Hello friends!

I am doing something little bit different for the next few weeks. My articles will be following my trip to Ghana, a country in West Africa, between Togo and Ivory Coast!

But why are you going to Ghana, Jasmin?

Well, I am a member of one of the Engineers Without Borders teams at MIT, meaning that I get this amazing opportunity to come up with solutions to problems around the world using my engineering background. Here at MIT, we have two teams that tackle different projects. The other, Charcoal Tanzania, is focusing on making new plastic items out of trashed plastic bags, while mine, Rammed Earth Ghana, is working on building a processing plant using sustainable construction methods.

The Rammed Earth team is working in collaboration with MoringaConnect, a company based in Boston and Accra, Ghana, that helps farmers learn ways of harvesting oil and making powders from the moringa plant that can be used for beauty products and food. MoringaConnect has taken incredible steps towards finding solutions for malnutrition and poverty in Ghana through providing jobs from processing the vitamin and mineral-rich moringa plant and selling the sustainable products.

While in Accra, I will be helping Kwami, one of the founders of MoringaConnect, on several projects to improve the way they grow and harvest moringa. In addition, we will be studying different soils and developing a plan for building a new processing plant using rammed earth because of its environmental and sustainability benefits. Since June is part of the rainy season in Ghana, we plan to come up with the construction plans this summer and implement them in January, when more of our team members will make the trip to Ghana, as well.

So now you know why I am going!

Ideally, I would have been writing this during my seven-hour layover in Amsterdam, but due to technical troubles in Accra, my visa was not sent to me in time for my flight. I was scheduled to receive it during my layover in Amsterdam, but without the visa, I was not able to board my flight to Amsterdam, and so I remain in Boston for two more days.

I can’t wait to get up in the air and share how my first week in Ghana went with all of you next week!