Traveling to Mole National Park was a great three-day hiatus for us, but I'm glad to be back in my everyday Cape Coast routine. I mentioned that the Global Mamas founders, Kristin Johnson and Renae Adam, are in Cape Coast this week to conduct their annual leadership meetings. They were kind enough to let Pete and I sit in on their leadership conference on Saturday morning. It was so interesting and informative -- Pete and I both agreed that it could have been something straight out of a Mendoza course.
I know many Kellogg interns are working in a healthcare or a schooling environment, and I feel a little different from them in my role as a marketing intern. This may just be my opinion, but sometimes I think it's harder to see the impact I'm making here. I write a lot, take a lot of pictures, but I kept thinking: am I even making a difference? In the beginning when I was interviewing the Mamas, I felt like they couldn't have wanted less to do with me. This past week, however, I stepped back and realized everything here had clicked -- and I hadn't even realized it. I see women on the street that I've spent time with, and they recognize me and want to talk. They want to tell me stories about how their kid won an award at school or how their sister got accepted into a nursing program or about how their dog had puppies. I take these relationships that have formed and try to infuse them into my work. I genuinely want Global Mamas consumers to know about these amazing Ghanaian producers that made their product. Now when I send in my deliverables to my boss back in the United States office, I believe that my work is impactful. (And, in turn, I've been impacted so much as well. It's definitely a mutual give and take.)
Following up on one of my individual marketing projects: I wrote to you about a month ago about Elizabeth, a Mama who has a knitting machine. It was one of my extra projects to help her market that machine to be rented out for public use. I made flyers, and she was able to spread the word through her many connections around Cape Coast. I'm happy to say that the use of her knitting machine has tripled since then!! She had all the talent and connections; all she needed was some support and a few flyers. This is one of the major bright spots of my summer.