In the car were Tom, Regan the videographer, and GoodBulb's partners in Uganda, Gando and Lawrence, with Ben at the wheel. Other visitors climbed in from time to time, and yes, it was a five-seater. "We just all crammed in there," Tom recalls with a laugh. "And it was fun. The only hiccup that first day was the belt broke."
Belt fixed, the team reached their first stop, a community in Masindi, and set up home base at a hotel for four nights, driving out each day to the neighboring farm villages.
None of these villages have electricity.
Tom described what it was like approaching the village in his journal:
"At each village, the first thing we'd see were little garage shops selling knick-knacks. You'd see the men sitting in a group, drinking and playing cards. As we drew closer, we'd see hundreds of people waiting for us. It didn't matter if it was the hottest day, 95 degrees or higher, there were hundreds. Sometimes they'd been waiting for hours."
Getting out of the car, the crowd would turn into a party. People cheered, sang, and danced. Children ran up to greet them, some reaching out to touch them, sometimes the first light-skinned person they had ever seen. Others hung back, shy. But everyone was smiling. "You felt like a celebrity," Tom said.
A routine took shape. Gando would introduce the team and lead them to a seating area. "It reminded me of an old royal court," Tom said. Then the village would perform, singing, dancing, sometimes a short drama, always in their own language. Often the story was one of pain: how women are mistreated, a house burning down, a kidnapping. Sometimes the songs turned to dirge-like melodies naming what the community lacked, food, water, safety, light.
When the performance ended, it was Tom's turn. The weight of what he couldn't provide was sometimes crushing. But here, he knew, was a moment to offer an ounce of hope. And it all started with a light.
The moment the lantern lit up
Tom would lift one of the GoodBulb solar lanterns from the shipment boxes and hold it up for everyone to see. Then he'd share the GoodBulb story, the values that built the company, the same values that had carried him to that exact moment.
"We believe in good savings. We believe in good education. We believe in good causes. The solar lanterns we've brought here today do all three. These lanterns will save your homes from devastating fires." Cheers. "They will save your eyes and your lungs from kerosene smoke." More cheers. "And they will save you money, because you'll no longer have to buy kerosene."
At that, the audience jumped to their feet. The boxes were opened and the lanterns passed from family to family. Tom walked each person through setting one up, a puff of air, a press of the button. The response was immediate.
"I've never seen anything like it," Tom said. "Every time someone pressed the button, the lantern lit up, and their face lit up with it. Everyone was laughing and shouting." In his journal that night he wrote: "Everyone is so joyful. There is a feeling of being One."
Then new friends waved goodbye, the team piled back into the Toyota, and they began again.
