Day 8 – 30 May 2012

Majo,

Wednesday was an important day, since we accomplished our primary goal of getting water in a bag. We arrived to PPF (the name has changed, I’ll explain later) early in the morning to wait for Francis and Nana Kontihene to acquire the plastic for the bags at another factory.  The borrowed sachet plastic was printed with the logo “Trust Me,” with a heart in the center. We thought that was a good omen.  Francis loaded the plastic and let the machine warm up. We started the machine. The first few feet of plastic didn’t seal correctly. When the seals began aligning correctly, the machine was still producing murky, discolored water. After about ten minutes of running the machine, it was producing clear sachets. We had not yet placed the filters in their housings, so the water was not drinking quality, but we were sure that when we are ready, we are capable of producing quality sachets.

We were able to get water in a bag before lunch. After that, not much happened. Asides from our technical milestone, we have also reached an organizational milestone. The business has changed from a small business, to a non-profit business. Consequently, the name has changed from Patriensa Pure Enterprise to Patriensa Pure Foundation to reflect our non-profit motive.  The board chose to be known as a foundation rather than other non-profit monikers because it implies that more can be built on top of it. I thought this was a great analogy to the work we are doing as civil engineers. Not only are we worried about the foundation of the building, but the business is a foundation in the village for more community projects.

That’s all for now. Thanks for staying connected. Medaci pa (thank you very much),

-Matt