Everything was ready. I was very tired because I worked so hard to build the tower. People in my village heard (1)the news and were coming to look at it. Some of these people [ア laugh ] at me for months. They thought I was strange when I told them I was trying to generate electricity from wind. "Here it goes," I thought.

I was born and brought up in Malawi, a small country in Africa. In December 2000, a terrible famine broke out in the country. First, we had to stop having breakfast to save what we had. Then, we soon had nothing to eat, and my school friends and many others died. Children had to stop going to school.

Even when the famine was over, I still had to stay home to work in the fields because my father had not yet made enough money to send me back to school. (2)I could not blame him.

I said to myself, "If we had a good watering system, we [イ stay ] away from those problems in the future." I wanted to change our life, which was determined by rain and the price of seed. I wanted to build a better future.

I began to study on my own in the library to do something about our problems. My best friend Gilbert would come help me after school. One day, I came across a book titled Using Energy. If I hadn't read that book then, my life [ウ stay ] the same. It showed how to convert natural energy to another form such as electricity. Suddenly, an idea came to me.

My idea was to build a kind of windmill by myself. I kept thinking, "If I had a windmill, I could stay up and read at night." A windmill could also run a pump for water. My family could grow different vegetables, both to eat and to sell in the market. No more dark house or hungry days!

According to the book, I needed blades, a dynamo, and many other things. For the blades, I used old pipes taken from a bathhouse behind my aunt's house. For the rest of the parts I went to search a junkyard every day in the early morning. There, I was able to find a fan in an old car. I also picked up such things as old water pumps and springs for other parts. As I walked around in the junkyard, the students across the street in the school ground saw me and would call out, "Look, it's William. He's playing in the junkyard again!"

One day, when Gilbert and I were walking home together, he asked, "How's your windmill going?"

"Well, I've got most of the parts ready, but I don't know where I can get a dynamo. If I had a dynamo now, I would be able to start building my windmill," I answered.

Just then, we came across a man pushing his bicycle, which had a light. I said, "Look, Gilbert! There's a dynamo!" But I knew I had no money. (3)Then Gilbert went up to the man and asked if he could buy the dynamo on his bicycle. Gilbert's father had given away all their food during the famine. I was pretty sure they were also short of money. Still, Gilbert reached into his pocket, pulled out the money and handed it to the man. I will always remember that moment and cherish his gift of friendship. I ran home and placed the dynamo next to the other materials. It was like adding the last piece to the great puzzle in my life.

At last, I was on top of my finished tower. More and more people were coming to look at the windmill. They were standing around the tower and looking up. From the top, I could see the faces of my friends and the people I knew. There was little wind at first and the windmill did not turn. Then, the wind became stronger, and the fan began to turn. (4)It turned slowly at first, then faster and faster, until the force of its motion rocked the tower. Finally, a small light came on, and then it became stronger.

"It's true!" someone said. "The boy has done it!" Although this was only a little step toward my goal, it definitely brightened our future.