Haiku: Morocco

Some come and some go

The fog overlapping the

ominous skies.

Overlapping us

not overlapping ourselves

rough skies turn tranquil

go smooth by night road

bright moon above dim blue fields

dusk dust fog fallen

blur of bricks and palms

ticking off the miles to sleep

not to mention food

Hunger nags, hints, gnaws

Restless ache to soothe famine

They: bodies. we: souls.

Too many students

Not enough sleep. French everywhere.

What could possibly go wrong?

Boring subjects

Busy schedule

When this nightmare will end

sharp cactus red paint

block cities like Escher stand

land i saw before

Haya Alzaid | Kevin Simon | Noura Howell | Kate Dramstad | Bennett Chabot | Oscar Mur-Miranda | Kaouthar Majdi | Preeta Willemann

Obrunis in Suame

Elsa and I went to buy sheet metal and angle iron today. The sheet metal will be a backing for the solar panel and was 8 feet long while the angle iron is for the frame and was 19 feet. As the two of use tried to find our way back through Suame Magazine, up roars laughter trailed us. I was trying the african way of caring things with sheet metal balanced precariously on my head--On a side note, the cloth that goes between your head and the object you are caring is especially important when you are in Ghanaian sun and the object is conductive. Elsa was caring the bars, that were so long she could hardly turn without knocking into an engine block or tipping a metal worker's fire. "Let me help you"called one bystander, "Welcome, to Africa" called another ," "Life is hard!"call a third with a giant smile.  We might of been the subject of many Twi jokes but I believe everyone was happily surprised to see a couple of Obrunis* working and sweating like they do every day.



Obrunis (oo-brew-knees)

Central Market

Hey everyone!

Ben, Elizabeth, and I spent the majority of our day traveling around the Central Market in Kumasi (the largest open-air market in Western Africa check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahcpy1J3yhk ) with Isaac; one of the members of the KNUST student team. Central Market is an amazing place but it can be a little overwhelming at times. Trying to take in everything going on around you (people selling everything from agricultural goods to machetes and pickaxes to belts, shoes and cosmetics), avoiding carts loaded with stacks of heavy boxes, trying to keep up with the group and answering questions from locals about where you're going, what you're looking for and where you're from is enough to exhaust anyone. Luckily Isaac was able to guide us through the maze that is the market and helped us to get some valuable information about the market for lip balms here in Ghana. We stopped and talked with several traders and asked for their opinions about the different brands of lip balm we've designed. These interviews helped us to understand what flavors and scents should correspond with the different brands, whether people preferred tubes or tubs as containers for the lipbalm, and what price the traders would like to buy and sell the product at. Overall it was a great day! We're excited to start bright and early tomorrow to prepare for our trip to the village of Adumkrum on Saturday.

Nana: one of the shopkeepers that we interviewed

Doris's Shop

Retro-Direct Drivetrain Working!

Well, after food poisoning incapacitated Becky and I and longer-than anticipated power outages at the factory slowed our progress, we've finished our first retro-direct rickshaw drivetrain! Mostly finished. We haven't built the clutch lever yet, that's tomorrow's task. But the drivetrain works! For more details, check out our blog.

Ainal, Rickshaw Bank bike mechanic and master of many things mechanical, rode the rickshaw around, much to the amusement of local children. Check out the expression on the kid in the red shirt.

The gang's all here

James, Rayshawn, and Elizabeth have finally arrived in Ghana and we are now back at KNUST in Kumasi. Tomorrow is a full day at the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) shops and the Central Market. More news and picture coming soon!

A Proposal "Tres Poetique"

**This was started a few days ago, but posted today because typing on
the iTouch is not that fun. Today I borrowed Preeta's computer, thus
the finished post!!**

Kate here. What a great day! Team Morocco is on day 5, je pense, and
fully into the swing of things! A few big things happened today that
absolutely must be mentioned.

