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A Trip to Mahabo, Madagascar by Alex Pell

Even though I had come up with a rough plan of surveying and comparing the renewable energy potentials in the area as a response to my project seemingly falling apart in the States prior to my departure, my project was continuing to evolve. After I had arrived in Madagascar, one of the first things I did was meet with Feno to discuss the project and our schedule for the month. After our talk, it seemed like the project would be moving back towards solar because she made it seem like the stream and wind strength near Mahabo that she had mentioned before were not what I had in mind.  Also, we talked about limiting our trips to the village because Mahabo is 57 km of rough roads and over 3 hours away from Tana. This decision was also partially because it was difficult and expensive for us to find a 4 wheel drive vehicle that would be capable of bringing us to the village. 

Later that week, we went on our first trip to Mahabo with a few other members of the NGO.  We left around 5 am and the primary goals of the trip were to see the village and the school as well as get some measurements for the wire that we would need.
 



Prior to our departure, Feno had warned me about how rocky the road was and she was worried that I might not be used to it. Along the way, the driver was swerving to avoid potholes and trying his best to stay on the smoothest path even if that meant driving on the opposite side of the road. About an hour into the car ride, I turned to Feno and said, “I see what you meant when you said the road was very bumpy.” She laughed at me and said, “This is still the good part!” 




 After arriving at the village, I could see why Feno wanted to do solar and I also began to understand some of the reasons I had difficulty communicating and getting information from the village.
Although my professors had warned me that the pace of life would be slower in Madagascar than in California, I had not considered that other aspects of life such as distance that are often relative. For example, my perceptions of how distance and time are greatly influenced by cars and highways. When I was told that there was a stream “right next to” the village, I imagined the stream would be a couple meters from the village, running alongside it. In reality, it was over a kilometer away which is a relatively short walk compared to the distance to the next village over or the market over 10km away.

After seeing the stream, I agreed with Feno that solar was clearly the best option and that micro hydro was no longer an option for what we had in mind because the river was small, flowed slowly and was much farther from the school. Some of the other benefits we discussed about solar as opposed to wind or hydroelectric were no moving parts, low maintenance, and they could be placed directly on top of the roof. 

The Small Stream



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