Becoming enlightened about electricity and the needs of people

Rafael got up early this morning to go home and pick up his traditional Maasai clothing. Leif slept in trying to fight a creeping feeling of flu. Our first target was a workshop for a group of science and geography teachers at Tanzania Academic International Primary School, invited by Ernest Mtaya – an artist and teacher. The school is private with children coming from all ethnical groups of Tanzania.

We introduced ourselves and then Rafael and I told the story of our improbable partnership. How discussions around how to present a website in Sweden for a public organization led to the idea of "the web site as a waterhole".

This led to interesting discussions around the meaning of a waterhole, which in its turn led to an idea of the possibility to arrange "Metaphor Safaris", leadership journeys using strong natural objects as waterholes, termite mounds, coral reefs etc as a base for deep conversations. Leif met Ruth Nesje, a Norwegian consultant at a network meeting in Netherlands, and told about the idea.

-It's a great idea! I am building a conference center in Tanzania. Let's do this together.

After doing a first Metafari in November 2007 we realized the project needed a local partner. I traveled to Tanzania in March 2008 to meet with Rafael, who Ruth said was the best Maasai in Tanzania for this purpose. Rafael and I sat under a tree for almost four days, and made foundations for the partnership we now have.

During our first Metafari together, in October 2008 we made the observation that the mobile phone is seen in most people's hands, including the Maasai. The telephone networks cover almost the whole country but access to electricity is very limitited. The Maasais in Nanyogie needs to ride the bicycle 15 km to charge their phone to a cost of up to 0,3EUR. This also accounts to the headmaster in the school of Nanyogie.

With this in account, Rafael and I was starting a conversation around "off grid community development" and in this process we met Linda Krondahl, founder of HiNation. Thanks to a government program in Sweden, "Demo Environment" we can now undertake this journey with the first 30 HiLight product, testing the feasibility and usability of the product, and discuss marketing models.

We also showed the product and how it worked. The reception was very positive, and we learned that the issue of power accessability is not only valid to the far countryside, but also to many people in Dar es Salaam. We also showed the Solvatten water purifier and was actually surprised by the positive reception for this product even here. People quickly started to calculate the price for water bottles and what it would save in the long run to have a Solvatten.

Being inspired by this visit we went to the Mediterannean Lodge at the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. We found a very good 3G connection there and could work connected to the Internet with a speed that was very good.

In the evening we met again with Regina Mchao, a Maasai women, taxi owner, single mother of two children, with a full time work at a lawyers office. She is building a new house for herself in a suburb of Dar es Salaam. After a year of living there she still does not have electricity in the house, so she has to take her Iphone and Blackberry to the office to charge them daily together with the battery powered lamps for the house.

We talked about the possibility of a network marketing model for products like HiLight and Solvatten, and possibly she will invite some friends for a home party when Linda and Kristina returns to Dar es Salaam again around Oct 15.