Worldview Magazine - Winter 2007 - (Page 26)

Letter from Ha Teboho LESOTHO TECH Design in a country where things fall apart by Matt Orosz A distinguished panel of experts sat for the Earth Science Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently and as I stood before them and made my presentation for a renewable energy project in Ha Teboho, Lesotho, one of the experts squinted at me. “Wait. Lesotho? Why Lesotho?” In perfect imitation of my former counterpart, Ntate Tseuoa, I answered with a smile and a gush of conﬁdence and pride. “Why not?” at is not the ﬁrst time I have seen the squint and heard the question about a solar turbine hot water heater and electricity generator in rural and southern Lesotho. And each time I hear the question I remember Tseuoa, an agronomist and a sangoma– a diviner, herbalist and spell caster– who moonlighted as an evangelical preacher. He was my mentor in rural extension work. Tseuoa was 50 when I met him and he had the energy of a perpetual athlete. He could billy-goat up the side of a mountain, give ﬁery extemporaneous speeches and would answer every why question with an emphatic “Why Not?” e truth is that Lesotho is in my DNA. It is where I ﬁrst woke up to the connections between energy, technology and poverty. More so than any other African nation, the Basotho are the people I know; their language and their ways have left an indelible mark in my mind and soul. at is why Lesotho. I spent two years in Lesotho struggling with the meaning of the word development. What exactly were we pushing? Modern industrial civilization with its accompanying technology and global trade does support more people on the planet with a higher standard of living–as measured by indicators like infant mortality and average lifespan–than ever before in history. It puts food in our freezers, keeps our houses warm or cool, and lights up our nights; it enables us to ﬂy swiftly over the face climate change, solving the problem of where all those watts will come from is a question that ours and future generations can expect to devote much of our ingenuity and creativity to answering. With these realizations and my Peace Corps service fresh in my Ha Teboho residents examine a device that may bring them electricity. of the earth to distant places or to talk to friends and relatives thousands of miles away. Modernity is an easy sell, and demand for it is high wherever you talk about it in the developing world, Lesotho included. But I found much to appreciate in the traditional mode of existence of the rural Basotho, whose lives center around the culture of maize and sorghum and the herding of cattle, sheep and goats. I often found myself wondering if the frantic life of work-aday stress and environmental pollution our modern western life creates is what they really needed. In the end, I gave up playing out this dilemma because, of course, the decision was never mine to begin with. Development is what the Basotho seek, and achieving it will require energy, both the watts kind and the humansunited-in-an-endeavor kind. In a world of shrinking fossil reserves and concerns over global mind, I began to work on solar energy technology in Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Development Lab, a department founded by Amy Smith, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana almost two decades ago. Over a period of two years working with other students, I formed a team around developing a solar energy platform that was both a mechanical system and capable of making use of the sun’s heat. A mechanical system is more accessible to build locally than a photovoltaic panel. We also wanted to provide heat and electricity because countries like Lesotho suﬀer from deforestation. e nation’s massive land degradation is caused not only by the overgrazing of cattle and goats but by the collection of scrub brush and dung to heat water for cooking and for washing. e result is the large gullies or dongas that are a constant feature of Lesotho. Using solar thermal energy to 26 Winter 2007 Matt Orocz

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Worldview Magazine - Winter 2007

Worldview Magazine - Winter 2007 Contents President's Note Lafayette Park Note to Readers Commentary Letter from India Commentary Letter from Botswana Letter from Ha Teboho Letter from Jumbi Valley Letter from Mununga Letter from Medellin Giving Back Community News

Worldview Magazine - Winter 2007

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