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Hakuna Matata: day 1, 2, 3, 4...
I have barely slept these first few days—but they have been great days.
Day 1: Looked for an Apartment
Thanks to Divesh’s help, I got a cell phone and my apartment hunting landed me a nice place that is central, clean and managed by a woman named Happiness. That night, I had some tea in the hotel and started reading Jeffrey Sach’s book The End of Poverty, which was a recent gift from my friend Molly who I worked with in Peru several years ago. I was joined by Rustom, who had just flown in from New York. Rustom and I will be working very closely on this bednet project. He was central to the first investment deal that Acumen Fund made in AtoZ, and he is very passionate about this social enterprise space. He is quite entrepreneurial himself and should be an interesting person to work with.
Day 2: Got to Work in India or Africa?
As Rustom and I drove to the AtoZ factory, I tried to see the majestic mountain peaks of Meru (14,979 ft) and Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft), but they were hiding from me behind a few clouds. We went out to AtoZ’s new Olyset bednet factory being built- amazing! The nets start as tiny plastic blue pellets from Japan that get spun into thin strands, woven together with huge machines from China, cut and sewn up by local Tanzanian women and then quality checked by local women who ensure there are no flaws before stocking. This is an extremely complex proc
ess- the chemicals, the settings, the training, all have to be precise or else one mistake causes huge wastage. Including its new factory, AtoZ will employ nearly 4,000 people (mostly women near 20 years old) and produce over 7 million nets annually. They also produce textiles and plastic tableware such as bowls and packaging containers. Their expertise in plastics is why they were a perfect fit for the complex long-lasting insecticide treaded bednets.
AtoZ is a family business, and most of the senior management team at AtoZ is Tanzanian-Indian. There is a huge population of people with Indian ethnic ancestry here mostly because their ancestors originally came to Africa through interest in the spice trade via places like Zanzibar. Divesh is Indian and invited me to join his family at a wedding that night—wow- what a beautiful Hindu ceremony full of interesting traditions. In a room full of women wearing sparkling jewelry and bright colored saris, I watched the bride’s parents pour milk on the groom’s toe, the groom’s little sister rub something on his back with a bell sound to keep him awake, and the groom and the happy couple as they circled the fire pit, carried a coconut, and changed from white to red, complementing the beautiful henna designs. I even got to feed the bride sweets in the tradition of wishing that only sweet things to come to her life. Divesh’s family has wonderful personality and made me feel very welcome to their friend’s party. I did go to sleep that night wishing I had packed the fancy sari my friend Sujeet gave me 2 years ago and thinking: Am I in India or Africa?
Day 3: Rolling Up our Sleeves
Today we started to outline the project I will undertake this year (more on that later). In the AtoZ boardroom, I perused the pictures on the walls of people who have visited the factory—two Presidents of Tanzania, Bono, President of the Global Fund, US Ambassador, and now me ;-) … pretty impressive list. We began to dig into project planning and then took a break for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that is evidently the local favorite, Louie’s. I discovered that a block away from my new apartment is the standard place for wedding processions and pictures. Lots of people are all dressed up with music, singing in Swahili and dancing happily. It is quite a joy. Hakuna Matata
As I finished a leisurely walk on my new street, I wondered: how is it that women around the world are so good at balancing baskets on their heads and strapping large babies to their backs with just one small cloth? Impressive talents those.
Day 4: Lunch with Anuj
Today the CEO of AtoZ, Anuj, returned from a trip to China and we had lunch to discuss the project. Anuj was born in Kenya and is a phenomenal entrepreneur. His father founded AtoZ and he has run the company for nearly ten years. I spent the rest of the day analyzing some of the data on the effectiveness of a variety of distribution channels and preparing a presentation for the Google.org and Acumen teams who are coming to visit tomorrow.
Day 1: Looked for an Apartment
Thanks to Divesh’s help, I got a cell phone and my apartment hunting landed me a nice place that is central, clean and managed by a woman named Happiness. That night, I had some tea in the hotel and started reading Jeffrey Sach’s book The End of Poverty, which was a recent gift from my friend Molly who I worked with in Peru several years ago. I was joined by Rustom, who had just flown in from New York. Rustom and I will be working very closely on this bednet project. He was central to the first investment deal that Acumen Fund made in AtoZ, and he is very passionate about this social enterprise space. He is quite entrepreneurial himself and should be an interesting person to work with.
Day 2: Got to Work in India or Africa?
As Rustom and I drove to the AtoZ factory, I tried to see the majestic mountain peaks of Meru (14,979 ft) and Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft), but they were hiding from me behind a few clouds. We went out to AtoZ’s new Olyset bednet factory being built- amazing! The nets start as tiny plastic blue pellets from Japan that get spun into thin strands, woven together with huge machines from China, cut and sewn up by local Tanzanian women and then quality checked by local women who ensure there are no flaws before stocking. This is an extremely complex proc
ess- the chemicals, the settings, the training, all have to be precise or else one mistake causes huge wastage. Including its new factory, AtoZ will employ nearly 4,000 people (mostly women near 20 years old) and produce over 7 million nets annually. They also produce textiles and plastic tableware such as bowls and packaging containers. Their expertise in plastics is why they were a perfect fit for the complex long-lasting insecticide treaded bednets.AtoZ is a family business, and most of the senior management team at AtoZ is Tanzanian-Indian. There is a huge population of people with Indian ethnic ancestry here mostly because their ancestors originally came to Africa through interest in the spice trade via places like Zanzibar. Divesh is Indian and invited me to join his family at a wedding that night—wow- what a beautiful Hindu ceremony full of interesting traditions. In a room full of women wearing sparkling jewelry and bright colored saris, I watched the bride’s parents pour milk on the groom’s toe, the groom’s little sister rub something on his back with a bell sound to keep him awake, and the groom and the happy couple as they circled the fire pit, carried a coconut, and changed from white to red, complementing the beautiful henna designs. I even got to feed the bride sweets in the tradition of wishing that only sweet things to come to her life. Divesh’s family has wonderful personality and made me feel very welcome to their friend’s party. I did go to sleep that night wishing I had packed the fancy sari my friend Sujeet gave me 2 years ago and thinking: Am I in India or Africa?
Day 3: Rolling Up our Sleeves
Today we started to outline the project I will undertake this year (more on that later). In the AtoZ boardroom, I perused the pictures on the walls of people who have visited the factory—two Presidents of Tanzania, Bono, President of the Global Fund, US Ambassador, and now me ;-) … pretty impressive list. We began to dig into project planning and then took a break for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that is evidently the local favorite, Louie’s. I discovered that a block away from my new apartment is the standard place for wedding processions and pictures. Lots of people are all dressed up with music, singing in Swahili and dancing happily. It is quite a joy. Hakuna Matata
As I finished a leisurely walk on my new street, I wondered: how is it that women around the world are so good at balancing baskets on their heads and strapping large babies to their backs with just one small cloth? Impressive talents those.
Day 4: Lunch with Anuj
Today the CEO of AtoZ, Anuj, returned from a trip to China and we had lunch to discuss the project. Anuj was born in Kenya and is a phenomenal entrepreneur. His father founded AtoZ and he has run the company for nearly ten years. I spent the rest of the day analyzing some of the data on the effectiveness of a variety of distribution channels and preparing a presentation for the Google.org and Acumen teams who are coming to visit tomorrow.
