Aug 6, 2012 - Team building and materials searching

We started out the day with introductions — your name and one fact about yourself. We also played a positive impression game where everyone writes a positive adjective describing the first impression they had of each person on a piece of paper taped to their back. It might sound cheesy, but it’s super effective! Clara suggested to everyone to use the papers as inspiration for staying positive during the tough days ahead. We have tons to do in so little time, but today was really productive and we’re currently still on schedule.

Twelve people showed up, plus two visitors of Daniel. We went over project expectations, our budget, and contact information before splitting up into three teams. Clara and I decided to set our budget to be 15,000 KSH for five showers, at 3,000 KSH per shower based on materials estimates. When we asked the team members how much they expected to be able to sell the showers for, they told us 4,500 KSH. With that number, there would be a profit of 1,500 from each shower sale and in the next three weeks, 12,000 profit from eight showers. Long term, if we aim to sell 50 per month, there would be 75,000 KSH profit per month. This is to be shared between the team members or reinvested.

Materials estimates

Teams for today

A: Materials shopping
Davies (lead)
Kwamboka
Isaiah
Daudi

B: Shower head construction, valve connection
Kali (lead)
Daniel
George
Elly
Bahati

C: Structure
Clara (lead)
Wekesa
Emma
Isaiah
Franco
Richard

Team A: Materials

-Went to look for the pump, basin, wooden board, and valve in town

-Isaiah got a basin for 60 KSH from the Wakiarie Economy Supermarket in Kwa Njenga

-Davies, Francisca, and George got 2 spray pumps for 1600 KSH each at a place on Hailles Avenue and a valve for 250 KSH at Starmix Hardware on Cross Lane

Team B: Shower head

-Bahati and Elly cut four 6” (measured using the prototype shower head I brought) PPR pipes from the 20 mm pipe we bought on Saturday

-George (a plumber) suggested using sponge pipe instead of drilling holes into the shower head pipes, and using the flame machine to melt the ends of the pipes shut instead of using caps; he went with Davies and Francisca to look for sponge pipes in town, but the shop where he knows they’re sold was closed already, so he’ll get those and borrow a flame machine first thing tomorrow morning (the flame machine costs 8,000 KSH so we can’t buy one ourselves)

-Bahati and Elly tested out one of the pumps Clara bought in China using our showerheadsuccess, though the water was really slow to enter the container even though we tried releasing the pressure valve

-I cut one of the 6” PPR pipes in half to see if it fit directly on the spray nozzle connector (to put the ball valve in where I detached the original nozzle button), and luckily it did fit

-Elly got cloth pegs for 15 KSH from near Jamii H/S to try to use for hanging up the curtains

Elly, Daniel, and George discussing shower head options

Bahati, Elly, and Daniel testing the new pump with our shower head

Team C: Structure

-Richard and Francis bought 3mm polythene ply rope (5 m) for 30 KSH from the Wakiarie Economy Supermarket in Kwa Njenga

-Richard and Emmaculate went looking for curtain material and found that the size of a door (~1mx2m) is 250 KSH, too expensive

-Elly and Clara bought 4 m of polythene paper (~1 m wide) for the curtain instead for 240 KSH, and some manila twine for 45 KSH

Daniel and Clara went down the rows of households nearby the Amusha center and found a suitable one with 4 people (mom, dad, and two kids) who were willing to be the first household for our one-week pilot testing. We’re setting up the first shower we put together here in the corridor outside their house.

Talking to the family

We tried hanging up the string at the top and the shower head today, and expect to have the whole shower ready to be installed tomorrow once we have access to a flame machine and can attach the valve to the pump nozzle (the flame machine is for melting the PPR pipes to connect into the joints of the shower head and the valve, since there is no size that fits exactly without melting). At Amusha, we tied string around the rafters and tried hanging the curtain using cloth pegs, Elly’s idea. It worked really well and the curtain was stable even when pulled downward. Using those would be much easier and cheaper than buying shower curtain rings or cutting holes in the curtain and using string to hang it up.

At the end of the day, we asked each team to update everyone else on what they accomplished and learned today.

Davies and Francisca presenting to the group

Daudi presenting

Our finance record

We also asked everyone who showed up today to think about whether they want to be part of the core team, which will be the backbone of the project, especially when we leave. We’re looking for three to five extremely committed members who will be responsible for managing the business and eventually in charge of distributing the profits and coordinating investments. At the end of the day, we had six people tell us they wanted to be part of the core team, though we’ll see in the next few days whether that number decreases naturally or we have to trim it down ourselves.

Daniel told us that the youth demonstration against political violence they went to yesterday was going to be aired on GBS at 7pm, but unfortunately we left Kwa Njenga too late and got stuck in traffic for a while, so we didn’t get to see it on TV. It sounds like the Amusha folks have a lot going on.

Plan for tomorrow

Go to cyber café and print out this + pre-survey (2 copies) + hopefully update the blog

At Amusha:

Wink killer

Positive charges

Goal: get two showers set up by the end of the day and get two sales

Three teams:

1. Sales (teach them how to pitch)
   1. Make a poster (draw a picture of the shower)
   2. Brainstorm and plan on the publicity techniques (going to households; putting the poster up along the road; what time is good; who should be going)
   3. Practice presentation
   4. If there’s time: do some sales and see how successful they are! Then iterate on the process.
2. [George, Kali, one other person] pumping system (to be done by noon) + shower head
3. [Two people: Daniel (or whoever’s shower is going to be installed) and Elly] Second pilot structure + installing curtain and doing the survey after the pumping is done
   1. requirement for the second pilot: no cemented ground, not too far from the center, preferably someone that does heavy, sweaty work
   2. will join team one whenever free

Things to buy for the second shower: basin (if the home doesn't already own one), valve (Davis)

Long post for a really long and productive day! :)