TanzSolar; Bringing Affordable Solar Lighting to Rural Tanzania

Marianne Walpert and her organization, TanzSolar, are helping to spread solar LED lights in rural Tanzania to enable villagers to read, study and work, eliminating kerosene lanterns and improving health while reducing CO2 emissions.

TanzSolar believes in a world where everyone can afford to live and work in a clean, well-lighted environment using modern technology and renewable power.

Their mission is to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life for people throughout Tanzania through the promotion of affordable technology powered by renewable energy, distributed to communities not served by an electricity grid.

Check out TanzSolar's website here.

And also visit their page on Global Giving, where you can learn more about the project, share the information with friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and donate to the very worthwhile venture that TanzSolar has undertaken in one of the most rural areas on the planet.

You can help!

Solar Cooking in Africa - A Remarkable Technology Transfer

A poignant and articulate video by my friend and colleague, Pat McArdle.

I am proud to have been a part of a number of these solar cooking efforts in Africa!

How to Travel Outside your Comfort Zone

Does travel always equal going outside your comfort zone?

Particularly among those of us who travel extensively, there’s a temptation to draw the equivalence. While travel can present opportunities to escape the familiar, to experiment with new behaviors, and to subject yourself to vulnerability and emotional risk, it does not mean that once the backpack is strapped on, you have automatically departed your comfort zone.

We are not referring to Amazing Race-like stunts, or bungee jumping, skydiving or other extreme thrill-seeking travel feats. Instead, we are referring to the comfort zone of the cultural and interpersonal variety and the sorts of uncelebrated travel achievements of human interaction that push mental boundaries. This comfort zone is about overcoming fears of people and cultures different than our own – by doing more than just visiting ruins, churches and temples, mixing it up with the front desk staff of the hostel, and staring out the window of a spiffy tour bus while making grand philosophical projections about the life streaming by outside.

It’s about getting lost – sometimes physically, often times emotionally – and placing yourself in situations whose challenges spit you out on the other side – altered, slightly different, and just possibly a better person.

We’ve met travelers who would like to push themselves beyond the limits of what they know and understand, but they don’t know how to get started. We offer a few ideas on how to begin.

After this, you’re on your own. That’s when the real fun happens.

See the entire article here, on Uncornered Market.

Uncornered Market: Filed Under: Personal Growth, Travel by Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott