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

We're Going to Uganda

In less than two weeks, my husband and I will be boarding a plane for Uganda.  We are traveling with our pastor and his wife.  We are working with a pastor there who has started and over-sees 130+ churches and feeds over 3,000 orphans each month.  We plan to train Pastors, lead healing and evangelistic crusades and see how we can establish businesses to help support and improve the lives of orphans and struggling families.  One of my endeavors is to create a hand-craft co-operative for women who are interested in hand crafting crocheted cotton washcloths for soap makers (this will probably expand, but it is a starting point).  Cotton is a pretty big industry in Uganda, but the country lacks the "value added" aspect to it's raw products.  Producing yarn and then crocheting an item increases the value of the raw product tremendously.  I am excited about promoting a product in the US which will help impoverished women in Africa.  I am specifically designing a round washcloth that would tie around round soaps (made in PVC pipes) and a retangular washcloths to fit the rectangular size soaps from my soap making video. 

I will also be looking for raw products that can be used in soap making.

If you have any thoughts or ideas before I leave, I'd love your comments!