I love my job.
Last week I went to visit a women's cooperative in the east of Rwanda. They make banana wine and I asked them if they would be willing to also start supplying my organization, Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), with banana fiber from the part of the tree they currently throw away. SHE would use the fiber to make the low cost, environmentally friendly sanitary pads for Rwandan women and girls (for more info on what I do see http://www.sheinnovates.com/)

The day was truly amazing. I drove up in a car with four women and we laughed and sang and danced to music (as best as we could in the rather cramped car). At the half way point between Kigali and Ngoma, we stopped for a breakfast of omlet, bread and "African Tea" (which is a special spiced sour milk tea drink) and I felt as though I was hanging out with my girlfriends back home. But the president of the coop, Christine, is not just a fun person to spend the day with, she is a sharp business woman and when, after a three hour drive, we arrived at her banana farm she had a tour and a demonstration planned to show me how they extract banana fibre.

Her banana wine cooperative was amazing to see, and learning that the coop ensures that the children of their workers all go to school emphasized the point made in so many academic articles I've read over the years - women don't just do business to take the profits and leave, they give back to thier communities. It was fantastic to see these women in action, to learn how to do their craft and to spend the day with such inspiring business women.

Christine, Me and Claudine inspecting banana stalk, and then, me taking my turn to learn how to extract fibre from the stem of the banana tree.