Iringa

My other stop in southern Tanzania was in Iringa.  I didn’t have any contacts in Iringa or any idea of what I would find.  However, Iringa is a very active town, so I was very excited about setting to work there.

The first day, I stopped in for lunch at a cafe and the owner came up to me and started asking about my work.  Andy (the owner) took a great interest in the sheller and started talking about all of his work.  He runs a cafe and crafts center where he provides employment for deaf and physically disabled people in the area working on all manner of projects.  He also knows lots of stakeholders in nearby villages and works with a lot of NGOs, churches and schools in the area.  He was so impressed with what GCS does that he decided to set up a demonstration for us the following day.

The following morning, a small crowd gathered outside the cafe and offered bicycles for the demonstration.  Throughout the setup, people were asking lots of questions and seemed very interested in the whole process.  Sadly, we couldn’t find any maize (it’s still too early in the season) to run through the machine, but everyone developed a good sense of how it works.  The most impressive part was that some of our most enthusiastic participants did not have use of one or both legs and couldn’t ride a bicycle, but they eagerly sat down next to it and pedalled with their hands.  One woman (she was the first to arrive at the demonstration and the last to leave) was asking us if we could figure out a way that she could mount it on her hand-pedal wheelchair.

After that, I traveled to Riverside Camp, a small campground just outside of town, and met with the owner.  She told me that she has lots of missionaries come for orientation at the campsite before traveling to far-flung regions of Tanzania.  She was impressed with the sheller and the business model and invited us to come give a big demonstration when the harvest is closer.  She also said she would give us some good word-of-mouth publicity.

It looks like the harvest will be in early June in southern Tanzania, so we will return there closer to that time.  We will probably have a lot of work down there, but we are also expecting lots of sales.

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Daniel | Tanzania