First day back - discussions and more

After having returned to the Sanergy house, Michelle and I just discussed further steps, seeing that we needed to focus our efforts in a more precise direction. With the generous help of Emily, Lindsay and Ani, we were guided into thinking more closely about our objectives for the trip from a pragmatic viewpoint. Several questions arose -

1. Given the diverstiy of the slums and of the villages within each slum, who exactly was our "customer"? ie. who are we serving?

2. What service are we actually providing them? Based on what segment of the population we wished to target, we have different ways of approaching the same problem. For example, are we building showers for those who already have access to some sort of basic bathing facilities (that may or may not directly include showers, as "baths" are pretty common here too)? Or are we addressing the needs of an entire community that has limited or no access to basic sanitation facilities? With the first group of people;

a. they are relatively more well-off to be able to afford these services,

b. they understand the importance of showers and/or some form of daily hygeine in their lives

c. they already have an number of youth groups and the like working towards this goal

d. motivating them is an easier task as they are more often than not self-aware of the benefits of shower, sometimes they just lack access to the right bathing experience

e. they are more often than not looking for an entire 'bathing experience' that gives them some notion of luxury/ comfort that they cannot otherwise afford

As for the second group of people, it would be imperative for us to

a. educate the community about the benefits of taking a shower

b. empower them monetariy in order to be able to afford this service

c. physically find space for them to install the units

d. deal with the land rights issues that ensue as new land is allocated to these showers

e. face increased resistance from the landlords who have never previously offered this kind of service to their tenants

Judging by these (and other similar) parameters, we are leaning towards targeting the "middle" category of people who have some access to showers or baths but lack the safety, security, comfort of heated water, assurance of a constant water supply, privacy etc. This give us more focus to work on and greater direction in selecting which type of audience to direct our questions towards when we go for tomorrow's slum visit to Makuru, hopefully visiting different villages.

As for the materials and actual prototyping, we're looking to conduct some experimental tests and iterate over them to figure out how best to construct the parts of the system that seemed most worrisome back home. For example, the pumping system. Even if our goal isn't to build the entire prototype, we intend to have the major challenges and systems figured out: pumping, drainage and (possibly) heating, by the end of the three weeks spent here in Nairobi.

We prepared a fundamental list of the kind of questions we want answers to, and have figured out an accurate way of accomplishing this, as we observed that more often than not, hoenst answers are not given. Not on purpose, but sometimes, the intention may just be to not hurt the questioners feelings. In that case, how does one unearth what the community really has to say? We proposed to use the five-word test to get the conversation started. Let me explain. Ask a person to list the first five words that come to his mind when he thinks of 'showers', 'heated water for showers', 'showering', 'concerns for showers', 'benefits of showers', 'why I use a shower', etc... without really giving him conscious time to think, reflect and filter out his true feelings. We expected a lot of dormant needs to come out through this exercise, after which we can freely discuss in detail some of the associations that we think are interesting. Of course, we have to be very thorough with translation.

Signing off, it's been a good productive discussion we've had this evening at the Sanergy house, and I look forward to going into the slums tomorrow morning! (and of course, riding the infamous matatu) G'night!

Jesika