Mickey Mouse and Muslims

One last stop in Kamkole for the two-year students' prototype testing phase. This one was a problem: thirty-three kids in six teams with at least four prototypes each (one team had twelve (!) which they built in two hours (!!)). Fortunately, Woxsen employs one of the villagers, and he arranged for groups to be interviewed by the students, so what could have been a free-for-all ended up resembling actual focus groups.



So we showed up, mostly in the Muslim section of town (in a village of 4000, there are also Hindu and Christian quarters, but it's India, and no one's a nut job here, and everyone gets along).



But back to the testing. Single best idea: a cow harness that doubles as a seed thrower/fertilizer. The students noticed most farmers take their cows to the fields to graze while they tend their crops and asked, "Why not do both at once?" Perfect example of leveraging existing practices to increase productivity while making the process easier.



And Mickey Mouse? That was an indoor mosquito repellent, a dangling aerosol dispenser hung from the fan in the kids' room. They loved it.