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 * Malawian Boy Uses Wind to Power his Village**

After being forced to quit school for being unable to afford the $80 school fees, William Kamkwamba spent his days in a local library, continuing to educate himself. When he came across a textbook with photographs of windmills, he decided to try and make one too, to help and change his village. Although Kamkwamba's community believed he was going crazy, he finished building the windmill out of the oly resources he had, and proved them wrong. His village now has electricity and running water and he is a student at the elite African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also been flown around the world to recount his life-story, which has been made into a book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by Bryan Mealer, who spent a year with Kamkwamba to write it.

CNN: [] BBC: []

__Similarities:__ These two articles both used many quotes from William Kamkwamba, and some of them were also similar. For example, CNN used, "Everyone laughed at me when I told them I was building a windmill. They thought I was crazy." And BBC quoted Kamkwamba with, "Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy. They had never seen a windmill before." The articles also showed former U.S. Vice President Al Gore applauding Kamkwamba's achievments and informed us that Kamkwamba was invited to conferences and events worldwide to share his story.

__Differences:__ One of the most obvious differences between the two articles were their lengths. BBC's article was longer and so had more information about the windmills Kamkwamba built and how he became recognized by many. BBC also included more photos: two of Kamkwamba, one of Al Gore, and one of Bryan Mealer and Kamkwamba, while CNN only put in a single large photo of Kamkwamba fitting in a lightbulb to a house in his village. Another thing BBC had was a short timeline called "Winds of Change," showing when Kamkwamba built the different windmills, the year of the drought, and when he attended the inaugural African Leadership Academy class.

__Opinion:__ William Kamkwamba's achievements shows that we can do almost anything when we're inspired to do it and if we hope and don't give up, if we focus hard enough on achieving something we can make it happen. I thought that his story was very inspiring and memorable and everyone should hear and learn about it. Despite having very little, he wanted to help his village and a lot more people, so using only pieces like a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade, an old shock absorber, and blades from plastic pipes that were flattened by being held over a fire, he was able to build something that greatly improved his community's lives.