Blog #7 – time is going by so quickly!

Our project is finally coming along! We met with Goodson on Thursday and I would say that this meeting was the starting point of the action phase of our project. We sold him the idea of doing a pilot project – starting small. We’ll start with tomatoes and 10 families in 2 communities and we’ll get a small contract going. Once we see the benefit of this project we’ll be able to use the stats obtained as a marketing tool for a larger contract.

We met with the community heads on Friday and they loved the idea. We’re meeting the families this Friday. We’ll be getting their profiles and including them in our business proposal to show how beneficial this new partnership between Lupwa and potentially a hotel will be.

My team and I starting working on our business profile/executive summary; we’re just missing the family profiles.

We’ll soon be ready to submit this idea to a market. How are we going to do this? Well, luckily Jason, our prof, has serious hookups. Jason knows a man named Dr. Rossi who just happens to be the owner of 6 hotels and is one of the richest men in Zambia. What’s even better is that he worked his way up from the bottom. We was backpacking in Zambia when he was younger and started working as a bellboy at one of the hotels until he was rich enough to buy it. From there he bought 6 more hotels and is the head of his own NGO. If anybody understands the value of empowerment and development, it’s this guy. So if everything works out, he’ll like our idea and we’ll hopefully have a market soon!

Now what have I done that’s not project related? Celebrated Canada day with fireworks and a party! Woohoo! Had some workshops from Jason, watched Blood Diamond (which is way more heartbreaking when you’re actually in the African continent), went to a super cool church where they literally have microphones and guitars and sing everything. It was so entertaining. I went to the Sunday market, watched Transformers on Monday ($6 for a ticket and a large popcorn. And the quality was probably better than the south keys movie theater lol), and this Friday I’m going to get my hair braided!! I’m a little nervous because apparently it’s super painful but it’s a totally once in a lifetime opportunity. You’ll see pics soon!!

Bye for now!! xoxo

ps- check out Tarun's blog for more pics: www.oneworldphilosophy.tumblr.com