First off, today we had a meeting with the logistical director of
Maroc Telecom. This man is responsible for buying all the phones that
Maroc Telecom sells. Needless to say he was a pretty big deal. This
meeting came as a bit of a surprise/shock to us, having only found out
about the meeting a few days before. We weren't really sure what his
expectations for us were or what we should ask of him (Basically none
of us dreamed we'd be able to the this meeting so we just hadn't
really thought about it). But after spending most of Monday in
Internet cafes drinking beaucoup de the a la menthe (lots of mint
tea), we prepared a presentation that we thought would suffice.

We talked a bit about the ADE program, the background of the problem,
and our proposed solutions. Then we pitched a solutions that we had
earlier ditched because we thought it would be impossible to obtain
the resources. He seemed to agree with us about the
problem/opportunity and agreed to put us in touch with some of his
contacts (one of whom is a guy who is trying to start a phone
manufacturing business in Morocco). Unfortunately he was expecting a
new phone prototype for that meeting. So right now we aren't really
ready to be talking to partners like him, but the most exciting thing
was that he genuinely seemed interested in the idea, that if we had a
phone, they might agree to work with us.

The whole experience was very eye opening. We found ourselves squarely
in the world of business, being asked for a detailed business plan.
It's a perfect example of the variety of skills and experiences this
course demands. You have to have conversations with the street vendors
in the medina and walk into a board room and sell a detailed business
plan. Very hard, but very cool. The other thing that I got out of this
experience was a change in perspective on what is possible in ADE and
how it can be achieved. Many solutions in ADE seem grassroots focused,
work with this community first and expand later. We've seen this work
in places like Ghana, and I personally really like this way of trying
to create change. But there is another alternative... if we were able
redesign the entire mobile phone, find a manufacturer, and get the
phone distributed, think of the impact we would have. Especially if
our initial conversations seem to indicate that the "higher ups" are
interested. Anyways, it's an exciting possibility to consider while
moving forward.

Well I was going to write about the medina but I'll let some other
people blog about that for now. Time to meet up with our teammates
now!

-Kate

Morocco Bound!

Hey everyone, Kevin Simon ('12) here. I'm part of team Morocco, a new ADE team working with farmers in rural Morocco to increase their economic performance and working to increase cell phone accessibility for illiterate mobile users. We are in Tangiers now, and are looking forward to two productive weeks of kicking a**, taking names and refining our venture ideas to combat the conditions of poverty!

This adventure began two days ago with a glorious 2.5 takeoffs. Our first flight took us from familiar Logan international in Boston to the more foreign Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. There we enjoyed the French cuisine of macarons, quiche, and croissants during our five hour layover safely from the inside of terminal F while we rested and planned more for the weeks to come. Takeoff 1.5 came when we came into land in foggy Rabat. Our pilot realized that we were closer to the ground than the pilot anticipated and we flew to Casablanca for a safer landing, bringing us to 2.5 takeoffs. I was sound asleep for the last landing and a half, but according to the others on this plane it was quite frightening. Fortunately, the pilot assured us that it was 'normal' procedure.

A bus ride from Casablanca to Rabat and a few hours of delay later, we made it into our hotel and regrouped with some of our awesome partners at ENIM (l'Ecole Nationale de l'Industrie Minerales) for a later dinner including shawerma and tagines.

An olive shop (yum!) inside the old medina at Tangiers

Today we took a cultural excursion. We were invited by one of our Moroccan teammates to Tangiers for a phenomenal home-cooked lunch and her sister's wedding. On our way to lunch, Preeta and I managed to get ourselves kicked out of a cemetery we wandered into and took pictures of. It turns out that 'sacre' means 'this place is sacred, you shouldn't be wandering around here like dumb tourists.' Who would have thought? Because the wedding was not mixed gender (yes, some things are indeed done differently in other parts of the world) the women on our team had a rich cultural evening that they will be posting about later. This left Bennett, Oscar and myself to explore the city of Tangiers to soak up the local culture, do some market research and drink mint tea at the top of the kasba (castle) before retiring to bed later than we would like.

Oscar, Bennett and me enjoying tea on top of the kasba

The architecture and landscapes of this country are nothing short of magical. These next couple of weeks are going to be great!

NOTE: Post a bit delayed due to technical issues (curse you, iPhoto)