Development Projects

Last friday I made Pizza for the crowd to have as a snack for movie night. The Pizza was well received by all the Americans and seemed to be liked by the students. Till we found out that they had NOT liked it, but out of politeness would not tell me. So Nancy and I did a little showdown in the development class about being candid when asked to help with marketing. We cannot create new products without candid feedback. So with some pushing we got their comments, all of which were helpful.

Despite politeness, the market is always brutally candid. So this evening we brought over some university students to try pizza and be a different focus. University students are the same everywhere. New things, innovation, etc. So we got more good feedback and they liked the pizza.

We have also made a little marketing trip into the Maseno town Center. Imagine Tombstone AZ when it was still a frontier town. Or any of the little run down towns in CA. I will have pictures when I get back to Londona nd can put them up.

We found a little chips (french fries) place that also sells sausages, etc. We are stopping by there from time to time to test their cuisine. This market is one place where we may set up a pizza shop.

The other project is with a local community based organization (CBO). A very astute lady is working to help 34 households get one step above starvation-subsistence farming. They will grow crops that they can eat and which the Seminary can buy for its food program, as well as several nutritional supplements for the AIDS/HIV orphans. Total cost to launch this project is about $2,800. This is a highly supervised and supported program in the first year to make sure all the households suceed, and after the second year they should be totally self sustaining. This may be true after the first year. I am committed to funding this project since they have to catch the new growing season starts now. But all of you reading this can help make this happen too but sending some $$$ to the parish market CBO-Maseno.

This is the sort of project envisioned by Jeffrey Sachs in his powerful book The End of Poverty which has a well laid out plan for bringing the extremely poor (one sixth of the world's population) onto the development ladder. I heartily reccomend getting and reading this book before I return since y'all will be hearing a lot about it. This little project, however is a demo for us and for Bishop Oketch, who will look for more funding is this demo project takes off.

Make sure you scroll down and read the posts f\that I have finally managed to get online.....