Gaza.

Wow this week has been crazy. We have been really busy. We have had some experiences, some good ones, and some bad ones. I'll leave it at that.

We took a trip up North. We stayed in a town called Chokwe. We went to investigate some cashew processing factories that we could possibly use and export cashews to the states. We also went to a little small processing center in little village. That was really cool to see. Here is a little video of our trip:

Cashew fruit looks like this:

The cashew nut is that brown thing hanging off the bottom. 

Why are Cashew Nuts so expensive? They take a lot of man power to get that nut out of the shell. The little brown thing that hangs down out of the fruit is what has the nut inside it. only 20% of the brown thing is the kernel nut that you eat (so in transporting the raw nut you loose 80% of what you transported!). The outer shell of the cashew nut is actually poisonous and harmful to the skin if the skin contacts it, so it must be burnt!

Cashews are delicious, right? They are kind of pricey though. My mom buys them every trip to Costco because she eats the nuts like candy, and I always thought they were expensive for how many nuts you are actually getting. But now I know why. The processing of the cashew nut is crazy, and there are so many steps.  Many people are employed around the world processing cashew nuts, I'm sure of it. It is not a easy task, and it has to be done the right way. Here in Mozambique there are more than 35 Cashew Processing factories, a third of them are "paralizado". Which means they are not running but could be if they had the capital. Banks here will not loan the processors money to buy the raw cashew to process when processing season comes. (Who knows if that is due to faulty banking or bad credit scores of the Processors). When the time comes to harvest raw Cashews Indians (form India) migrate to Mozambique on a 30 day TOURIST VISA and offer double what the Mozambican processing plants (that employ hundreds of Mozambicans throughout the country) per kilo for raw cashews, and then they export the raw, unprocessed product to India to be processed, (to boost their economy.) Thus, Mozambique breaks their own law in allowing unprocessed national cashew nuts be exported to other countries for processing. (You wouldn't believe what the Chinese have done to Mozambican Wood industry btw.)

Why are we looking into processing/exporting cashew nuts? Because we want to boost the economy in these rural areas where Cashews are processed and many would be employed. Money in their pockets is progression. The only thing that can cure the third world in my opinion is profit motive exercised thru ethical business venture.

The Process

1-So they take the nut from the fruit

2-There are two different methods of doing the second step- a)they can steam the nuts in these machine things in large quantities, or b) they can fill a barrel half full with water and allow the steam and heat to do the work. This makes it easier to get the nut out when it is cracked open and also takes the poison from the shell.

The steamer in the factory

The steaming process in the village

Look at all the nuts!

3- Then they crack open the shell to get the actual cashew nut goodness.

Cracking the shells in the village (they get a 20 cent bonus per kilo per day)

4- Then they take the nut and put it in a oven type closet to dry the nut. It dries the skin on the nut so it is easier to peel the skin off.

The oven they use in the village

5- The peeling of the nut. This has to be done by hand. It is very precise because do not want to ruin the quality of the nuts.

These are the tables the use in the factory to peel the skin from the nuts

All the skins from the nuts

Women peeling nuts in the village

6- The cashews are graded after all the steps for the quality and separated into different categories. The people work so fast while sorting because they are paid by the kilo, it was really cool to watch.

Sorting the nuts in the factory

More sorting (our friend Joao was being a smart alec)

The finished product of grading

All packed and ready to be shipped

 That was what we learned at the factories we saw on our trip up North. I sat outside a factory waiting to go inside to tour the place, and this kid was outside the factory wandering around. He eventually sat down in some shade and played with his wire that is sort of in the shape of a car. It was his "Hot Wheels". He kept smiling at me, we couldn't communicate because he spoke machangana (a dialect) and no portugues. He was waiting for his mom while she was inside the factory working. Long day for a 4 or 5 year old to watch his <1 year old brother in the hot sun by himself. Poor kid. Kids in Mozambique seem to grow up faster and become independent quicker.

Sunset

It was beautiful, nothing like dirty Maputo. People are a lot nicer when they have less.

Tchau.
Below are some more photos for ya'll:

nice bathing suits!

this is near the place where the 1st Mozambican President and
communist ruler with a 4th grade education was born.
(He did away with all religion in Mozambique which I think is
largely to blame for many cultural problems)

Those mounds are ant hills

We pulled over to stretch our legs

He was stretching a net out to catch some fish the old fashioned way