Palm Oil Fumes, Peroxide Plumes, and Homemade Soap Perfumes- July 17-19, 2012

  So I have enjoyed this week, even though we didn’t have power, therefore, no shower for four days. I went to bed smelling like would smoke and soap three nights as Luan and I were training the women’s group to make soap.

   The days were fun, but long, especially the first two days. Every day we left at 9:30 to drive about 15 minutes to the house we met at across town and out in another village. The first two days, we got back around 4:30 and the last day, we got back at 3:30. It always took longer because of the translating and because we were training. Wednesday, they provided lunch. Luan and I can make a batch of soap in 2-3 hours when not training, so the women were encouraged that it doesn’t take as long as the days did! :)

Shot of the women watching Luan stir soap.

    The first day, we started at 11:00, thank you African time, and we had six women. By 12:45, the group had grown to twenty. We had the same on Wednesday and Thursday we had 12-15. The first day, Luan and I trained them and showed them how to make soap after going over all the directions and precautions with them. And even though…lol…we added only a little bit, we had the peroxide explode again. Beautiful! Haha. Luan had printed handouts with all the information for making soap and buying the products as well as safety precautions and ingredients substitutes. Due to the heat difference between our stove and the open fire, every day, we boiled out more oil, therefore we only made three sixteen inch bars, instead of three and a half. Also palm oil has horrible smoke fumes…as does the wood. It instantly makes eyes water and coughing.

   Olive and Abolee were the two that wanted to make the soap on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the women made soap and we helped them and directed them. These two women were great. And it was fun to see what they learned. They wanted to add dye and perfume, so they added lots of blue and the scent was citra-nilla. It keeps mosquitos away and they all loved the smell…I thought it smelled horrible. Because of the oil in the dye, it made the soap more grainy feeling and the consistency was different from the other soap we had made.

Abolee and Luan mixing the soap.

 

Another shot of the women watching the soap making and fellowshipping.

  The last day, two other women made the soap and we also cut the heat way back. The women are used to rolling boils and lots of heat so it took a lot of reminding not to add wood and to use very little heat because the pot heated quickly and when it gets too hot, the soap separates. The women wanted to add dye, they LOVE color, and perfume again so Luan and I troubleshot the dye. We added it straight into the palm oil and thankfully, it totally came out better! And as we still had a little yellow in the oil after adding the peroxide, upon adding the dye, they got a different shade of blue.

Amooti Roseline is the main leader and translator of the women’s subgroups. She is spreading two of the three bars smooth into the molds. You can see the two shades of blue. The dark blue was the first batch the women made on their own and the other one was the second. Both batches came out well, but the women, including Luan and myself, liked the consistency and feel of the light blue much better. They did a very fine job!

   One of the old grandmas in the group, Abwoli, knew how to make liquid soap and made herbal soaps by buying soap bars, melting them down and then adding her own herbs she collects and then remaking it. She bought a long bar of soap for 2000 shillings and after adding her own scents and herbs, resold it for 5000 shillings because they are herbal/perfumed. She brought the perfumes and medicinal herbs and plants she used for Luan and I to see. They are pictured below...

Perfumes                       Medicinal 

  Perfumes left to right: lemon grass, lemon leaves, night rose, meetch (local), and Rosemary.

  Medicinal left to right: Aloe vera, and the rest...I can't pronounce nor write down. Sorry!

   The women really enjoyed making the soap, it will be interesting to see how many of the women start making soap. But, most soaps are sold 1500 shillings or more, so by making better quality, quantity, colorful, and scented bars the women stand to have good business.

   I really enjoyed the days as I got to know the women more and hear stories. They had given me the Empaka name, Amooti (Ah-mo-tee), a couple weeks ago which means “for the King” or “for royalty”. So it was fun to be teased by “Amooti” and “Emma” and then also they tried teaching me small Ratorro phrases. Just really fun and memorable. One of the ladies, a different Abolee, had her granddaughter one day. Akiiki (Haa-ki-ke) was a beautiful little Muslim girl of eight months and she absolutely loved me! Most times, Ugandan children don’t want to be held by a mzungu. When I gave her back, she started crying so after a bit, I took her from Abolee again and she stopped crying. But when I left…her tears came again. 

