Jodie’s Boost
For the past few weeks, I’ve had this energy boost to get things done.
The first of the extreme things was deciding to just go for it, and rent the place next to the office. I did bargain it down, and no, it still isn’t that great of a deal, but it brings all my employees within arm’s reach, allowing me to use our second room of our office as room for more employees (as well as a private room from which I can conduct business). As for the new space, it provides storage, work and living space just next door. I am particularly excited by this because it has a lot of small luxuries which I’ll love…tiled bathroom, outdoor kitchen (yes, it’s weird), western toilet, hot shower and basically can serve as a guest space for future employees. I only asked for the place until January of next year, where then I am hoping we will have ordered a container of shellers and bought land on which to store it and build a new place for work, marking the end of our rental days and leaving our only major expense the car fuel we need to run operations.
The second of extreme things was sending Philemon to Karatu on less than 24 hours notice because we were invited to present at World Vision’s annual meeting. As their meeting was over 100km away and not in an easily accessible place, we rented a friend’s car and drove their straight away. And because it didn’t make sense just to go there for a meeting, we turned it into a field trip for Philemon where he also went to set up dealers. Philemon returned the second day with an order for 35 shellers, and the following week, we delivered it in a compact car. The need for a car became absolutely imperative, and so I presented to the board and leaving the decision to me, I ordered a used Land Rover straight from Japan. It will be here in two weeks.
And then I guess you can say things have been falling in place. After Daniel and Reuben’s trip south, I re-engaged TFA, and in essence, TFA has become my second office, going there for multiple meetings to develop terms of trade, marketing strategy, etc. With this movement, I did the last of “extreme” things. I found a box manufacturer in town, found a plastics supplier, and now we have all the professional packaging we need to send our products around the world. I hadn’t done this before as I didn’t feel it was necessary, but now that we’ll be sending 130 sheller kits over to TFA branches in Mbozi, Mbeya, and Iringa, I realized it wasn’t going to happen unless we worked out that details, and so now there’s 1000 boxes with GCS’ logo and contact info coming our way. We’ll be leaving for southern Tanzania in a week.
Also, East African Community passed a law for free trade across East Africa, which will take effect July 1st. This is particularly exciting as we can conduct across borders without taxation. Already, we have been contacted by an agricultural implements distributor from Kenya, who personally came from Nairobi to meet me and purchase a sample, and now we are working through a distribution agreement.
As for hiring, let’s just say I’m starting the interview process. There’s a lot of things in the works, and I can’t wait to see what happens. Plus, to be named by BusinessWeek as one of America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs was really exciting. And to close the first round of investment over $200K has been a weight off my back! And, Bernard is in Zambia right now working with Amy Smith from D-Lab on a Pedal-Powered Pavilion with Peace Corps. It should be exciting.
Well, that’s most of my updates from Tanzania. I’m busy as ever, but loving it all the same. Oh, and pretty cool, but it looks like I’ve made some new friends from Volunteer Service Abroad…the New Zealand version of Peace Corps. It’s been fun as there’s like six volunteers here in Arusha for the long term (the next two years).
Jodie | Tanzania
