It's ON!

Sunday´s can be quite dull, others quite good. Some, however, can be flat out amazing! This was one of the more amazing once. After a peaceful night in our beach house, without any major animal- or bug encounters (but WITH some naughty stories signed Harish in the guys room), the group woke up well rested, ready to get down to business in Paje at around 8. Well, Sparre were the early bird starting the day with a beach-run in the rain at 7.30, which myself and Annika decided not to join because of the rain. Impressive.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Seaweed Center and started the work. The different sub-groups that we are in looks like this:

Construction team – Sebastian and Daniel

Soapmaking team – Annika and Ida

Marketing team – Viktor, Harish, Anders and Marcus

Creative, free role team – Tomas

The construction team had some great progress at the Center. Both Sebastian and Daniel came back to lunch-break sweaty, dirty and sun-burnt. The machines have got some major updates, and the two also managed to get to the grindermachine, which had been locked up in a room in the center that we did not have the keys to. Magic!

Annika and Ida prepared the main event for the day, a soap workshop, that we had with the Seaweed ladies in the afternoon which I will get back to in more detail shortly.

The marketing team finalized the sales material and rehearsed the sales pitch to the hotels. After some hours, we now feel happy and confident about the coming days, and we have a well thought through plan on what hotels to approach, starting with Paje Monday and expanding to near-by villages Tuesday and Wednesday.

Now, back to the fabulous soap workshop. The event were held in the village of Paje in one of the womens´house, not at the Seaweed Center. We were introduced by a sweet girl, Monaisha, who translated, and we were all sat down at a bench outside the house.Then, the women guided us through the whole process of making seaweed soap. It goes like this:

1. Stir coconut oil (30-60 min)

2. Mix it with caustic soda

3. Add grained seaweed

4. Add scent of your selection (for instance sinnamon)

5. Pore into trays

6. Cut the "soap cake" into nice pieces

7. Stamp the soap

8. Wrap the soap
   

The women were extremely well prepared and Lädarn, who is always going on and on about streamlined processes and lean production (and who has been wearing a Billy-linne that he got from Sparre which he really loves), were impressed by how the women had prepared several of the processes in advance, and how they performed all of the steps in front of us. The action in the village of Paje dragged a lot of attention and we were joined by the cutest kids I´ve ever seen, a couple of cows and some lost tourists. We also learned some useful phrases in Zwahili, which we probably used far too much with the ladies and their families... But it was all good! I have a fun video of Annika and Ida interacting with the ladies, parttaking in the workshop which I will share with you all at a later occassion. Both of them also ran back and forth several times to make sure that the ladies had everything they needed. Big ups!

After an interesting workshop, filled with value creation, laughs, picture-taking and some misunderstandings, we made a deal with the ladies to conduct another workshop in the Seaweed center on Tuesday. During the day, the ladies produced 57 soaps, which was great.

After a short swim in the ocean and a shower break, we are now back at the Blue Lagoon Hotel. It's a very cozy place and I have to mention Able and RJ, two amazing guys working for Jan here in Paje, who provide invaluable information, tips and help as well as great food. Even since we've had a long day so far, it's far from over. The reason? Today we celebrate the arrival of the lost bags, which rendered a defening and deep happiness-growl from Viktor, Harish, Daniel and Sebastian. Of course, I celebrate with them, even though I like them equally much in their previous amazing outfits and smells.

Now, the others have patiently been waiting for me to finish this post (57 min and counting) so that we could head over to Paje by Night, some hotel with outside pool and bar, for some water and hard bread so I better finish. Hope you all are doing great. Cheers!!