Tuesday, November 25^th

Backstory

Most of the planning for today’s meeting at Kiddies College Preschool was already complete, since we visited Gege’s Crèche last Friday to start our first Pilot Program. However, we wanted to review the Pilot Program Contract with Max, as he had not seen the document. At the Office of Sustainable Livelihoods, we were able to meet with both Max and Sydney to discuss the Pilot Program Contract. Max liked how the contract specifies all the expectations clearly and concisely in writing. After the short meeting, The Energy Team left with Max to begin our second Pilot Program at Kiddies College Preschool.

Cast of characters

Mrs. Robinson is an administrator at Kiddies College Preschool. She met with us and will lead the Wonderbag sales program.

Mama is the crèche’s cook and makes food for the children every day. She has used Wonderbags before and is looking forward to having her own Wonderbag. Also, she is the mother of Miss May, the crèche owner.

Setting

Kiddies College Preschool is a moderately sized crèche in Observatory. It has roughly 120 students in three main classrooms. The building is a large community center. The ground floor is dedicated to the crèche, but upstairs has various function rooms. There is a kitchen with an electric stove where Mama cooks; this is where the meeting was held.

Scene

Max drove us to Kiddies College where we met our advisors outside. Scott and Steve met Max for the first time; then we all went into the crèche to meet Mrs. Robinson. After everyone introduced themselves, Mrs. Robinson informed us that Miss May had another meeting to attend and would be unable to meet with us. The eight of us could not comfortably fit in Miss May’s office, so we met in the kitchen. There was a table for the Wonderbags to be placed as we went over the Entrepreneurial Packet. Mama and Miss Natus, another teacher, joined us, as they were both interested in testing and selling the Wonderbags. While Max began explaining what a Wonderbag was and how to use it, the Energy Team opened the five Wonderbags to record the serial numbers of each Wonderbag. Every team member explained a different part of the Entrepreneurial Packet, and Max occasionally interjected with informative comments. Mama asked about cooking times, but we were unable to provide exact times. However, Jing had previously cooked rice in the Wonderbag, so she could explain the necessary time and water-ratio adjustments. Mama said adjusting cooking time and recipes would not be a problem, as she was willing to experiment with the bag and find meals that work well with it. After we went through the entire Entrepreneurial Packet, Tati showed Mrs. Robinson the Pilot Program Contract All three women understood and agreed to the expectations in the contract and signed it at the bottom. We then explained that if the women were able to sell all five initial Wonderbags they would earn a catering, or large, Wonderbag. This greatly interested Mama, because she cooked with pots that were too large for the normal bag. In her large pots today, she was cooking rice and curry stew to serve to the children for lunch. After we took a group picture, shown below, the Energy Team left with Max. On our way out we saw Mama making a sales pitch as she was selling a Wonderbag to someone visiting the crèche.

Mama, Max, Rachel, Jing, Mrs. Robinson, and Alex

Reflection and Learning

The day was another large step forward for our project, as a second crèche had officially started our Pilot Program. The women at Kiddies College Preschool seemed very interested using and selling the Wonderbags. In particular, Mama seemed to understand how much electricity cooking with the Wonderbags would save and she was willing to experiment with different recipes in order to begin using the Wonderbag. Explaining the Entrepreneurial Packet was more concise this time, which helped them understand the entrepreneurial responsibilities better. This was a more effective method of describing the business model than the lengthy method that we used at Gege’s Crèche.

Max’s willingness to participate in our project, and continue it after we leave, was very reassuring. We celebrated our successful day by having a team lunch at Max’s favorite place, Food Lovers. Overall, today was a great step in the right direction for the project.

Scene 3: Sustainable Sales