The true turning point in our project came in the form of a Skype call.
Dr. Jeff Dahlberg from the National Sorghum Producers graciously offered hours of his time to teach us all about sorghum. He gave us more insight and information that could never have been obtained through the means of books and internet searches. He spoke about his time working with the Peace Corps, the use of sorghum, and the need for a manual thresher in developing countries. In addition, he invited us to the American Seed Trade Association's Seed Expo.
One of the most important things we learned is that sorghum is eaten by the poorest of the poor in developing countries - other grains such as corn and rice are far too expensive for the people who need the most aid.
After our Skype call, we decided that our primary focus was to build a manual sorghum and millet thresher to aid women in Sub-Saharan Africa, who spend many long, arduous hours engaged in the tedious process of threshing sorghum and millet by mortar and pestle.
Emboldened with a much more specific vision of what to design and build, we set about the next stages of the project with determination.
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