Meeting our customers...

Day Six

Saturday, May 23, 2015

A big day: a long-awaited (and for Ambika, Hayley, Ken, Peter, and Wendy, a first) visit to our majority stakeholders – gari-producing women in rural and peri-urban regions of Ghana.  We woke up earlier than usual and loaded a pickup truck full of machines, tools, food, water, and a whole bunch of supplies we needed for the next two days.  After about an hour-or-so ride to a bakery near one of our customer’s restaurant (specifically, Auntie Aba’s chop bar) in Konongo, we split into three groups to accomplish a bunch of tasks on Saturday, outlined in the table below (note that Sunday tasks are not included in this table):

Team One: Ben, Ken, Rezzy, Peter	Team Two: Kari, Kate, Rosy, Wendy	Team Three: Ambika, Anna, Hayley
Visit the Rural Enterprise Program (REP) office in Konongo. Interview Priscilla and learn more about the potential partnership (financing, production, and distribution) between ADE Ghana and their organization. Reconnect, over lunch, with Team Two at Auntie Aba’s chop bar.  Look at the grater and take measurements to diagnose the problems.  Take the grater with us for servicing.  Continue onwards to Auntie Akosua’s home in PKK.	Visit Auntie Aba and Auntie Atta at Aba’s home/kitchen (close to the chop bar and the bakery) to learn more about the problems that she was having with her grater that she uses there. Meet up with Team One outside the bakery, then continue onward to Auntie Akosua’s home in PKK.	Visit Auntie Rebecca and Tsikata in Acutuase to service her grater and to perform a few interactions with a prototype version of the press. Eat lunch at a hotel in the area. Meet with Teams One and Two at Auntie Akosua’s house in PKK.

A big, clay oven at a small, local bakery in the town of Konongo in Ghana.

After arriving at Auntie Akosua’s, Teams One and Two met with several friends and got right to business.  We had a nice meeting with Auntie Akosua’s husband Kingsford, the district director named Stephen, Debbie, Joe, and another district officer. We discussed our project and talked about the opportunities we had, and will have, for the community as a whole.

Peter (not pictured - took photo), Kate, Ambika, Annie, Ken, Kari, Ben, Wendy, Joe, Rezzy, Anna, Hayley, Dona, Debbie, and Stephen meet in PKK.

After the meeting – and a heavy rain - we began walking to the compound in which we were staying, about a half mile up the road from Auntie Akosua’s. We settled into our respective rooms, set up mosquito nets to keep ourselves from contracting malaria, and had a big meal of ground nut soup with rice balls and garden eggs.  After, we played a few card games by lamplight and then got some sleep.