Report on the introduction of the NightReader in Bangui, the captital of the Central African Republic by Willem van Tijen

For maintenance of the Cessna 206 ?aircraft of a missionary flying service, I paid two short visits to Bangui. The first time in September 2002 I handed out the two prototypes of the NightReader to Mrs. Kim Verkuyl, employed as health worker by Docters Without Borders. Kim has handed a NightReader to one of her local acquaintances, Nicole, and was immediately put to use (see picture).
The NightReader proved to be usefull for the set out purpose, that is to be able to read during darkness only the area of a bookpage directly under the metal shade.
However Nicole used the NightReader as if it were a floating wick for some orientation in her small house that is deprived of electricity. The LED-light kept burning?continiously?for about seventeen days on two locally bought China penlights. Such batteries are ample available in the supermarkets, sweating acid in their cellophane wrap. A set of four penlight-size batteries cost?1500 FCFA (= 2.24 Euro). The model she used had no voltage limiter or on-off switch. Attention has to be paid to the correct polarity for proper functioning.
The cloth bag that holds the?batteries could be made for the price of 600 CFA (about?0.90 Euro) or less with larger quantities.
Because of the military uprising during my second visit in October nothing came out of my contact with a boy that made the faboulous wire models, like that of our Cessna airplane (see photo). He could have made the frame of the NightReader and could have given me an indication of the cost involved.