Would anyone like to buy this pot? It's 1000 shillings (about 12 USD) and is handmade by a small income generating project in Nairobi. The group that organized this business is not official or anything, but the people involved seek to help people who were formerly in conflict and help them find peace through working in a business together.  This business makes pots.

Already they have their wares sold in one supermarket nearby. Supposedly, a larger grocery chain called Tuskys is interested in ordering 9000 (or was it 900) of these. Unfortunately, since the current method of forging the pots takes multiple painstaking steps (they create the mold by hand), and since the final product is not always worthy of being sold (see holes in photo below), the business cannot fill such a large order.

However, if they could get a mold they could make pots much faster. The lead on this project even says that with one mold they could fill an order from Tuskys. They say that one mold would cost around 100,000 shillings (about 1204 USD).

All of the pots are made from aluminum that the workers (currently a total of 3) find on the side of the road. They smelt the aluminum over a charcoal fire that is intensified by an air blower at the base of the coals. Once the aluminum melts they pour the liquid metal into the handmade molds, after just a short while they are able to pull out a newly formed pot.

Seeing the project was simultaneously uplifting and disheartening. Their process is quite clever, all the way from reusing discarded metal to the handmade molds to the way they polish the rough pots that come from the mold. But it is disheartening all the same, as the people strongly desire to have a profitable business to feed their kids, pull themselves from poverty, and to gain the feeling of confidence one has when steadily employed. Yet the business is to make pots, and once you have a pot in their neighborhood you have a pot and probably aren't going to buy another any time soon. And even if they got a mold, they did not seem to have a ton of scrap aluminum on hand. Would they be able to find enough to make 9000 (900?) pots for Tuskys?

There are pros and cons to the idea, of course. And I hope it works. The people were certainly putting their whole effort into the business. If you have any suggestions for them let me know. Or, if you want a pot, you can choose from the ones below and place your order with me.