Our First Village Visit

      This weekend we did a trip to some remote villages outside of Konongo, about 2 hours away. When we first got to Konongo we were able to go to some shops that sell agricultural products. We were fortunate enough to talk to a shop owner who told us about his business: what he sells, how he repairs broken machines, and if he would be interested in stocking our grater in his shop. We then went to PKK which is a village of about 3,000 people. We met a gari processor there named Regina and we were able to ask her many questions about her process and the specifics of her business model, like what her costs are, and how many bags of gari she sells in the market. As we were furiously taking down notes, and coming up with more and more questions, we could not believe how much valuable information we were getting by talking with these women.

Our morning meeting with our community liaison- Jerry

We got to interview multiple women who are gari processors and we were able to get a lot of information that we were able to use in both our design as well as our business models. We had an amazing experience meeting some amazing Ghanaian people and some inspiring women. We got to spend the night in Adumkrum, a village of only 300 people. While the adventure of sleeping on matts and under mosquito nets was fun, the best part of the night was seeing the clear night sky and seeing all of the constellations so clearly, which is not easily seen in the US.

The next day we got to check up on Auntie Howa, a woman who already is using our grater, to see how the grater is working for her. She reported to us that the grater was helping her business tremendously, and she is able to sell much more now than ever before. Also, she was able to pay us the last payment of the grater so now the grater is officially 100% hers! Our first official customer! It is amazing to see a product you worked so hard on back at Babson and Olin affect someone’s life so personally.

Auntie Howe's Grater- you can tell she uses it a lot!

This week we are working in the machine shop at Suame Magazine. I for one am very excited because I have never worked in a machine shop before, so there is much to learn and explore! We are all looking forward to making progress on both our press and grater!

Taking a Coconut Break!