On day one of the formation, the formatrice sets the ground rules
the ground rules... if you come late or fall asleep, you have to pay 10 CFA (2 cents). this wasn't really enforced, but the trainer would cold call on people if she noticed they were falling asleep!
the shea nuts
She split the group of 36 women into two groups and had them write down the process they used in the past to create shea butter
On day two, they started making the butter... first they washed the nuts
then they laid them out to dry
then they grinded the nuts using a mortar and pestle
and laid them out to dry again
they went to a nearby mill to turn the ground nuts into a paste
this process was really labor intensive, kneading the paste by hand
taking a well deserved break
they started to sing songs to motivate the women and give them a rhythm to knead the shea
adding water
and taking out the solid parts
then they let this boil for about 45 minutes
and take out the impurities with a spoon
the butter is filtered to take out smaller impurities... then they do the boiling and filtering steps a second time
et voilà, high quality shea butter!
I handed out personalized certificates to all of the women, which they really enjoyed getting
These women are part of the association I've been working with every week
