Solar User Forum

Yesterday we left the busy city and headed to a small rural unelectrified community about an hour and half away from Manila near Lake Tagaytay. Driving out of the city, I was shocked to see how quickly all of the cement turned to lush greenery and palm trees. Along the drive we ascended up to the volcanoe lake, passing more fruit stands with more pinapples than I’d ever seen before. For some reason I thought pinapples grew on trees, but behind the fruit stands were bright green hills and delicately carved out pinapple fields.

In order to reach the community or barangay we drove along narrow muddy paths that had obviously had not seen cars in a while.When we arrived we were greeted with many warm smiles and friendly “hellos” which even the smallest kids knew how to say in English. The purpose of our visit was to hold a “Solar User Forum” in which Hybrid Social Solutions retruns 3 months after a community has bought solar lanterns, in order to make sure people understand proper use of the lanterns and aren’t having any technical difficulties. All of the solar users, mostly women, and people interested in buying a latern gathered in the barangay church with their babies, several dogs, chickens, a horse, and lots of kids who wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. The forum was in Tagalog, but one of the local interns helped me understand what was going on. First proper use, charging, and maintaince of the solar lanterns was explained. Then the group divided into teams, in which there was a race to name all of the different parts and functions of the lantern. The game seemed like a great way to help people learn and judging by all of the shouting and laughing, seemed like a lot of fun.

Kids watching a lantern being fixed

After the game, several people got up in front of the group to share personal testimonials. One woman spoke about how she no longer had to walk two hours through the muddy jungle just to charge her phone. Another explained how her kids were able to study longer and now one of them is going to be Valedictorian of his school. Another told us how she used the light to scare away bats from her mango trees. One of the women in the group, did not grasp my lack of Tagolog understanding and kept trying to talk to me, luckily shortly after the local intern explained she was asking me how she could buy a lantern. It was one thing to read about the great benefits of solar devices, but to hear peoples’ personal stories firsthand and witness their excitment was truly inspiring.

 I also got a chance to hang out with some kids, whom I sadly couldn’t converse with, but we bonded by playing an intense game of soccer (football in the Philippines) with a large empty water bottle.