Lather Up!!

Sevren and I are constantly looking for new things to enhance the Appropriate Technologies (AT) Program. Sevren works closely with Southern Biofuels which grows Jatropha trees to use the seeds as clean energy source. But, there are many uses for jatropha and the oil that comes from the seeds, including using it to make soap. Here are a few snaps from our jatropha soap making experiment:

Jatropha oil pressed from the seeds

Caustic soda found at a local agriculture supply store

Add caustic soda to water using a plastic or glass bowl. Metal bowls will only add funky-ness to the chemical reaction happening

Add the jatropha oil and stir

Blending the mixture. The chemical reation should take your water oil and oil mixture and turn it into a solution with a mayonnaise consistency

Pour solution into a lined mold and wait. After two weeks it will have hardened and be ready to be cut into soap bars

We had to change our measurements around a bit, but it worked! The advantage to using jatropha oil is that it is a natural bug repellant. This helps us in two ways: cheap soap and a malaria combatant. BUT, going with the theme of Appropriate Technology, how can we make this cheaper and easy to make in the village? So we brought this idea to the Northern Province AT workshop where a team of designers made caustic soda by boiling down wood ash. Success!

The Art of Batiik

 It's been a while since I've last posted. And by "a while" I mean over a year... Anyways, I've been up to a lot of things since I left my village in Luapula Province after two years to become the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) in Southern Province. My main job as PCVL is to handle the US Government funds allocated to Southern Province. I'm also responsible for coordinating the programs in the Province, giving volunteer support to our volunteers in Southern, being the first point of contact for the Emergency Action Plan, and managing the Southern Province Resource Centre and office. Add onto that my secondary project as the Appropriate Technology logistics coordinator (which I'll talk more about on a later post). It's hard to find time to do things outside of the realm of Peace Corps, but recently I met a woman that does traditional batiiking. Batiik (pronounced "bah-teek") is a way of using wax to resist dies on fabric. Chimunya was taught how to batiik from her mother and now teaches other women the art. She agreed to take some time out of her busy schedule to give me a lesson:

Powdered Dies

Wooden stamps designed by Chimunya and hand-made by her father

These fabrics have been stamped with hot wax and will soon be dyed with other colors.

A tie & die  being worked on. This is after the wax stamping process has been done. When completely dyed, this will sit in the sun to dry.

After drying, the fabric is rinsed to removed excess dye.

Then comes the fun part: removing the wax! The fabric is dunked into the boiling water to remove the wax.

Ta-da! The finished product hanging in the sun to dry.

I've done some battiking sinced I learned, but found that it takes practice, practice, practice to get it right. I haven't used stamps but I've painted and used other methods of applying the wax. This is something that I will definitely continue once I get back to America.

Art in Mansa

A friend of mine in Mansa, Victor Mwakalombe is one of the only local artists in the area. I had him paint a photo of Sevren's village for Christmas and gave him a bunch of my photos so he could practice. He found this one and wanted to paint it so I said "sure!" As you can see, he made me look better than the actual photo...I credit his amazing skills. If you want to check out his other work, you can find him on Facebook, although I think you need to 'friend' him to see his paintings. Check him out!

Belated Holiday Cheer

I know I know I know...I am terrible at updating my blog. BUT, better late than never! What am I grateful for this (last) holiday season? Iwes (children) that will sit in one place for long enough on my porch for my to take this photo!

Happy Holidays from all of us!

Keeping Cool

I've been trying to introduce some village appropriate technology ideas to the village. This is clay pot refrigeration, where you put sand and water between two pots and it insulates the inside keeping it cold. Due to the fact that no one in my village makes or wants to make clay pots, it's mainly used as a demo and helps me keep my cheese from going bad!

Vitameatavegamin

My friend Ashley gets Flinstone Gummy Vitamins sent to her and she had a surplus so she gave some to me. Take your vitamins!

Birthday Fun!

It's hard to believe I've been here for long enough to celebrate two birthdays. This year I decided to ring in my 25th year in the village and was accompanied by Sevren. We woke up and made omeletes and when I went to fetch water I was given a nice birthday surprise: a very important meeting at my clinic! When I told them it was my birthday and that my plans for the day were to make cake (cake on a brazure is an all-day affair) they told me, "it's okay, you can bring us cake!" As I was walking to my meeting, my two Peace Corps neighbors, Kristen and Maddy, arrived. I went to my meeting, as my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer is 24-7, and came back in enough time to make cake and celebrate with what has become my Peace Corps family here. Sevren was able to distract the children for a while and I was able to relax and reflect on my 24th year.

My neighbors have a baby, David, whom I like to call "bandume bandi" or "my brother." He turned 1 year on November 26th so Sevren and I went over and made an attempt at a duel-birthday celebration. Now, having a young brother in America, I knew that a 1 year old cannot blow out birthday candles, but we tried anyways. Needless to say, it was funny...and made me feel happy and blessed to be here at this moment in life.