Akiiki and I 

Amabere Falls and Hike- July 14, 2012

Amabere Falls

   Luan and I went hiking at Amabere (Ahm-bae-ree) Falls. The waterfall was really gorgeous and to get to it, we had to follow a small path through the jungle. The waterfall is from one of the small rivers from the Rwenzori (Ren-zor-ee) Mountains. The Rwenzori mountains can be seen in the background of some of the pictures.

Also, we could walk behind the waterfall! It was super cool! Never walked behind a waterfall before and as Apollos, our guide, took our picture, Luan and I laughed about always reading about going behind waterfalls and the hidden pathways under waterfalls. It was fun and super slippery. :)

Also with the falls was a hike, the whole thing took between 3-4 hours. The hike took us between three crater lakes, one no longer full of water, but grass instead, and the other two huge and still full. We climbed a big hill, and Apollos was amazed that I didn’t have hills like Africa’s where I live. It was fun and a really great way to see the countryside. Absolutely gorgeous.

One of the crater lakes, we climbed that hill over there...it was high! :)

 This shot is from the top of that big hill. And we walked on the road below. The view was totally worth it and plus, I love hiking more and more as I get to do it. :D It has been fun and good these past two weeks to get to go do something just to exercise and get away. 

Another shot is also from the top of another one of the lakes. 

Decorating Cakes and Selling Most of Them!- July 12, 2012

   Luan and I met with her discipleship women group to teach them how to make buttercream and royal icing. The women had made cakes beforehand and when we got there, we set to teaching them and showing them some designs through the decorating tips. Then we stepped aside and let them practice and then decorate the cakes. When talking with the women, they said that several people asked if they could buy the cakes when they were on the way to the meeting.

    The women told them they would decorate them and then bring them back. So basically they had already sold cakes before the people even saw the finished product! AWESOME!! Our intent in teaching them to bake and decorate cakes is to turn around and sell them to make a little income, plus the cakes that are made are sold for extreme amounts of money, are dry, and taste like dirt. So it’s good that they are starting to make cakes, and hopefully, some of them will continue to do this and create business.

One of the cakes the women decorated is pictured below. This one has a buttercream covering and the pink is buttercream, the flowers are royal icing. I made several flowers, swirls, shells, and other designs with royal frosting a couple days before to show the women how it hardens to a candy consistency. It still tastes gross though! 

Here are some of the women with the cakes they decorated.

          

Bible Study, Color Theory and Cooking Baskets- July 11, 2012

  A couple of the women Luan disciples joined another missionary, Pat, and the women she disciples in a day of Bible lesson, color theory and cooking basket teaching. Pat calls her group “The Tabithas” and her organization is known as “Proverbs 31”. She teaches beading, sewing, health, and so much more. Pat also has a college student staying with her this summer, Katie is from North Carolina and is studying Studio Art. Pat taught a lesson on ‘Justification by Faith” from Genesis 12-15. Katie then taught color theory to the women and her focus was showing them how the color wheel works.

  After lunch, Luan, Lillian, and I showed the women how to make cooking baskets.

   These are made with a sturdy basket (depending on the size of pot you want to use), building plastic, yarn, material, and some sort of packing (banana leaves, grass, etc.) and a pillow—made also from grass and material. The point of this basket is to allow the women to prepare meals ahead of time and to save them money for firewood. Usually, most Ugandans eat around 10pm and all their meals take a long time to prepare. While dried beans usually take 1-2 hours over the fire to be done, with the cooking basket, you heat the beans for 15 minutes and then place in the basket. In 2 hours or more, the beans are done! So instead of paying for firewood for 1-2 hours, they only have to use 15 minutes worth and when the pot is removed from the basket, it has to be done with cooking mits as the pot is too hot to touch.

