Kristin Sellefyan, Charge Of The Light Brigade, Rwanda

27-09-2010

How does one film an energy kiosk powered with solar panels under pouring rain and buried in fog? How does one talk of the efficiency of solar panels when there is not a ray of sunshine for miles around, let alone film it? Yet, that’s what we had to do!

We'd just come from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where we’d been filming a documentary on humanitarian aid. The trip could be summed up as endless wandering in backbreaking 4x4s, impassable roads and never heard of places, put on the map by deadly attacks on UN peacekeepers and mass rapes of Congolese women by armed groups. Coming to Rwanda to cover e.quinox, a student run renewable energy project, was a piece of cake… at least that’s what we thought!

It was a grey and damp Sunday in Kigali. We met with the students from the Imperial College of London and Simon, the sole Rwandan from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and hit the road. Eight of us, squeezed like sardines in a 4x4… again! Full of faith in the chameleonic African rainy season, surely it was going to clear up by the time we reached Minazi, a mere 45 kms North of Kigali? Two hours and so later, we are still bumping along, up and down never ending hills to the strains of Cher’s aggravating (under the circumstances) "Do you believe in life after love?"

The boys said two hours, but I can safely assert we covered the 45 kms to Minazi in over two hours and a half… I kept time. On arrival, dismay all around, the energy kiosk was shrouded in fog. Déo, short for Déogratias, the shopkeeper of the kiosk, claimed that it would clear up shortly. No sooner had he uttered the words that it was pouring a ruckus on the solar panels. Forget filming the solar panels, we now had other worries. How on earth would we record interviews with a decent sound in this din? Too bad, we just had to make do.

Hurried pow wow with the e.quinox team and we get to work… explanation of the system and the pivotal question (and I'm thinking I'm being clever) "what do you do if there isn't a ray of sunlight in days?". Unfazed, Lukas Lukoschek, a 2nd year Electrical and Electronic Engineering student at the Imperial College, tells me that for now they have enough spare batteries, no problem. But, in the new kiosks they will have bigger storage batteries stocking up on power, which in turn will serve to charge smaller batteries. Plus, the solar panels catch rays that are in the clouds, only it's slower to charge…easy. They've thought of everything and the average age in this project is 21!

Posted by Kristin Sellefyan

e.quinox – Charge of the Light Brigade- Daniel Choudhury

21-10-2010

We breathed a sigh of relief as the iconic (for us, anyway) e.quinox Energy Kiosk sign in Minazi floated into vision through the thick mist. We had been travelling for two and a half hours squished in the car, "like sardines" as Kristin liked to say, much of the way on bumpy, unpaved roads. I must add though, the driver’s music collection ranging from Vengaboys to Justin Timberlake kept me amused. In the car were Kristin and Bruno to film us, Simon from the local KIST team and four of us from e.quinox.

Lukas and I had not been to Minazi before, but had seen plenty of photos and videos of the kiosk. To see it in person was a completely different feeling – it gave us a sense of pride to see the kind of system we worked throughout the year for, but also a sense of responsibility to know that two more of these kiosks needed to be set up in the next couple of weeks.

After a little while to stretch our legs, Bruno and Kristin were keen to begin filming as we got off the car. Not the best of conditions to film in though – dark and rainy, with dense mist hiding the wonderful view we had been promised by Chris. Perhaps a gloomy day wasn’t the best time to demonstrate our solar powered system either!

Regardless, we headed into the kiosk, greeted warmly by our shopkeeper Deo, or as we like to call him, the D.E.O. of the Minazi Energy kiosk. I started to relax a bit after we filmed one of the customers receiving her newly recharged battery box, we may just have enough content to film! We even managed to film a lady who uses one of our boxes to light her bar during the evening. I was pleasantly surprised at Chris and Lukas’ confidence in front of the camera – Chris made me do thirty takes when I interviewed him earlier in the year! I’m beginning to think it was intentional.

Second day of filming, and we were back in Kigali. Reunited with the rest of the team, we headed down to the metal market to buy our construction materials. Little did we know that this was the first of many trips to this market. Following a couple hours of haggling, we proceeded to head down to the village in Bugesera, the site for the new solar kiosk. We seem to have captured a lot of attention in the village, as we unload the wooden planks and metal supports for the solar panels. After few hours of filming of the team at work, we introduced our battery box at the local market. At this point we’ve gathered quite an entourage of fascinated locals. We begin heading home as it starts to get dark -2 more hours in the cramped car!

Day three of filming, and we’ve covered most of what we’ve wanted to, with a few shots in and around Kigali. It’s been three very hectic days, and we’re just about getting tired now! Chris, Varun and I finish our final interviews, and there are a couple of hours before Kristen and Bruno have to leave to catch their plane. We sit down at the motel where they were staying, and enjoy each other’s company over a few brochettes. Yes, all that for just eight minutes of video!

Posted by Daniel Choudhury