Grade 11, Rena le Lona Creative Centre
There once was a girl named Nompumelelo Ndlovu who turned 15 years old in the year 2018. Nompumelelo was a very smart, independent and good-looking girl. She lived with her grandmother in a rural village that was called Ngcobo. Her mother died while Nompumelelo was still young, and her father ran away before she was even born. Nompumelelo was in Grade 10. She loved science. It took her almost two hours to get to her school. On top of that, her village had not had electricity since the year 2000.
Nompumelelo was used to the life of not having electricity. One very cold Friday morning, she woke up and got ready to walk to school. When she arrived, she met her teacher standing at the school gate. Her name was Ms Nozie.
She was standing there, saying, “Everyone, I need all the Grade 10s.” Immediately, Nompumelelo went to Ms Nozie and asked her why the Grade 10s were being called.
She said, “They are going to a career expo in Sandton.” Nompumelelo started to get excited because she had heard a lot of amazing things about Sandton. She told Ms Nozie that she was a Grade 10 learner. Ms Nozie then sent her to the office. When she arrived, she saw Grade 10s and 11s, including her best friend, Mpho.
Mpho and Nompumelelo loved each other so much. Their friendship was very strong. They did everything together. People even thought that they were dating. To Nompumelelo, this was advantageous because she didn’t want any guy or lesbian to come and flirt with her.
While Nompumelelo and the others were settling in, in the office, two buses arrived at the school. Before they went onto the buses Nompumelelo went to Ms Nozie and asked her how the school could afford to take them to Sandton. Ms Nozie said that the government prepared and organised everything so that all the Grade 10s and 11s would know which direction to take once they finished high school. Nompumelelo and her school mates admired the new places they saw on the journey. It took them two to three hours to reach their destination in Sandton.
When they arrived, the beauty they saw was unique because the place was electrified. Nompumelelo started to ask herself many questions. She thought, “Why do they have electricity and we don’t? Are they special? Why did the government pay for the career expo in Sandton if they can’t fix our electricity?” After a moment Nompumelelo started to look around the place and luckily, she saw a booth that had people who could teach her about science. She was interested immediately because that was the subject she loved in school.
Minutes passed before she asked the big question, “Can you create light out of a battery, wires and a light bulb?”
One of the people who was teaching her more about science said, “Yes, because batteries contain electricity, and you can basically do anything when you have electricity.” That science person gave her a book about electricity. In the book there was information on how to make electricity and how to prevent yourself from getting hurt by it, etc. Time went by and it was 18h00. It was time to go home.
Everybody boarded the buses and while other learners were tired, Nompumelelo was busy reading the book that she was given from the person at the science booth. When she arrived home, her grandmother was sleeping. She didn’t even bother to wake her up. She just continued reading her book and slept very late.
The next day was a cold Saturday morning. She woke up early at 06h00 while it was a little dark. She started to look for batteries, wires and a light bulb. It took her almost one hour to find them, but she eventually did. She started to experiment and create light. On her first try, the experiment was a success. She was very happy. When her grandmother woke up and saw the light, she became very scared, thinking that there was a fire, but the picture became clearer. She was shocked and started to ask many questions. Nompumelelo explained everything.
Nompumelelo’s grandmother was very proud of her and after a moment, with no hesitation, she went outside, woke everyone up and told them about the amazing light experiment that her grandchild conducted. After a few days, Nompumelelo found a way of making renewable energy using a windmill. She called a meeting that included everyone in the village. She told them about her renewable energy plan. They were immediately interested in helping Nompumelelo since her grandmother had told them about her achievements. After the planning was done, people started to work together. When they were done, everyone’s homes were able to turn on lights. To them it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.
Reporters from news agencies heard about the capabilities of a 15-year-old. All they wanted to do was to interview her and write about her achievements. Since then, Nompumelelo and her village have become famous. While Nompumelelo was growing and improving, she decided to create a mission and a goal. Her mission was to teach whoever wanted to learn about electricity, like the people from the career expo, so that she could have her own team. Her goal was to work together with her team and create energy that could be shared, was clean and did not run out so that people around the world who did not have electricity would be able to access it.