights can be all you need to make a Friday afternoon a bit different and more fun. Especially if you are out in the countryside where the power transmission lines hover but the houses are not connected to the electricity grid and the evenings can be very dark. The entrepreneur Gilda, who works for one of our programs, let us join her to one of her ‘Solar Parties’ in a small rural area outside Maputo. A solar party in northern Norway normally would mean a celebration of the return of the sun after the winter when the sun doesn’t come out. Our solar party in the Damo area close to Moamba was quite different.
I haven’t really written much about the job I am doing here (one earlier blog from a visit to a project in the north was).
I am responsible at the Embassy for the development cooperation activities within the energy sector. Only a very small part of the Mozambican population are connected to the electricity grid, around 20%. In the rural areas, this number is of course even lower. Of the total energy consumption in the country, almost 80% comes from biomass, i.e. wood, charcoal and the like, mostly used for cooking. The women typically cook on open fire, which not only is a very inefficient use of fuel, but also causes problems such as respiratory diseases due to the smoke and hard work to collect wood every day for women and girls. Norway is providing different kinds of support, partly to strengthen the planning and politics for development and improvement of the energy sector, and partly to ensure access to electricity for more areas and households. My job is to follow up the various programs and projects that are implemented with Norwegian support, and in this I normally am in contact with people in the government, the electricity utility, and other embassies and organizations, people sitting in offices and doing paper work. So it’s nice to get out and around and see how those people who we are supposed to help live.
One of our new programs is to work with the authorities to help them ensure that what we do also benefit women. A person is recruited to work in the Ministry to coordinate this. She is a very active and inspiring woman, with a master’s degree in energy management where she studied solar energy and women. As a private initiative she has started importing solar lighting devices from Germany, and travels around in areas without electricity to sell and install these. Sometimes she brings a solar powered music player with loudspeakers which plays music from her mobile phone, and which also powers small green and red lights, she brings some drinks, the village people make food, and this together becomes a party. I had said I really wanted to see this, and when we this week had a delegation from Norway visiting Maputo, we all were invited to join her.
The place we visited is so small it can’t even be called a village, it consists of maybe 10 houses in total, and all belongs to one family. The head of this little community is Mr. Machel, ‘Papa Machel’, who has three or four (and possibly more) ‘wives’, which means they are not really formally married and registered and everything but they are still considered his wives, and 50 – yes, fifty! – children! He says he’s born in 1932 which would make him 80 years old but he doesn’t look that much. He has 98 cattle and they grow some vegetable. Some of his children still live in the area and there were a big number of kids around, mostly of course his grandchildren.
The houses are basic, but made with concrete. Cooking is done in small sheds over open fire. We didn’t see what kind of toilets they had, but they would be pit latrines. For the visit they had cooked a serious amount of rice, a dish with goat meat, one with chicken, a vegetable stew and a salad. We brought lots of drinks plus some food presents. After all we came at least ten people and were all fed by the hosts! The food was nice (although some in the group were a tiny bit skeptical at first..!) and after the food we were given a tour around the community. Papa Machel demonstrated how he uses oxen to plough, we went in to chat with the women who were cooking and taking care of the babies, and of course he showed us the big pride: three of the houses had electric lights in the ceiling and possibility to charge mobile phone. This was thanks to the products that Gilda had sold to them and installed for them. Now they are able to have light in the house in the evening, and are not depending on kerosene lamps, which is expensive, gives less good light, and pollutes the air indoor.
As the light grew dim towards the end of the afternoon, the music started playing and the lights came on. One of the guys had a guitar and played with the music, and everyone danced. I have to admit that the kids were so good at dancing, no way I could compete with them! They must be singing and making their own music, no radios or music players here!
We stayed until it was dark before driving through the bush to get back to the main road. It’s a bit hard to imagine that these communities exist just a short drive from the modern, uplit, bustling town. But it’s the way life is for the big majority of Mozambicans, all over the country.
Here are some pictures and videos with impressions from the trip:
Thank you very much Mari. I feel shy but I like your posting! Next week I am flying to Germany for another technical training to upgrade support to rural households and share field experience at the Off Grid Workshop promoted by Phaesun. I will send the site to my friends and trainers. I am sure they will proud to see that the offered support and acquired knowledge is being put into practice and helping people in need! I like to do work which promotes development and alleviate poverty… even if that means to give a bit of my time for free. My gratitude to the Norwegian Embassy and the Ministry of Energy for the opportunity to join the team!
Congarats to you people and Gilda!
Dear Mari and Gilda,
thanks for sharing this very inspiring blog! Only some months ago I’ve been to the same place, your small story about the solar party reminds me of the time in the small village. Back then Gilda and two of her collegues installed the solar systems in two houses. I can tell by your report and the pictures you posted that the installation is still working and I’m very happy about that (actually I never doubted that, as the entrepreneurs work very professionally).
I’m looking forward to meet Gilda in two weeks time in Germany and already look forward to my next stay in Mozambique (hopefully end of the year).
Thanks again for sharing the blog and the pictures.
Kind regards,
Ben