 Lillian, pictured here, is a school teacher. She was very skeptical of the cooking basket when Luan first introduced it to her. But she now loves it and uses it all the time. She prepares beans, potatoes, rice, matooke, etc in the morning and when she comes home for lunch, she has a hot meal for her and her kids. Often she makes porridge for her kids’ breakfast and so she makes it before going to bed and in the morning, it is still hot. Super cool and handy!

  The heat from the pot is kept inside the basket because it is packed and acts like a thermos. Luan’s discipleship group is collecting their supplies to make their own baskets, and we look forward to hearing how they like them once they begin using them!

Kyaninga Lodge- July 6, 2012

  So Luan told me how to set my pictures for web usage since internet is too slow here to upload a regular picture. So hopefully, I will be able to get pictures up with new posts!

 Luan took me to Kyaninga Lodge last week to go hiking. Kyaninga Lodge was built by an Englishman and

 took him several years to build. He used all local wood to build the buildings. Other than a couple of hiking trails, one above Crater Lake and the other along the lake shore, there are also tennis courts, a French style

 bowling area, volleyball, badmitten, swimming pool, paddle boats, and
swimming in the lake among some of the recreational activities for the guests. For hiking, we could do so for free. Fort Portal is 5000 ft in elevation and some of the hills on the Crater hike, are above that. We hiked for about 2 hours and then met up with a missionary couple that were vacationing at Kyaninga for three days.

 I took some pictures of the different flowers, some were quite different, like this one. Unfortunately, I do not know what kind of flowers these are, but they are pretty. They remind me of sea urchins.

While hiking, some children walked passed us leading a cow and goat. They smiled and as common with most children I’ve met, each had to ask, “How are you?” When we reply, they smile and laugh. Lol…still haven’t figured out why that is.

The fields surrounding and through which we walked were all farming. Gardens of potatoes, maize, beans, ground nuts, and matooke. The farms are usually all strewn together; they do not plant like we do in America with rows of vegetables and separate from other plants. This picture shows farming on the side of the hill.

 When we were hiking, the trail goes along the right hand patches of farming gardens. Where the last square patch of brown is on the right, they were planting potatoes. How the people know where their land is and how much they have is beyond me as there are no fences, markers, houses, or anything.

As we were leaving the Clubhouse, we spotted this male lizard. Fortunately, he liked the spot he was in and didn't skitter away until I got a picture of him. Photogenic eh? He even looked at the camera for me :P

 

At Least it Didn’t Singe my Eyebrows!- July 3, 2012

  Have you ever tried making homemade soap by a hot process? Have you ever combined hot palm oil and cold, 50% hydrogen peroxide? Even the small amount of peroxide used, poured in all at once to the oil, causes a wonderful reaction. J Oh, you want to hear the story? I’m so glad you asked!

Fortunately, Luan and I learned this without losing our eyebrows or catching anything on fire. Luan had been wanting to perfect soap making so she can teach the women in her group and possibly go back to Bwera at some point to teach. Luan’s tried it a couple times, and after all the calls, questions, and research she’s done, hopefully, this time is the charm! J

 The Monday before I left for Fort Portal, I went with Luan to learn how to make soap. This is the same type of bar soap she was taught how to make, but the times she’s tried it, it never comes out right. So we basically learned that trip, this type of soap is never a failure…you just have to experiment until it comes out right. Geez…thank you soap merchant who’s done this your entire life. Luan wants to perfect it though to some sort of recipe so we can teach. We both know how to trouble shoot it now, but in teaching, you need a basic formula to follow, not: “So basically any way you do it will come out right, you just either add water or more caustic soda…” So see the dilemma?

 So we set to work. George lit the fire with sawdust brickettes in a small, outdoor stove that was about 2-3 feet tall. Luan prepared all the ingredients, and I took ladles, a pot, and other stuff outside. Finally we started heating the palm oil…which smells horrible and smokes a lot.  

