He
brought with him paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright
red, as the owner asked him. While painting, he noticed that there was a
small hole in the hull, and quietly repaired it. When finished
painting, he received his money and left.
The
next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him
with a nice cheque, much higher than the payment for painting.
The painter was surprised and said “You’ve already paid me for painting the boat Sir!”
“But this is not for the paint job. It’s for having repaired the hole in the boat.”
“Ah! But it was such a small service… certainly it’s not worth paying me such a high amount for something so insignificant.”
“My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened. When I asked you to paint the boat, I forgot to mention about the hole. When the boat dried, my kids took the boat and went on a fishing trip. They did not know that there was a hole. I was not at home at that time. When I returned and noticed they had taken the boat, I was desperate because I remembered that the boat had a hole. Imagine my relief and joy when I saw them returning from fishing. Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole! You see, now, what you did? You saved the life of my children! I do not have enough money to pay your ‘small’ good deed.”
One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you, I’m doing community service this week.’
The florist was pleased and left the shop.
When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.
Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you, I’m doing community service this week.’ The cop was happy and left the shop.
The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a ‘thank you ‘ card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.
Then an MP came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill , the barber again replied, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The MP was very happy and left the shop
The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen MPs lined up waiting for a free haircut.
Everyone is going
solar. Some want to use renewable energy, others want green energy, some want
to save the planet, others want to cut carbon emissions, and some simply think
it is cool. If you want to join the bandwagon, I will tell you why you should, and
why you should not, depending on your needs.
First, there are some very good news about solar energy (In this case, we are talking about Solar Photovoltaic, which involves converting solar energy to electrical energy. There are many other uses, such as solar water heater).
The cost
of solar power has gone down, and is on the downward trend. This means that it
will keep getting cheaper in the future. Good news.
The cost of
storage is also going down, and storage technology keeps getting better. This
is important because any meaningful solar installation requires storage. You can guess why; the sun never shows up at
night, and solar panels convert solar (sun’s) energy into electrical energy.
You can
now seamlessly switch between mains ac and solar power, meaning that you use
solar power when it is available, and switch to mains electricity when
necessary.
Who can use solar
power?
Solar power is freely
available, as long as you can see the sun. This means that if you have a roof,
or some grounds available, you can mount solar panel. Any house owner or
property owner can install solar panels, but if you are in a rented apartment
things may not work good for you, unless if you are a friend to your landlord,
or you are influential 😊.
Solar power can be used nearly in every part in Africa, as the sun is a
friend to Africa. The Sunshine duration in Nairobi is 6.8 hours in Nairobi, 9.4 hours in Cairo, and 8.4 in Cape Town. In Kenya, the average
sunshine duration is 6.9 hours, which means that we have the sun shining almost
all throughout the year, with peaks in January. In short, everyone can board!
But,
You need to have your priorities right. If
your side hustle is welding steel gates in your house, or running a posho mill,
you are not eligible. To put it more accurately, you can consider solar, but
your investment will be in millions. Here we are addressing domestic consumers.
Hybrid Solar system diagram
Sample case
If your monthly power consumption is 55
units of electrical power, your electricity bill would be approximately KES 833
in Kenya, or KES 10,000 per year. This could be the following devices running
in the house:
100 Watt fridge running full-time
30 Watt TV running for 4 hours per day
Two 10 W bulbs running for six hours per day
A laptop running for three hours per day
Three 15 Watt bulbs running for 4 hours per day
For the above, you would need to have at least a battery capacity of 230 Ah, a solar panel of 262 Watts, and an Inverter of about 300 Watts. This would cost about 75000, exclusive of installation costs. This means that it would take you about 10 years to recover your investment. Solar panels have a long usage life, up to 30 years, while for the battery, you might need to replace it at most every 7 years.
Solar Water Heater
I would want to mention a few things about solar waters heaters because they have one of the easiest application. One of the huge costs in small households is heating water, and adopting one can help reduce your electricity consumption significantly. Read about Solar water heaters in this article.
An atheist was on a hike when he became lost in some dense woods. A large angry lion, with ten starving cubs back home and claws like kitchen knives, suddenly emerged from the undergrowth. Seeing the lion, the atheist screamed in terror, turned and ran. The lion was quicker however, and after a long and desperate chase eventually cornered the atheist in a gully.
The exhausted atheist sank to his knees, shaking. The lion, seeing that its prey was trapped, moved slowly towards the petrified man, drooling. The lion was drooling too. The atheist lifted his head, with tears in his eyes, and uttered the words he thought he would never say in all his life: “God help me…”
With these simple three words, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky. There was a deafening crash of thunder. The clouds parted. A brilliant light shone down. The forest fell silent. The lion froze still, in a trance. The atheist stood gaping, transfixed.
A voice came loud from above.
“You atheists make me seriously mad,” boomed the voice, “You deny me all your life. You tell others to deny me too. You put your faith in all manner of things, and then what a surprise – you get lost because you can’t read your map, and now you’re about to get eaten by an angry lion all of a sudden you’re on your knees snivelling and begging for my help? You must be joking…”
The atheist looked down, realizing that he was not arguing from a position of strength.
“Okay, I take your point,” said the atheist, thinking on his feet, while he still had them, “I can see it’s a bit late for me to convert, but what about the lion? Maybe you could convert the lion instead?”
“Hmmn… interesting idea…” said God, “…Okay. It shall be done.” At which the brilliant light dimmed and vanished; the clouds closed; and the noises of the forest resumed.
The lion awoke and shook its head, a completely different expression on its face. Calm, at peace.
The lion closed its eyes, bowed its head, and said, “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, Amen.”
A dog came into a shop, having a bag in its mouth. The bag had a list of items to be bought and money so the shopkeeper took the money and put the items in the bag.
Immediately, the dog picked up the bag of items and left. The shopkeeper was surprised and went behind the dog to see who the owner was. The dog waited at the bus stop. After sometime, a bus came and the dog got onto the bus. As soon as the conductor came, it moved forward to show his neck belt which had money and the address as well. The conductor took the money and put the ticket in his neck belt again. When it reached its destination, the dog went to the front and wagged his tail indicating that he wanted to get down. As the bus stopped, it got down. The shopkeeper was still following it.
The dog knocked on the door of a house with its legs. Its owner came from inside and beat it with a stick. The shocked shopkeeper asked him “why are you beating the dog?”, the owner replied, ” he disturbed my sleep. It could have taken the keys with it.”
Moral: There is no end to the expectations people have from you.
The great tightrope walker Blondin strung a wire from one side of the Niagara Falls to the other. A crowd gathered to watch him attempt to walk out over the deadly falls. The silent tension turned to cheers as they watched him walk out, turn and come back.
He asked the crowd, “How many believe that I can walk to the other side and back while pushing a wheelbarrow?” To which they shouted, “We believe, we believe!” And, Blondin did in fact walk out and back with a wheelbarrow.
Upon his return, Blondin asked, “Who believes I could push a man in this wheelbarrow while walking out and back on the wire?” Again the crowd responded with enthusiastic affirmation.
“OK,” he asked, “Who would like to get in?” The crowd fell silent.
