Cockroach Stand-off

Now I am settling into a routine it seems Sunday is my washing and general do nothing day. Yes, washing does involve a bucket, soap powder (with aching cracked hands from sticking them in detergent) and a whole lot of hand scrubbing and clothes squeezing. However, those who are frustrated from living in the UK and possibly waiting for days for your clothes to dry or having to plan your day so you are close enough to home to run out and grab your washing, you may be slightly jealous that everything dries within a few hours due to the heat (small victories). As a result, I am going to use Sunday as my blog day and try and update it once a week.

This week we have all been in the office every day planning our remaining 8 weeks of project work to ensure we get everything done. Today, I'm going to show you a bit more of the Sagnarigu Pagsung complex. Pagsung itself means good woman and it now includes over 1500 members that have been building over the last 10 years. Pagsung women come together in a meeting place near their homes (e.g. a large complex like where we are or someone's home) and produce shea butter that is then sold to a company to be used in their products. Sagnarigu, is a large complex but others might be on a smaller scale and produce different products. Ideally, they take the shea nuts and turn it into high quality shea butter. However, if they have a bad batch (due to processing or bad nuts) it is sent back to them where they make it into various types of soap. It is an environmentally friendly process where they waste very little but the extra hours it takes to make it into soap and sell it at a smaller profit is a problem we hope to tackle.

The nuts are shelled by hand and the oil is extracted and heated until it expands in these vats.

 

This could be done outside or on some days using the stoves above but it gets very hot it here.

 

This has to be stirred frequently and can be made into shea butter or other products like soap used to clean new babies or dead people (I hope to find out more about the different processes as the weeks go on)

 

The waste products can be extracted, rolled into balls and dried. The above balls can be used as a coal substitute to cook shea butter or food at home.

 

The processes also involves crushing and drying the nuts to get the best yields, not a quick process.

 

There are more parts to it which I will cover in future posts but this is an example of some of the work the women do at our office. Still wondering about the title? One night this week, I was chatting on the phone and looked to my left and noticed a large cockroach not far from my face. I jumped up and gave the bed a shake causing him to retreat underneath. I could see the evil creature watching me from under the safety of my bed in the light of my torch. I poked him with a stick and he disappeared somewhere and I hoped he had gone. Later that night I was sitting on the bed and I turned to see him sitting next to me. I jumped up and he ran around in a few circles, mocking me. Next, he ran into my clothes and I tried to catch him with a cup as squishing them is never a good plan. He bolted across the room and hid behind my wardrobe. I had no choice but to admit defeat and sleep for the night, knowing I could wake up with him on my face!! Next night and round 2 ... just before bed I saw him sneaking across the skirting board back towards my bed. I caught him in a tennis ball container and left him in the corner of the room within the walls of his prison to await his sentencing in the morning ......