“We Want to Learn More” ~ Part 2 Soap making
A note in my email was simply put “We Want to Learn More” so here we are today ~ doing that.
May seems to be a busy month of holidays here in Cambodia. As I looked over their twelve month calendar of holidays, I count seven for this month. Only two other months come close to that number, five in October and four in November. Let’s see, there is the King’s birthday (current one) which huddles over a weekend no less, giving a long four day weekend. We just had that over this last weekend. May 1st is the Cambodian Labor Day, celebrating the achievements of workers in this country. We didn’t notice that since we were working in Snor Village with the Immanuel short term team doing church with Pastor Samuel and his flock.
Since that was on a Sunday this year, it rolled over to Monday with another day off. May 20th is the designated birth of Buddha. That also is on a Friday this year, making another three day weekend. The last holiday for this month is May 24th which is the start of the planting season celebration. Considering that 80% of the population live in villages and are rice farmers, this is a very important one indeed.
This month also ushers in the rainy season as well. Our Immanuel team left Cambodian soil on Thursday of last week, May 12th, and the next day, just twenty four hours later, the rains began. Since then it has rained every day, with most of that occurring during the nighttime hours thus far. The triple digit temps have plummeted during those brief moments and given a huge sigh of relief for those who have endured the harsh dryness of late. It also energized others to anticipate and consider new projects in the days ahead. “We want to learn more.”
April 27th I posted a note regarding soap making across the waters. If you’ve not had a chance to read it, perhaps backtracking to that would be a good point about this time….. Read on ~
Anyway, with the last meeting of the ‘soap gals’ we had completed two different types of soap. The first one has been found (a piece thereof) in the downstairs office bathroom for anyone to try out. It is really nice. The second one was an affirmation of what had been taught thus far, plus the addition of an essential oil fragrance. Until now, we had no digital thermometer to measure the ‘heat’ in each of the components of a soap recipe without causing undesirable results so we had to keep to a narrow window of recipes.
Then the thermometers arrived at the end of April in a suitcase from IL.
So today’s class, the last one at least for now, converged in the office this morning to learn how to use a thermometer correctly (our American Imperial system doesn’t roll over into their metric learning) and for the girls to do everything on their own. There was an obvious intense discussion for a bit about the ‘future’ of soap making in the villages and how to do it there, with some excitement in the air. But then the process began one more time, and George and I were only observers now as the three soap gals measured their container, calculated the amounts of oils and lye/water to fit into it, and finally put it all together. New items for the day included the scent of lavender and the color of turmeric. The weather has changed somewhat since our last soap date, and this time the gals used a cardboard lined box instead of a silicone loaf pan. Those are a lot of exchanges in a new learning curve. We hope they understand this curve will continue to move further out with each time they try something new in this craft, and we hope that they do try new things.
Yet as I write now, I’m think the learning curve in this craft will only continue to grow going forward. These three women are committed to not only fine tuning their skills, but to share it forward so other women can have something like this. As one of them said, “we all would prefer to have or make things that are only locally made. We like to support the local community and grow the local community.” We couldn’t agree more.
As I returned comment I said “Ladies, you will continue ‘to learn more’ each time you do this. This I am most certain of you three.”
Godspeed in your venture going forward~
Thank you also to a gracious daughter who was willing to add into her already hectic schedule the patience and time to share in the learning curve that we had no knowledge of at that time. Even if it meant a 12 hour time zone difference and an ocean between them all. They are friends now ~
“Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them ~ and a lifetime’s not too long to live as friends.” (Michael W. Smith, 1967).
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