My Adventures in Soap Making in the Bush of Africa

Eating fresh cut sugar cane.  It was so juicy!!!

My first full day in Uganda we visited one of the schools we visited last year and then took a tour of the farm that Pastor Moses oversees.  I was amazed at the amount of work that had been done there since last year.  Our ministry team contributed a solar power unit and batteries to the farm.  The workers were very excited about this equipment.  We soon hope to have a truck and tractor to make taking care of 100 acres easier than 100% manual labor.  There is an orange grove, avocados, cabbages, sugar cane, special grass for dairy cows, goat herd, piggery and so much more....

I will be posting pictures of the work on the farm as well as my efforts in teaching soap making to a group of 50 widows (many of them over 80 years old) in Northern Uganda.  The people in the northern part of the country have been ravaged by war.  Most of the men and sons were killed.  Once the terror subsided, the people no longer had basic living skills as they were huddled into tiny communities and all their needs were provided for them by humanitarian relief organizations for over twenty years.  The one thing they failed to provide, however, were skills for the women and children to survive on their own once the war was over.

The Lugati village is only two years old.  But in two years time there is already evidence that a vital strong community will result with nurture and care.  A memorial garden was planted and a school constructed.  A small pharmacy and a daycare are also on the school grounds as well as a 40 acre garden.  Most of the widows in this village have taken to distilling grains into alcohol as a means to support themselves.  However, I am praying that the new opportunity to make soap cooperatively will sustain their needs in such a manner that none of these women will want to continue distilling.

So stay tuned....I will be posting several articles of the adventure in soap making in the bush of Africa!!!!  

How to Make Goat Milk Soap

Scientific Old-fashioned Soap

My mind has been thinking and thinking and thinking ever since I went to Uganda last year.....how can I help these people without giving them a hand out?  What would be something lasting that could improve their lives?  I have lots of ideas, but I hadn't really thought I'd be able to work with them to make soap....their would be a lot of obstacles to deal with. 

HOWEVER... it occurred to me this week how I can make soap from scratch scientifically.  So...this week I begin the process to make my soap the same old fashioned way our grandmas and great-grandmas always did, but I am going to actually measure my leached wood ash water (the lye solution) with a pH meter.  If I can replicate how I make soap now and replace the lye solution with an old fashioned lye solution of the same pH and same volume/or weight, then they could possibly make soap in the bush without needing expensive ingredients!

So I will document this process in hopes of helping others reproduce this same effort in other parts of the world.

Stay tuned!

Uganda...here we come again

On November 19th we leave for our second trip to Uganda.  This time we are taking our two oldest children and a team of others who have been called to work in Uganda.  Amazingly enough, it looks like I will be investigating how to get some widows started in a soap making business....can you believe it?  I have a lot of research to do, because things in Africa are not the same as here....so I will let you know this progresses.  Very excited!

25 Ways to Market Your Work

I ran across this article that I thought could be useful to anyone wanting to establish or continue building their handmade soap business. Like anything....diversification is the key!! The holiday season is fast approaching. Now is the time to finish those soaps for Thanksgiving and Christmas Season!