Since the electricity was not back to WOW office until noon, we spent the morning in a meeting room at OXFAM GB. It was a short distance walk to go there. We had everything to work in good conditions there. It was a busy day since everybody focused on the reports for the portfolio companies. We exchanged our drafts during the morning. We spent the afternoon as usual at WOW office, had lunch here, and as we were finalizing our documents, we enjoyed drinking our daily "Thé Ataya". 
Mais ce mercredi les stagiaires n'ont pu vraiment presque rien faire au bureau car il y'a eu coupure le matin à 7 heures jusqu'au lendemain vers 12 heures soit près de 30 heures sans éléctricité; ce fut un calvaire mais comme les stagiaires ont été scindés en équipes, l'équipe de Christian-Amara avait pris rendez- vous avec Sadio pour compléter le travail déjà démarré, l'équipe de Rose-Aïssatou, elle, avait programmé une visite à Enda Ecopole pour rencontrer jacques de fer forgé pour un complément d'information sur son activité, malheureusement, Aïssatou perd son beau-frère et n'a pu effectué le déplacement mais Rose très dynamique, a pu faire le travail avec beaucoup d'énergie et de determination. Moi, Laurent et sachiko, sommes restés au bureau et chacun accomplissant une tache se liant au travail et discuttant sur certains points.
Hello readers, this is Christian, WOW’s “Expert Intern” for the summer program. To follow up on Sachiko, Laurent, Rose and Aicha’s great posts, I wanted to give you an update of our current activities.
Having finished the first set of meetings and interviews with the directors of WOW’s present and future portfolio companies last Friday, we settled into a planning session today to map out our strategy for the next three weeks. This week we plan on updating the quarterly reports for the companies who have already received WOW funding. This will allow us to better assess the impact these investments have had by analyzing whether these funds have allowed these companies to take concrete steps towards their objectives. It will also allow us to think about improving our due diligence process so to make future support for WOW’s partners more appropriate and effective.
The second task for the week is to begin reporting on the new set of companies which will be incorporated into WOW’s portfolio. These reports are important considering they give investors a chance to better acquaint themselves with prospects and risks associated with each company. As we have learned up to now, some of the first round of investments were put to good use and others less so; we therefore hope that the summer internship’s primary contribution will be to create tools and models to help both WOW and its partners align their common goals to foster rapid and sustainable development of promising Senegalese businesses.
To better achieve our aims we have broken into 3 small groups: Aicha and Rose are working on the two Enda Ecopole businesses and Entreprises Bracelets, Laurent and Sachiko have taken on Marché.com and Chez Maye, while Amara and I are focusing on Mountaga Tall and Ben Loxo. The scope of work is considerable and the challenges clear, but we are determined to put our heads together and rise to the occasion!
Until next time,
~Christian
Laurent and I visited "Île de Gorée," a small island just 3km away from the seaport of Dakar.
This is Rose and I'm posting for the first time.
Today started fast as we reviewed yesterday's companies and gathered our thoughts and observations. Another great working session, enhanced by the use of our new white board. We also divided the team into groups of 2 that could focus more specifically on 2 or 3 current portfolio companies in the coming week.
Saint-Louis was very worth visiting. The "ville" is on an island, in the middle of the "Senegal" river and was mostly built during the 19th century. Most of the houses have wonderful colors and make the island very charming.
This is a World Heritage site. The city is relatively small, thus less hectic than Dakar. Despite some rains, and a longer than expected trip to get there, we felt Saint-Louis was a great place to spend the weekend. 
Good evening, we just finished speaking with Seni, from the Entreprise Bracelets, who creates and sells a wide range of small art products, such as bracelets, necklaces, decoration dolls, and many other beautiful creations... We felt she had an excellent knowledge of the market she targets. We learnt how she uses unique selling techniques and how she would like to expand her business and increase her company's revenue. We talked about different scenarios she has in mind to strengthen her presence in the markets of Dakar.
our thoughts about GIE Mountaga Tall, Marché.com and Restaurant Chez Maye, we defined our next steps, especially deciding if further analysis would be necessary, and which kind.