  Then…the fun part…Sadly, I fear I am a pyro at heart. Haha. George took the oil off the stove and we let it cool for several minutes. Now, palm oil is different shades depending on the quality and if it’s been mixed with something else. Our palm oil was a deep orange and to get the color out, you add peroxide. So after the oil cooled to probably 215 degrees, she dumped the measured peroxide in. Right as she withdrew her hand from over the pot and both of us randomly took a step back, the pot erupted with a loud “Poof!” and a huge cloud of fire (strangely…think atomic bomb picture from the history books and that’s what it looked like only it was fire) billowed up and disappeared. It’s never happened before to Luan while making soap…BUT…she also didn’t pour it in all at once. Luan glanced down and said, “Well, all my parts are still here!” We laughed…kinda still surprised by what happened and George chimed in, “Yeah, well you’re lucky you still have eyebrows!”

 After that, we added the other ingredients and stirred for what seemed like forever, trying to reach the right consistency. We add caustic soda mixed with water…super cool and not safe chemical. It’s cool though because when it has air and is on a surface, it liquefies and looks just like water. But it burns worse than acid. But cool find of Luan’s, vinegar counters the caustic soda! So in case we got any on us, we had a bottle of vinegar. We wore glasses and gloves while making soap as the chemicals were pretty dangerous involved and the fumes aren’t pleasant. Finally after reaching the desired toothpaste consistency or as George called it, “Red Sea Parting consistency”, we slapped into wooden molds. It made 3 full rows and a little more. As of right now, it is already out of the mold and sitting on the counter! It is supposed to harden in 4 hours and be able to use in 8 hours. Mostly, this soap is used for laundry, but it is also used for dishes and bathing. If my internet would load, I’d post the pictures George took. J

  

 Two other fun things today…while we were making soap, we started noticing a lot of white and brown butterflies flitting and flying past the house. They were migrating!! So many little butterflies, about the size of a half dollar, flew into the yard and straight on past. It was very pretty and I’ve never seen so many butterflies at one time or a migration.

 The other thing was I learned how to make homemade tortillas. We had fajitas for dinner and Luan showed me how to make the tortillas while she cooked them. Super easy, but it takes time as you have to roll them super thin and then cut them out, we used a small pot lid, and then cook them. However, they were great.

 This evening, George and I watched the original documentary, Invisible Children. The film contains interviews from children that escaped the LRA and those that were running from home because they were not safe at home. Very sad and very wrong. I have had several conversations with George and Luan about the Invisible Children and the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) as they have lived in Uganda, saw the effects and happenings first hand and say this film is facts based, and have hosted the three men that shot this documentary. The information found here in Uganda about the LRA and Invisible Children is very different from the information I’ve heard in the States. It was an eye-opening movie, and crazy that the Ugandan government allowed it to continue for a little over 2 decades. I am glad I watched the film, even though some of it was graphic for now I know more of the story, not only from the recording but also from people that witnessed the packed bus stages and hospitals sheltering thousands of children every night. Thank goodness this is no longer continuing in Uganda, despite the corrupt government.

 Tomorrow if July 4^th and we are going to a gathering for the Americans. Should be fun, weird though to be in a country that has no clue why America celebrates the 4^th of July. :D 

Baking and Bible Lessons in Bwera- June 27-July 1, 2012

   Luan and I headed out to Bwera on Wednesday to teach cake baking, frostings, and Bible lessons on Friday and Saturday. We took Link bus and it was a bumpy 2.5 hour ride. George, Luan and I headed into Fort Portal at 8:45am on Wednesday as the Link men had said the bus would leave at 10am but we needed to be there at 9am, after asking several times and double checking. The bus wasn’t there yet and so upon inquiring, discovered it wasn’t due for at least an hour. So we decided to go get a coffee and sit down somewhere. As 10 am rolled around, we headed back to the bus park and waited in the car until the bus came…around 11am. Haha…yes this is African time. We hit the road around 11:20, and the only seats open were right above the back wheels, so it was a very fun ride with all the pot holes and speed bumps, but we got there without harm or bus break downs!

