The little engine that could

This is a follow up of the May 9th article
'Power to the people' . I was able to go inside
the big gray metal building to see the source
of what powers the village.
As you can see in the picture it is an old diesel
engine with the generating system in the back
on the left (in front of person). Behind him on
the left out of sight are two transformers that
take the power from the generating system
and then distributes it to the village.
It is an old diesel and there were two up to
2004 and like I mentioned in the original article,
it went for repairs and never to be seen again.
It leaks some oil and water from the radiator
but they keep filling it up and it just keeps purring
along.
I was told that this village is about the only village
for miles and miles in either direction that has any
kind of of electrical power. So, despite the limited
time per day that the generator is on, we are better
off that the others.
One of the bigger problems is that with limited power
comes limited access to information. There is a solar
powered receiving station for radio but I guess there
is a problem and they hooked it up to the generator.
So the radio is relaying to the village when the
generator is working. But what we really need is
access to a couple of the Namibian TV channels
which broadcast the news like CNN and BBC
among a couple other excellent national stations.
Maybe when the power from the new power lines
arrive sometime at the end of the year, we will be able
to get a TV relay system.
I do have to say that that diesel is really the little engine
that could. Comparing it's size to it's output, it is a
real monster. It does power a lot of things when it
is on. I was amazed when I saw it, I thought that for
what it did it was something a story high or so.
The old boy just needs to keep going along for another
6 to 8 months then it'll be able to rest it's weary bones.