Thump, thump. The pestle hits the bottom of the mortar. Pop, snap goes the charcoal as it heats up. “Aaayyyyeeee!” goes the person as a hot coal hits a bare foot. “Ha ha ha!” the people laugh as they look at each other blackened by charcoal powder.

Yesterday was charcoal powder making day at my house. Emile, Patient and I started at 10 a.m. by getting all the bowls out and starting a small charcoal fire on a tin. As the charcoal got hot, we put it in the mortar and pounded it. When the charcoal was more or less powder, we poured it into a metal bowl and allowed it to cool. Then we sifted the powder through a fine sieve and returned the lumps to be pounded again.

Since the charcoal was hot as we pounded it into powder, the heat made the charcoal dust come out and sit on whomever was pounding. The person sifting also got covered by the charcoal that floated out of the bowl as the fine powder swirled around. As the day progressed, we got dirtier and dirtier and blacker and blacker. We didn’t even try to keep clean. We stopped to eat, washing only the hands. Then back to the grind until we finished at 5:30 p.m.
It was a long day and a lot of work, but I had good helpers, and we laughed lots and took some pictures to remember the blackness. Now we have enough charcoal powder that we won’t have to do this again for another year or so.

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