 While on the bus, which seat 60 people and standing room if needed, a Link ticket guy tried to get set me up with his other friend on the bus. Kept asking me if I would be his friend’s girlfriend and when Luan finally chimed in that in already having a boyfriend I wasn’t interested but was taken, he finally went back up to the front of the bus. He freaked me out though as I wasn’t really sure how to make him leave and surprised that he started asking. Luan and I laughed about it but for real, the men are super creepy here and always try to talk to us. As a “mzungu” you attract attention and therefore comments and questions—that usually don’t get answered.

  We arrived at Bwera Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by Pastor Joahakim, the pastor of Calvary Chapel Bwera and good friend of Luan’s. We stayed at the nicest hotel in town, which thankfully had a bed, mosquito net, toilet, power, and running water in the sink. The ceiling had stains from leaks, bugs and spiders, filthy, and we heard rats one night on the roof. But it worked and we didn’t have our room broken into. J It made for some interesting memories though, and for sure glad we had candles for the nights when power was out!

 Thursday morning was spent at Pastor’s with his family and counseling a young couple. Then we went around town collecting supplies for baking on Friday and Saturday and going to the church.

 Friday and Saturday we walked to the church at 8:30am and the program started at 10am. We began with music, a drum and clapping and almost all the songs were in the native tongue for the area. We had two interpreters, and so everything took a longer amount of time as some understood English and some did not. After music were formalities and then Luan started with a Bible lesson from Psalm 139 on Friday and Psalm 103 on Saturday. Then we taught the women the basics of cooking with measuring cups and how to read a recipe. We made an Avocado Banana Cake, and we had 6 women come up to mix up two cakes.

    We taught the women how to bake in pots over a fire. We used a big pot with sand in the bottom and then the cakes on top of the sand, covered by an upside down pot. The sand allows heat, but keeps the cake from burning on the bottom. While it was baking we had lunch and by the time lunch was over, the cakes were done! I taught them how to make Butter Icing and Royal Icing, and introduced them to decorating tips and showed them how to use small bags for frosting when they didn’t have tips or afford them. I’d mix up frostings and pass them around so they could try them. It was cool to work with an interpreter but also frustrating because I had to speak slower than Luan as my dialect is different to their ears or they didn’t understand what I meant. So often rephrasing or coming up with other words were necessary before the teaching could continue. Plus, I’m not skilled at talking to large groups. But God is definitely stretching me and it was a good experience, even if I don’t like speaking! Haha.

 After the icings, cake was passed out and the Luan taught another Bible lesson. Friday, she focused on Romans 8:28 and Saturday Hebrews 12:1-4. Her whole focus this weekend was on persevering in hard times and trusting God has a plan for everything. After the Bible lessons, we sang some more and then ended around 4:30pm. Friday there were 104 men and women and on Saturday 70. There were always more women than men as the program was directed towards the women.  And there were Christians, Muslims, Catholics (distinguished from Christians here), and unbelievers in the group. 2 women accepted Christ on Saturday which was really cool! We had a prayer time during the singing where women could come forward and we would pray with them or the pastor would, during this time 2 women came to Lord. :D

 It was a great experience and such a blessing to teach skills to these women that have no idea that baking a cake this way is so simple. To bake a cake, a really nice cake, the people think you have to go to school and have years of practice. Most women couldn’t believe it was so easy! Our intent with teaching them was to give them more skills, to provide something special for their family and friends, and if they so desire, to sell them. A good, moist cake is normally not found in Uganda even at weddings.

 One woman baked two cakes on Sunday the way we had taught. She presented one to her family and the other she sold at church! She paid 4,500 shillings for the supplies for the cake and sold it for 5,000 shillings. Super cool that at least one woman has already tried her hand at it on her own and succeeded!

 It was a wonderful experience, different than any I’ve ever had, but it was a blessing to be in Bwera and spend time with Pastor Joahakim. Uganda is a very dark place, but there is light and God is at work.