Author: mrf221

Today was a super successful day. The day started with Zach Day from the Ukweli Team showing us his design for our team name “NewTrition”. WOW! This is something that will be super important if our products are going to be successful in the markets and shops. We were looking for a logo that would catch people’s eyes and that’s what exactly what he made for us. Thanks Zach!

We started our day similar to the last few days by preparing our recipes. We had coordinated a visit with the CHO at Kamambai Health Clinic last week. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem with the bakery this morning as it was their first day in business, and were not able to cook the muffins in time to go to the clinic. Nevertheless, Rachel, Seanna, and I [Matt] took our pudding recipe to the clinic to get feedback from mothers of children under 24 months. With the help of our three fantastic translators (Ibrahim, Abubacar, and Futia) we were able to get 33 surveys filled out to bring our grand total to about 150! We have made tremendous progress in the last week and plan to continue gathering data through Wednesday. Here are a few pictures from our time at the clinic:

(This girl loved playing and dancing around with Rachel!)

(Rachel, Seanna, and myself with our translators)

(A happy baby after trying our pudding recipe!)

(This young boy loved our pudding and kept coming back for more!)

While the pudding team was at the clinic, the rest of the team worked with the bakery to cook their muffins and were able to travel to Ropolon village once the translators returned from the clinic. Neena, Kayla, Karli, and Chris were able to complete 38 surveys in the afternoon! This brings the muffin surveys to a total of 147. Here are some photos from their day in Ropolon:

(Two children enjoying our muffins)

With this being my last blog post in Sierra Leone, I think I can speak for our entire team when I say that we are super proud of the work we’ve accomplished over the past three weeks. As a team, I think we have created a new team dynamic that has become crucial to our success. Together, we are projected to gather over 300 completed surveys and formed lasting relationships that will be invaluable to the future of this project.

We began our day today by meeting with Khanjan to discuss the best way to move forward after having such a tough day yesterday. Clear communication among all seven members of the team has proved to be fairly difficult. So with Khanjan’s help, we were able to deliberate jobs for each member of the team.

(Our last ride to WHI with our friends Steph and Matt Veto… we’ll miss them!)

When we arrived at World Hope, Chris and the 2-5 year old team went to the bakery to cook their muffins and they came out great! We will be using these muffins tomorrow to get some of our surveys filled out and get our first tangible data. Seanna and Chris sat in on the bakery committee meeting and gave them some insight on their marketing and business strategies. Meanwhile the rest of the team began laid out their plans for the rest of the week through a shared schedule. Most of Makeni is pretty much shut down due to the same religious holiday as yesterday, so we decided to take today to work out some logistics and be a little more proactive in our planning. Hopefully, this will eliminate any confusion further in the week.

(Neena, Rachel, and Matt working out some logistics for the following week)

Although only a few workers were available today, we were able make some negotiations to make our processes smoother later in the week. Chris confirmed that the bakery will be opened everyday for our use, and Kayla confirmed that we can serve and fill out surveys at the Wesleyan Church down the street. Seanna spoke to a WHI employee to get the word out that we will be giving out free food tomorrow.

(The successful sweet potato cakes)

Following the first success, the muffin recipe was doubled and taken to the bakery to be cooked. This batch came out very oily, and not edible. So, we determined that if we are going to double the recipe we need to minimize the amount of additional palm oil used.

Tomorrow we plan to get a significant amount of surveys filled out at the Wesleyan church and on World Hope’s grounds. So, most of our time will be used preparing food and getting ready to get data!