Wiki tatu

As to the machinery, this week was all about finding a good gearbox. Tuesday we had a meeting with the magical Fundi Eddie, Chako's ultimate handyman who can do anything and knows everything! Together we drove to a little deserted place where all of a sudden a house full of old machine parts was found. According to Fundi Eddie and the owner of the little place, this was the only place where they were able to find a gearbox with the good ratio. The seller asked more or less 200 euro's for this very rusted second hand gearbox and we couldn't even see the serie number and details anymore. Therefore it was unfortunately not a good option, especially because we want to build machines with a long lifetime.

After Wednesdays meeting with Mani, one of Chako's founders, he said he had a friend in Dar Es Salaam who could look for a gearbox there and in Dubai but this didn't had any success either. We also visited a place where they produce sugar cane juice machine. Here we saw a lot of gearboxes but he didn't want to sell them but he told us he bought them all second hand from Dar Es Salaam.

After all at the end of the week we still didn't have the right gearbox but next week we will continue with our search!

Thursday we went shopping the entire day together with the magical Fundi Eddie. We had a long Wishlist of materials we had to collect, mostly big metal parts for the frames of the machines. A little pick-up truck was needed because certain parts were about 4 meters long! Of course there was not enough space in the front of the car for the 3 of us so we had to ride in the back of the truck together with all the materials. It was a funny display for all the locals because they never see white girls riding in the back of a pick up truck. Overall it was a very very useful day and we got to purchase everything we wanted! Femke even bought a little jacket in between the engineering stores.

Mani, the owner of Chako arrived this week so we could finally talk to him in person and discuss our project. During the meeting we found out what Mani and Anneloes expected from us and which kind of design they like to make from plastic. He was excited to brainstorm with us about product ideas and we came to the conclusion that the combination of plastic and wood would be a great addition to Chako's current product portfolio. This meeting helped clarify what exactly is expected of us and made us realise what we want to design. It also gave us a boost to continue giving this project our all.

On Saturday the Seacliff resort organised a Golf tournament event where Chako was invited. We helped them to install their stand and to sell some products. Unfortunately we didn't sell many items but Christine made some new contacts which is good because that was the aim of going to this event.