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