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Where do they charge their phones? Are portable hand-powered generators common, like wind-up radios?

video2text: They extend the light machine on bicycles with just enough circuitry to make it suitable as a charger.

Hooking up a bicycle dynamo to charge your phone is a popular african hack: http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_win...

An unreliable grid, car batteries can also store off-grid power, fancy people have generators