Week in Review

Our third full week of TWB training here in Bukoba, Tanzania was quite a full one. The week started out, quite literally, with a dance party! On Monday morning, the BUWEA women welcomed two TWB guests from the US with local dance and drumming, pulling everyone into an energetic jumping dance circle that certainly whisked away any last vestiges of jet lag. From there, we jumped (no pun intended) into our lessons for the day. Guest teacher Natalie Hornsby (also a member of the TWB team stateside) walked the women through two sessions on Marketing, engaging the group and keeping everyone laughing with skits on quality versus poor customer care and other hands on activities like experimenting with possible BUWEA Bakery slogans and jingles. During their multi-day visit, our guests were able to see the women bake twice, as well as to visit other BUWEA members and small business projects in nearby villages.

During training we continue to tweak and experiment with recipes to match local tastes, and are now using a locally built oven in the bakery kitchen, which allows us to bake up to 10 large loaves at a time, as well as to simultaneously roast nuts and/or bake muffins. As we get closer and closer to our final recipe, the women are constantly re-running all the numbers for Cost of Goods, Inventory, and Sales Projections to understand exactly how each recipe will affect the numbers. Several women have set themselves apart with their math and accounting skills and will be given more intensive bookkeeping and accounting training in the near future. 

Upcoming: Rwandan intern Doreen will be teaching her first lessons this week!