My shea is better than yours...

I could teach you, but you'll have to sit through our broken bambara presentation. I really enjoy working with shea and hanging out with the women who have been working with shea for years. So when I was asked to help three other PCVs with a shea presentation in a nearby village I was happy to jump on board. A lot of the women that attended the meeting had not received any prior training before on how to produce shea butter from a raw nut, all the practices they currently use have been passed down from generation to generation of Mali women. Producing shea butter is a very long process.
Women collect the shea and store them in pits or large piles in their concession. This is bad, because it can lead to rot (bad odor butter) and many of the seeds may germinate which leads to bitter butter.

pit to store nuts (bad)

De-pulp the fruit and wash it before boiling the nuts to prevent germination.

this part takes long and is gross, because it attracts so many flies

nuts boiling

lay them out to dry in the sun

This is the hard part, because of the humidity and high chance of rain it is very difficult to dry the nuts in the sun, which is the best practice. Unfortunately many women place the nuts over a fire to smoke them dry.

bad burned/smoked nuts

de-husking the nuts after they have been boiled and dried in the sun

Currently I am past the dehusking part and waiting for my nuts to dry completely. Then it is off to the grinding mill (or pounded with mortar and pestle) to pulverize the nut into a paste that is later beaten by hand with water to extract the butter. That is then washed five times, boiled and filtered into a container to cool. Then the butter is sold or used for household consumption (cooking, moisturizer, or soap making).

shea paste and nuts to be grinded

to be continued...

Nuts about Shea

Shaka, me, and Bubba

I have been on several trips into the bush to collect shea fruit. Last time, Koniaba kept reprimanding me for breaking "bush rules", she stopped my humming. Why? Because it's bad. She stopped my drumming. Why? Because it is bad. Jeez, I can't do anything right. But, at least they don't hesitate to call me out on my faux paus. Here is a running list of ones I can remember: threw a banana at a host aunt (first month in country, I asked if anyone wanted a banana. Yes, I said, "Catch/ I minE!"she didn't catch it, the banana hit her thigh and landed on the ground), saying penis (wulu) instead of wula (afternoon) when practicing greetings, handing things to people with my left hand (the bad hand), holding my bath bucket or selidaga with my left hand while walking to the nyegen(bathroom), whistling, looking at lightning, using my cell phone before a storm, sweeping my house at night, taking a bucket bath immediately preceding lunch, not washing my face before giving good morning greetings, and probably many more I am unaware of at the moment or forgot.



Note to self, do not give camera to Mali children without constant supervision. I usually give my camera to Mama while I am collecting shea fruit and at one point I turn around and to my horror the two boys have their pants down and he's taking pictures. "A Magni!/ Bad!" Give me my camera back, no more taking pictures for you buddy!

Mama (ex-photographer), Shaka, and Mama's younger bro Bubba

rushing  home before the rain

bucket on the head

Passing through town everyone realizes you have shea fruit and they soon realize they wish they also have shea fruit.

Word spread quickly that I brought back shea fruit.

perk of collecting shea fruit

Catching Critters

As the sun goes down and the outdoor lights turn on the bugs come out. This time we wanted them to come, lots and lots of them. The flying termites!!! Catch them, catch them all if you can. We placed two buckets under two lights and began to grab and toss them in the water. It was hilarious jumping around with the kids and family. I was a little squirmish at first, because a lot of the termites had already lost their wings and were crawling on the floor. Aroumatou (Shaka's mom) noticed I was only grabbing the ones with the wings so she kindly pointed out all the ones I could grab with-out wings, so I sucked it up and started grabbing and tossing as quickly as possible. The next day, my host mom would wash and cook them for a mid-day snack.

termite collection bucket

Caught it in flight! Like a boss!



Excitement! Can you feel it?
Shaka





~Termite Crunchies~

Would you taste them?



Okra Sauce

Gan-kene-na a ka di det! Fresh Okra Sauce is really good! O.k. coming into Mali many current volunteers warned us of this standard Mali sauce served with to or rice. Due to the fact that the consistency of the sauce is very similar to snot. Of course, if that is all that is on your mind while you eat the sauce it would be very difficult to try for the first time, perhaps out of fear you may throw-up. I therefore hesistated to taste the sauce for the first several months in Mali. It can be made good or bad and I have had examples of both. My host family makes it taste great and usually mix it in with another sauce when served with to.
I always like to help out in anyway around the kitchen, so I usually cut the vegetables. Occasionally, I entertain my friends by beating/mixing the to (corn/millet flour boiled in water), but it is difficult being so close to the fire with the smoke and the heat so I don't entertain often.

Fresh cut okra



Okra Sauce/Green Sauce