New Beginnings at EFA Lugazi

Sorry for the long delay between posts!  Instead of overloading you with accounts of my last 6 days, I'll just transcribe the next entry in my journal.  This time I think I'll hold off a bit on the prose and let the pictures do some talking :)

I don't think I realized the perfect timing of my trip until I physically arrived in Lugazi.  The night we get in, Sanga takes myself and his 6 new employees out to a local bar for a gathering of the parties.  It seems that it is his first time meeting a few of them.  They are confused by my presence until Sanga explains my role in raising money for the new facility and studying the business from a scientific perspective, upon which they thank me profusely.  I try to explain that it wasn't my money and that I did little more than send a few letters and emails, but to no avail.  Three days in, and already I believe Ugandans are some of the most gracious people on the planet. 

Sanga then asks them to air their preliminary concerns after two days of collecting biomass and making charcoal at the new facility.  One man, named Hamsa, displays a nasty looking burn he received on his forearm while operating one of the kilns.  We assure him that we'll buy some safety equipment in the coming days.  Everything else seems to be running smoothly
Since there is not yet access to electricity at the new facility, Sanga has rented a temporary space close to his home in Lugazi village for briquette making.  This is my first true view of the functioning business. 

 


















We have 2 briquetting machines, and each can be operated by one person.  It's a pretty dirty job- workers feed charcoal powder into the machine by hand from a big pile behind them, and a rotating screw compresses the powder and squeezes it out the side of the machine, sort of like charcoal toothpaste.  It comes out looking like a wet, black sausage.  The powder is bound together by adding water.  They are then laid out to dry in the sun, and are ready for packaging and sale within hours.  I tried my hand at briquetting, and I don't think the charcoal dust will come out from under my fingernails for some time.

The above left photo shows the finished product in action.  As you can see, EFA's charcoal burns dry and clean.  A stove using traditional charcoal is depicted on the right.  When most household cooking occurs indoors, the health benefit of using EFA charcoal is patently obvious.