Operation Light For Life

Guatemala and Honduras!

By Rodger Harrison President Paramedics For Children, and Honorary Guatemalan Consul to the USA.

Imagine lighting your home for free using nothing more then a coke bottle filled with water. Sounds incredible doesn't it? This is one of those discoveries that you find yourself saying "why didn't I think of that"! After 14 years of living in a third world country I have come to know the people who live in the mountains of both Guatemala and Honduras without electric light. I have seen first hand how dark a mud hut is in middle of the day. Every house you go into is usually dark and the people who live in them know how difficult it is to be able to see what you are doing. Candles are expensive as are flash lights. This is why I was amazed to learn this simple trick to make light available to the poorest people in the world with nothing more then a plastic coke bottle, some water, and a few hand tools at a cost that is almost totally free. The system is so simple that it will make you laugh. The first people to use these lights were in the Philippines and they discovered that when sunlight hits the top of a plastic bottle filled with water the light diffuses in a way as to act like a light bulb that generates somewhere around 55 watts of light. This is free light with out heat or the use of electric power. That's bright! As long as the sun is shinning you have free light in your house. The stronger the sunlight the more light comes into the house. At night you don't have to worry about turning off the light as God does this for you when the sun goes down.

This is the building that we used for the light project test. Notice that it has no windows and no lighting. It is the tack room were we store our saddles for the horses. You cannot see anything inside if the lights are off.

All you need is an empty plastic bottle with cap, water, a little bleach, a tool to make a hole in the roof, and some type of sealer. Oh yes, I almost forgot you will need a ladder too.

Step 1 Get your ladder and go to the top of the roof and get one of the clay shingles down from the top and then cut a hole using a small chisel and hammer. We use a small drill to make a series of holes and then gently punch out the hole. When you are finished this is what it will look like. We are using the small 16 oz Coke and in this application. You can use the big 2 liter bottles as well. The bigger the bottle the more light. Since we are working with ceramic roof tiles that are narrow we find that using the smaller bottles is best.

Step 2 After you have made your hole test to be sure that the bottle will fit. Notice that the top of the bottle sticks out the top of the roof and the bottom of the bottle hangs down inside the house and as as a big fat light bulb. In this application we are putting the bottle in the water run off area of the roof. Once the bottle is in place then it is time to move on to step number 3. Step 3

The next thing to do is to seal the area around your bottle. There are all types of way to caulk and make the union is water proof. In this application we are using regular sealant like you use on a boat or bathroom. Once the hole is sealed check to make sure that it does not leak. Also if you like you can fill the bottle with water and add a teaspoon of Clorox then put the top back on. Now your light is ready to install. At this point you climb your ladder and replace the roof tile and put it back where it was. (By the way the bleach is too kill the germs and algae that are in the water so your light source does not go green as time passes.)

Step 4 the final product We used our own storage room for this test. Before the lights were put in place the room was almost totally darken out. To even make the test better we have covered the one window with black plastic, and this picture was taken with the door closed as well so all the light you are seeing here is the natural light coming from five 16 ounce plastic coke bottles. Total cost for this project was $1.30 for the tube of sealant. The bottles came from the trash and the roof tiles were taken from the existing roof and modified. Now that is what I call cheap lighting.

We are very excited about this project and the impact it will have on the poor of Guatemala, Honduras and all of Central America . For this reason we are in the process of looking for volunteers to come and help us to help others by installing these types of lighting systems in the thousands of homes without electricity. Missions will be forming year round if you would like to participate please contact us.