Two Months on Update for Kickstarter

Greetings Kinyei Cafe Backers!

We’re nearly two months on from the end of our Kickstarter and wanted to share some of what we’ve been up to and what your support has enabled. The hot season is nearly upon us here in Battambang, but things have been ramping up we’ve got momentum going to sustain energy levels even through the most brutal of 40 degree weather!

Coffee + the Cafe

  • We’ve introduced some western snacks to the menu. Khmer snacks such as sugared sweet potato fries were trialled but we couldn’t compete with the reigning kings of these snacks around the market on price or secret khmer snack-fu techniques.
  • One of our backers requested the number of black coffees without ice sold. It is 57.
  • Total khmer vs espresso coffees served: 84 : 436
  • Nationalities served: 23
  • Small lattes (“latte dtoich”) are the new rage

Introducing the small latte; objects in photo appear larger than they actually are

  • Our staff regularly get told they make the best coffee in Cambodia. We’re pleased as punch about this.
  • With a fridge breakdown, a burst pipe, and sudden wedding-related staff absences almost every week this month, we’re learning to deal with mini crises.
  • Two team members, Phalla and Untac, participated in the first ever TEDx conference in Cambodia in February and are completely pumped to organize Battambang’s own in the coming months
  • Competition is heating up as the staff battle it out on the espresso machine for best cappuccino. This week, best yogurt!

Untac's winning yogurt creation

Other projects developing in the space

  • An exciting collaboration between local artists, Siem Reap’s ArtDeli and Kinyei is kicking off. “Sammaki” is going to be Battambang’s first collaborative art space, a gallery which exhibits local work without restriction, and hosts artists’ workshops and events. It will be run as a cooperative effort between 2 artists in residence, Kinyei and Jam’s Art Deli. We’ve already hosted planning workshops and it’s all hands on deck these next few weekends, as we’ll be prepping the space art(/rennovation) attack style. Check out how far we’ve come.
  • The Open Classroom has seen lots of traffic in the last month with workshops run on women’s reproductive health, working with Cambodian culture, and cross-cultural creative expression
  • Soksabike community tours have been operating out of the space and have been going great guns: Soksabike feature in local publication
  • Seavyi Yonn, a Kinyei intern has started a skills club in the Open Workshop space, now 10 sessions in, that allows high school students to get together and share extra curricular skills such as email use, something they desperately want but cannot get without paying for pricey short courses.

Seavyi's internet workshop

It’s really exciting to see the communities spring up around this place, even within a few short months. I think we’ve got a really great year ahead of us and we’d like to invite you all to come visit some time!

Cheers, Kinyei

“What do you want to create?”

Backers, cheerleaders and enthusiasts! Thank you for your unceasing support!

For the last Kickstarter update we wanted to celebrate surpassing our $8500 target  and our 100+ backers, so the Kinyei Cafe staff took the streets to interview the folks of Battambang, and get their ideas about what they wanted to create and achieve in life. Check out the update, and the video by our fantastic team of amateur journalists below. It’s here in time with a mere 50 hours left on the Kickstarter!

Please watch this video and get a glimpse of what people here in Battambang hope to create.

What do you want to create?

Pass it along and help us smash 10k with our final 48 hrs!

Love, Kinyei

Film crew – Sakana, Srey Pheak, Untac, Phalla, Sean, Enrico Producer – Justin

This entry was posted in Blog

Global Toast

Hi Everyone,

You guys have been awesome and it’s been great to see people pledging over this time of endless social/familial obligations. We’re now at a handsome 60% and are gearing up for a final push to bring this puppy home before time runs out, so here’s the plan:

Our friend Keagan in the great city of Denver, CO had the fine idea to contribute cover charges from his NYE bash towards the Kinyei Kickstarter campaign. We’re honored to factor into their holiday shenanigans and we want to invite you to join in.

All you have to do is shout Kinyei a drink on New Year’s Eve.

Here’s how you get in on it:

Step 1: Pledge the cost of one drink towards the Kickstarter, and get a drink for yourself

Step 2: Take a snap of yourself raising said drink to Kinyei

Step 3: Tweet/facebook/email that pic to Kinyei and your friends with the text: “Global toast for Kinyei! https://www.tinyurl.com/kinyei“, plus whatever “cheers” is in your area.

Step 4: Get as many friends as you can to do the same

We will be collecting pictures you let us know about on facebook or twitter on the facebook fanpage and www.kinyei.org/global-toast

We’d love to see 6k by 2011. Join Kinyei for new year’s and take your NYE party global!

Global toast or Kinyei! https://www.tinyurl.com/kinyei Som Juol Moi!

And here’s a PDF version of the kickstarter info in case you’d like something to show around on the night: kickstarter-one-pager

This entry was posted in Blog