Stoney Tangawisi and Tasty Technology

Our esteemed GO Africa Director, Rev. Canon Dr. Alison Barfoot has been researching for some time the possibilities of Appropriate Technologies. We decided to try some out. Lira Towne was an opportune place to launch several projects with our team.

Solar Dehydrator: Sam, our newest GO Fellow, had worked diligently to craft a cardboard solar dehydrator for fruit and round up a great supply of mangoes, pineapples & bananas. So we got slicing. We positioned the sliced fruit onto the tray, set it up and let the equatorial sunshine do its work. (www.instructables.com)

Solar Light panels: (see photo below) Another team, led by our fearless roof climbing Scott, set about figuring out and executing installing five solar light kits that had 2 lights each with a cell phone charging cord for each of the homes. The afternoon sun shed its power onto the panels.

Tangawisi: (see photo below) There is a popular soda, called Stoney/Tangawisi, that many Ugandans enjoy. It is basically a ginger ale, a Coca Cola product widely successful in Africa. So, Canon Chemist Alison found a recipe and set about to teach the Mothers and all interested Management Committee members how to make their own Tangawisi! A bit of chemistry with grated fresh ginger, lemon, sugar, yeast and water and VOILA! Shake it up (while singing a local African song) and let it brew—within 24 hours it will be time to party with their own homemade brew of Father’s House Stoney! Top it off with the accouterments of their recently solar dehydrated fruit and enjoy. CHEERS!

The afternoon was filled with wiffle ball, 100 tennis ball mania, futbol and a blindfolded game of beat the drum!

Before leaving, we invited the Mothers into each home, closed the door and invited them to flip the switch—then there was light!

It was a full day, enlightened by joy and promise at Lira Towne.