A last day & last goodbye

I have to tell you, our reader, about a problem me and Kristina have noticed. In our urge to fit in as much as possible, we fill our business trips to the max – same thing this time! Our last day was no different; why not meet the people when we’re here, discussing via mail later will be so much harder! So, even during the day for our take-off, we were able to squeeze in a few meetings.

At FSDT (see earlier blog), we were greeted by mr Sosthenes Kewe and invited into the board room to describe our product. FSDT invests money in financial organizations, who in their turn support local entrepreneurs. The purpose was to understand how HiLight could be made accessible to the users who does not afford to purchase the HiLight straight off the shelf.

- Your product helps the users directly; financially, with security, environmentally – people can invest in this instead of kerosene. I also see an opportunity for a bigger version, that runs a radio or TV, pumps water and so on!
Mr Kewe recommended us to talk directly to the organizations of interest, and we got a good list of great persons to contact. With the input from our testers in the teachers and health fields, I feel we have a very strong case!

In our next meeting at SNV Tanzania, the local branch of Netherlands development organization, we got the opportunity to meet mr Jan Meelker. SNV in Tanzania is mainly working with energy from biogas, oil seeds etc and not yet looking into the possibilities in solar energy, but could still see possibilities:

- With our focus on renewable energy, this is definitely a product in the right direction. We do

not work with solar energy today, but we see that there is a big demand for it, and a great potential for this type of products!
As a final input, Mr Meelker actually pointed out a few new user groups that we until now did not look into; farmers and local cooperatives! Great news – where do we start?

The trip is drawing to a close. Our bags are packed, ready to head for the airport and a long flight back. How do you summarize a month of experiences? What is going on at home? While cut off from our “normal” life at home for a month, with only sporadic glimpses of news and updates, it feels like we’ve been away forever – yet only made a quick loop out of the normal routines. Soon, we will be back at the desk or with our families, and life goes on. What do we take with us back? How did this trip change the direction of our future lives, our understanding of the world? That’s yet for us to find out. But one thing is for sure; Tanzania - we’ll be back!