Monday 8 March 2010

Today we were in Springs, last Friday the electricity was finally switched on so we could actually use our laptops for work! Joy!

The guys there seemed a little put out - despite our electrical status.

Not sure what’s going on there…Sharon spoke to a few entrepreneurs regarding their portfolios’, one guy is already talking about his first loan!

Sharpevilles first scheduled intake was cancelled because of the striking going on. Not sure when it has been re-scheduled for but I do know that Ratanda start their training next weekend! Hopefully they keep their strikes on hold ‘till after the FIFA World Cup….

This week sounds like it will be busy….Don’t you just love Mondays!

As this year moves on ( quicker than I like ) you get to see how certain things work out, plans and realisations, It’s not always as expected but so far so good!

Please remember you can post questions and opinions right here or email me! Also check out the new profiles at www.neosho119.com !

Thursday 4 March 2010

Today we held a meeting in Ratanda, myself and Hanolet wanted to meet with some new intakes to get the details on their businesses.
The meeting took place inside an office used by a taxi-business owner, while Hanolet took them through the basic introduction i had the chance to wander around a bit, one thing that caught my eye was a shrine-like display of photos on the wall opposite the entrance, the photographs pictured different cars (used as taxi's?) all destroyed in car accidents! pretty intense!
I wasn't sure if these pictures where part of an awareness campaign or just memorabilia belonging to the taxi owner...but it's like posting 'recent deaths' certificates outside a doctors room.. cant be good for business right?!
During the interviews the subject of Jacob Zuma came up somehow, the people at the meeting all expressing their views on the Presidents....habits. "Him having lots of wives and the things he does...It's just culture, people won't understand.." This is not a political blog and i didn't vote, so i don't really have an opinion.
Once we had explained and recieved all the relative info to the guys attending the meeting we had to drive through to another meeting at the Heidelberg Taxi Rank.
The man we where meeting wanted us to come to him, not the other way round..think it's something to do with 'displaying dominance' or something...?
He's a middle aged African man, relatively well spoken and extremely difficult, thankfully Hanolet has the patience of a brick and deals with these characters better than i ever could!
After satisfying his curiosity and answering the many questions, it was arranged that we would all meet again (at a place he specified) next week to continue with taking the details of his team.
We managed to escape the taxi rank, the car was still there, and headed back to civilization! Some interesting people around, the more time i spend with them the more i wonder if i'll ever fully understand some of them! it's a cultural mixing pot out there! Not sure what's on for tomorrow..but you will know when i do!

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Monday and today where all about handing out the final acceptance letters to the chosen entrepreneurs from Sharpeville and Ratanda, yesterday we did Sharpeville but the Service-Delivery strikes are still happening, it's getting more intense now, people burning tyres and mattresses, barricading the roads...police have stepped in and shots have been fired..but, as exciting as i find all this we cant actually go in to Sharpeville. We delivered the letters to Machobane Mabitle, one of the chosen entrepreneurs, outside of Sharpeville.
Today we went to Ratanda, these guys aren't on strike.. they say they have more discipline...they'll wait until after the World Cup. funny..
We handed out all the letters and even took some details from people interested in the second intake, it's best to keep the ball rolling! Sharpevilles' intake is supposed to start this Friday, but due to the strike things are looking really bleak in the ways of accessing the area safely and starting the programme withoout disturbance..We will just have to see what happens!

Thursday 26 Feb 2010-03-02

Today I was supposed to meet up with Hanolet and go through to Sharpeville,

Unfortunately the people of Sharpeville are currently on strike. The roads in to the location have been closed and apparently it’s getting a bit chaotic there, so I headed out with Sharon instead.

We drove through to Witbank to the water plant I’ve mentioned before.

I got to take a few pictures of the machinery and the process involved in bottling the water, pretty interesting to see! The bottle necks are made first, they kind of look like little test tubes, these are put on a conveyor belt of sorts and heated up slowly, and once they have reached the correct temperature they are placed inside the ‘blower’

A machine that then blows a forceful gust of warm air into the bottle neck/ test tube

The heated plastic gives, filling the chosen mould and creating a completed bottle!

This is a quick process, but things do go wrong, if the plastic is not heated correctly the blower just destroys the little test tube! Bottles also can come out slightly deformed... These are disposed of and the bottles being kept are thoroughly checked for leaks, deformities, discoloration ad so on. The bottles are then sent to the plant to be re-checked and finally filled!

I was disappointed about the Sharpeville strike thing, but today turned out really well,

I got to see an interesting process and understand how it all operates… Hopefully the Strikes let up soon so we can continue our work in Sharpeville!

Wed 24 Feb 2010

Tuesday and today have been spent still working on all the profile pages fo the website.
I'm getting a little bored with the work, much prefer going out to the locations and meeting the people-seeing the faces,but this has to get done i guess! Tomorrow, however, i'll be going with Hanolet to either Ratanda or Sharpeville to hand out the acceptance letters to the guys and girls for the Vuka mentorship course. That should be way more interesting than sitting here going through the motions, cutting, pasting, editing, bleh. As soon as all the Profile pages are completed and launched, I'll Blog it and you can check them out!
Thats all for today, back to the profiles...

22 Feb 2010

I don't have much to report on for today, my Friday was spent editing and uploading new profiles for the Ratanda and Sharpeville intakes, Today is pretty much the same.
The final names and profiles of the selected entrepreneurs from these areas have to be added to our website ( www.Neosho119.com ) each intake gets their own personal page that we can edit and modify as their training and businesses progress, you can follow the growth of an individual business as it's uploaded! It's a slow job of 'copy and paste' but the new Ratanda profiles should be completed by tuesday evening. The first programme starts in the first week of March, it will be interesting to see how the guys we have selected will do! All the details of the training and everything that happens after will be documented right here! Keep viewing the blog as things start to take off in the following months...

Thursday 18 Feb 2010-02-18

Today myself, Hanolet and Mondli all headed out to Sharpeville to interview the last guys there for the March intake, yesterday I said that we had 30+ people to speak to, I was wrong.

We interviewed 50 potential entrepreneurs from the Sharpeville area. Phew. Everyone from hairdressers to shoe makers, the interviewing itself is a slow process as we have to get as much personal and business information as possible while keeping it short and sweet and also answering any and all questions that they may have. Never the less, it took us the best part of six hours to finally complete the process,

it’s now just a matter of combing through the interviews and selecting the ‘best of the best’ for the mentorship programme. We where all pretty pleased with the amount of people who turned up and even happier once we had finished! It is an exhausting activity! But personally I think today provided us with some of the most promising business people to date!