Aug 7, 2012 -- Naming and shower head making

Aug 7 2012

This is the first blog post of my life!

Another productive day at Amusha. Daniel, Elly, Davis, Richard and Isaiah came early in the morning to pick us up from the bus stop. We started the morning with goal setting. 

The goal for the day is to complete the two pilot showers and decide on a sales strategy.

In the spirit of the positive theme we set for the team on the first day, we introduced the idea of “positive charges”.

“Positive charges” are simply appreciation cards people write for each other. The picture above shows the envelopes where people can deposit the “positive charges”. By having these “positive charges”, people will be more conscious about the nice things others done to them. By posting the note into the doer’s envelope, the doer receives positive feedback and the positiveness multiplies.

Returning to the project proper, we started brainstorming for a good brand name for our shower. Kali and I wanted some name in Swahili as we thought people would relate more to a cool Swahili name rather than an English one. But we did not impose our idea onto the team and let them come up with their own name after setting a few rules for brainstorming (see first picture). 

The team came up about 30 names in about 5 minutes. Each person then had 3 votes for a name that they liked the most. The stars beside the name are the votes. Each person then explained what they liked about the names they choose for the top 6 names. 

The team is then given 10min to discuss among themselves to make the final decision. When we reentered the room, the team excitedly told us they choose “Eco-shower” as the name for the product. Not the Swahili name we were hoping for but we were glad the team were able decide on a name they all like after going through the process of brainstorming. This skill could be useful to them in the near future for other ideas they need to come up with.

It was noon then, so the team break for lunch. Davis brought us around the slum and we got an orange (5KSH), 2 bananas (20KSH), a slice of pineapple (20KSH) for lunch. After feeding, we made our way back to Amusha center. To our delight, the kids are having lunch break too. We were soon surrounded by the kids with their curious bright eyes staring into ours and timid little hands trying to make “high five” with ours. 

 The kids checking out the camera.

Resuming work after lunch break. Davis and Elly went on a mission to install the structure for the second pilot testing shower in Davis house. We wanted to install the second shower in a team member’s house since that would make it easier for the team members to try out the shower themselves.

Geog brought the tool to seal the ppe pipe to the valves and joints. Unfortunately, Amusha did not have electricity to run the tool. Daniel came up with the idea of using burning charcoal to heat the tool. 

Isaiah fanning the charcoal to heat up the tool.

 The complete product of our creative problem solving.

  The charcoal worked surprisingly well. We were able to put together our first functional prototype.

Installing first pilot testing shower.

Richard working on the shower head for the 2^nd pilot testing unit.

Below are the pre-survey we obtained from the two households we installed our pilot testing.

Question	Household 1	Household 2
1. How often do you shower? How long does it take?	Twice a day (every member) 10min	Once a day in the evening 10-15min
2. Where and how do you shower	Communal bathroom at the end of the corridor, using basin	Mom: in the house Others: in the bathroom in the corridor. All use basin.
3. How much water do you use per shower?	10L	¾ of the basin (~5L)
4. What are the hygiene conditions of the bathroom you currently use? (answered by us observing rather than directly asking)	Outdoor, concrete floor with drains	Outdoor, small, uneven ground
5. What do you not like about the current shower system?	Do not like sharing bathroom with other people. Only sharing it because of money.	Do not feel clean after shower
6. How many people are in your household?	4	9
7.  What are their age and occupation?	Husband: 25, causal job Wife: 22, housewife Kids: 3, 1.5	Mom: 50 21, 23: casual work 21: not working 17, 15: school 8,5,1: kids
8. Does everyone shower daily?	yes	yes

Things done today: Installing first pilot testing unit, finished building the second testing unit. Name of the shower.

Things to be done tomorrow: Drill holes on the ppe pipe. Marketing.

Chapati to celebrate treat ourselves for a day of productive work!