My colleague Sam Duby recently posted a challenge to some students at Nairobi University who were taking part in the Nasa Spaceapps Challenge. 

We asked them to build a monitoring tool for our access:energy wind turbines. In just 24 hours, they built the Bit Harvester, an sms-based remote data acquisition and control system for remote renewable energy installations.

And it’s just been voted the People’s Choice winner of the International Nasa Space Apps Challenge! Congratulations to all the team for their brilliant design work! Really impressive open hardware.

I think I met a future president of Kenya today.

Although still in primary school, these children spoke with charisma, intellect, charm and the composure of leaders. It was a project coordinated by Kisumu Library, working with surrounding schools to increase confidence in public speaking skills, whilst engaging children in politics and current affairs. Schools were arranged into different political parties, they received some guidance and held regular debates in which they voted for ministers and leaders of their party. Next week, they will be voting for their president of Kenya. 

Many people complain that the overcrowded education system in Kenya only educates students by rote, precluding opportunities for creativity and free-thinking. This project is an excellent example of an initiative that promotes just that, and is bringing kids together, engaging them on important issues whilst promoting independent thought. And another reason to love your local library. I left inspired. 

This entry is about three things: 1) access to music, 2) hip hop and 3) an interesting remix of Sufjan Stevens’s Illinois album.

Without access to the internet there’s almost no access to worldwide music for most people in East Africa. In Kenya, local music dealers don’t branch far from a limited selection of Kenyan gospel and Kamba, some African pop, and Congalise reggae. It’s all sold on horrible quality CDRs, with the audio quality reduced at the expense of including the music videos - colourfully costumed dancers, having a merry dance in a garden or next to a waterfall.

I’ve recently met some local rappers. Young, passionate lovers of hip hop. Talking to them, I’ve noticed what a limited selection of worldwide hip hop they’ve heard of. It’s usually just a few artists, often Tupac, sometimes Notorious B.I.G and the Wu-Tang Clan. 

So I’m putting together a little mixtape to share with some of the hip hop heads of Kisumu. A selection of hip hop that I’ve loved: Pete Rock, Roots Manuva, De La Soul, Q-Tip, Madlib, Gangstarr, Nas, Ty…. and maybe some more off the beaten track hip hop, Shabazz Palaces, Soweto Kinch, Heart Streets… oh there’s so much to choose from. Need to whittle it down and not overwhelm. And need to keep that mixtape flow.

I was listening to Grand Puba’s I Like It - deciding whether to put it into the mix, and on my exploration I found the acappella over a Sufjan Stevens track. Surprised that the two were being put together, I checked it out further. The album is Illinoize, a free remix album of Sufjan Steven’s legendary album Illinois, from Montreal producer Tor.

You can download it free here.

My friend Simon is crowd sourcing funds to build a bore hole, that will help provide clean water to the Amoyo community he works with in Kenya. 

He’s just set off on a 500 mile sponsored walk, following the Camino de Santiago Trail, from the Pyrenees in France to Galicia. You can sponsor his trip on IndieGoGo.

Having strapped two wind turbines to the roof and a solar panel inside our yellow Pajero named Beryl, we took to the road bound for Mfungano Island. We drove from Kisumu to Luanda K’Otieno where we took the car ferry to Mbita. From there, we loaded all the equipment onto a small wooden passenger boat.

Mfungano is a wildlife rich island on Lake Victoria with a population of around 30,000. Early settlers came to the Island from Uganda, escaping accusation of an attempt to assassinate the King. We were there to install two wind turbines and a solar panel on top of the mountain, Soklo. This will provide power for the new Ekielo Kiona community radio station and a high-speed line-of-sight internet link from Kisumu. 

The youth-driven radio station will broadcast in Suba and Luo language, and facilitate community-driven programs aimed at raising health and nutrition awareness, mobilising youth activism, improving social solidarity, promoting sustainable agriculture and fishing innovation, and preserve the endangered Suba language and cultural identity. This project is part of Organic Health Response’s fantastic work on the Island. 

The Island has just one road around its circumference. So we had to carry all our tools, the turbines, the solar panel and batteries all the way up the mountain - it was back breaking! But the beautiful views made up for it, and it was great to get down to work with lots of help from the local community, including Mr Ekelo, the local Mze who generously donated the land for the tower and turbines.

To find out more about this work, visit accessenergy.org

Just back from a relaxing weekend away at Kweisos House, a cottage we hired for the weekend out near Koru. When I say relaxing, I really mean it. Lots of time to read, wallow in the pool and play mandolin. In the evenings, we played Perudo and Mafia, both excellent games, with excellent company included. 

During the day, the nearby farm house offered horse riding, table tennis and croquet (it’s owned by some Kenyan-Brits). It was fun to try horse riding again. Last time I rode was in North Carolina, a slightly faded memory which included galloping across a field and toppling off the horse. This time I just did short bursts of cantering. 

I would definitely recommend Kweisos for a weekend away. I wish I could have stayed longer. But there’s wind turbines to put up, and other projects awaiting, so back to Kisumu for another adventurous week.