Supper in the Dark and a Lantern

In the summer of 2010 I met the wife of a man I was doing business with in Europe. Several times during my visit, I had supper with her and her family. In each case, the supper was a stew.

Now, I really like stew and I told my hostess that. She told me that stew was the main food they had when she was growing up in one of the villages of Burkina Faso. In her native West African country, that village was about one hundred miles east of the capitol of Ouagadougou. It had no electricity and was a very poverty-stricken, tough place to live.

I asked her why they ate so many stews. She said that stew was the one food you can eat in the dark. I asked why they had to eat in the dark? She said that the men would come out of the fields late in the evening. By the time they got home, it was generally dark. And the wives would have supper ready: a stew.

“But why didn’t you eat by candlelight?” I asked. She gently shook her head and said, “Only the rich had candles. We ate in the dark.”

I have thought about that many, many times: Only the rich had candles; we ate in the dark. Think about it! Millions of people have no light once the sun goes down.

I thought about it when I saw the little, LED, emergency lantern. It can charge itself in the sun or it can be charged by turning its handle for a couple of minutes. It can provide light to eat by. It can make it possible for children to spend an evening reading. It can help people see in any situation.

I bought one of these lanterns and now I am offering it to you for purchase. It’s a fantastic tool for your home for times when you need light – as in a blackout or emergency.

This lantern provides virtually lifetime light, so you can use it anytime. The light also has enough power generation capability to run a cell phone.

Please consider getting a lantern for yourself and – most importantly – consider donating these to villages with people who cannot afford candles and must eat in the dark.

Purchase a Mini Solar Lantern here.