First Week in Welkom

Hello from Welkom!

I have been here one week today, and it has been so good to be back!  We left our house around 6:30am, and we landed at Johannesburg on Friday night around 10pm South Africa time.  So for 36ish hours (I was too tired to figure out how many) we went from home to Chicago, to Detroit, to Amsterdam, to Johannesburg and got all of maybe 15 minutes of sleep!  Which was actually nice, because when I did sleep I slept very well and it made the jet lag almost non-existent for me. We stayed at a hotel connected to the airport Friday night then Brian and Lois picked us up along with a team from Iowa and we made it to the Village at lunch time on Saturday. 

I've kept pretty busy this last week, but here are a few of the things we've been up to here at the Village. So this may be a bit long... :)

Sunday we walked to church with the mamas and the kids.  The church sings some songs in English and some in Sesotho and the pastor preaches in English while having a Sesotho interpreter.  In the afternoon Brian drove us around Welkom and Thabong.  Thabong is a township, I think the largest in the Welkom area.  During apartheid, the different people of groups of South Africa had to live in their designated area.  Welkom wasn't designated to anyone, so if anyone wanted to work here they had to have a permit and then they had separate townships for them to live in.  While that isn't required today, there still is some of that separation, and illegals also live in the townships.

Monday we started working on getting all the school supplies.  First we had to organize the backpacks and have the kids pick out theirs for the new school year. Their school year starts in January and goes almost year round.  After that, we got out the school supplies and sorted piles for each kid of pencils, erasers, rulers, and everything else you need for school.  Every supply must have the child’s name, every pencil, pen, book… Then their books must be covered, some with just plastic and others with brown paper and plastic. We covered the books they had but most of the covering had to be done after their first day of school when they came home with the rest of their books. Over 20 of the kids are going to school, so there are maybe 300 some books to cover? Thankfully there were several of us working on them and the older kids did their own.  They also got uniforms ready and Mom and Susie did mending.  In the evening the kids put on a small show to say goodbye to Mom. 

Tuesday we did the weekly non-perishable grocery supplies that are kept on property.  Then we started on organizing the clothing storage room.  Bob and Susie took Mom and I to the airport, so the team did most of that. 

Wednesday was the first day of school! In the morning Jackie and I went into town to do some of the mini bulk grocery shopping for the mamas while the team ladies did a Mama pampering day.  We got back for homework, aka, book covering!

Thursday we did the rest of the grocery shopping for the mamas.  Then the pool that was the kids’ Christmas present was delivered.  That was interesting because it was too big to go through the gate, so everything had to be done by hand and it was inside of another pool.  It’s fiberglass, I think 10 meters long and I’m not sure how deep on the deep end. But with enough help we got it unloaded, turned on its side, turned around, and moved into the hole without anything or anyone breaking! After that it was back to homework and book covering.

Friday we deep cleaned the hope center, which is where we do homework and most Village gatherings.  There isn't much homework so in the afternoon they have the Village Bible study.  Friday evening is movie night for the kids.  Last night Brian set it up outside and everyone watched Overcomer together.  They really enjoyed it!

The goal is to have homework done by 5pm.  Since Becky and Kyle have gone home, the staff that is here has a lot more to do and we’ve all been keeping busy.  When we’re not working on a project I try to spend time doing something with the kids.  The Wi-Fi has been a bit iffy, so I'm not able to post pictures right now, but I will try again later. That is a quick summary of my first week here! 

DIY Foaming Hand Soap

What is so special about this hand soap?  It is chemical free! It cleans your hands well and it is much gentler than store soaps.  It's very easy and simple to make, while taking a short amount of time.  We usually make 5-6 bottles at once, and it may take about 10 minutes.  We have been using this for over a year and have been very happy with it.  

I work at a cafe and bakery, where we wash our hands very frequently throughout the day.  The frequent washing is so hard on one of our waitresses' hands that at times her phone won't even recognize her fingerprint!  She has used this soap and loved it!  It was so much gentler on her hands.

Here's what you need to make your own soap:

2 Tbsp. castille soap

1 Tbsp. fractionated coconut oil

12 drops Young Living Thieves essential oil

3 drops Young Living Lemon Oil

Distilled water

Foaming hand soap dispenser

Pour castille soap, fractionated coconut oil, Thieves essential oil, and lemon essential oil into the bottom of your soap dispenser.  Fill mostly to the top with water, leave some room for the foam (about an inch space).  Screw the pump on and shake everything together.  And that's all there is to it! 

This recipe is for 1 soap dispenser.

Our empty dispensers.

It may be hard to see in the picture,
 but the liquid in the bottom of the bottle
is everything except the water.

My mom and I did a rough estimate on how much it would cost to get started making this soap.  Since it's been a while since she had to purchase the ingredients, she looked up the fractionated coconut oil and castille soap on Amazon.  We also use organic products, which is usually more expensive.

32 oz. Bronner's organic castille soap was $16- you should get approx. one batch per oz of castille soap, this bottle should give you 32 batches of soap.

16 oz. MoliveraOrganics was $14- this should also give you 32 batches of soap. 

15 ml Young Living Thieves Essential Oil wholesale is $35- If you use this for nothing else, you will be able to get 21 bottles of soap.

15 ml Young Living Lemon Essential Oil wholesale is $11.50- If you use this for nothing else, you will be able to get 83 batches of soap!

Hand pumps- My mom just went to the clearance section in stores and bought the cheapest foam soap.  When she got home she dumped it all out and washed the bottles out well.  

With these numbers, it would cost you $76 to get started. I know, that's a lot for soap! But it comes out to about $2.76 per bottle. Think of it as bulk soap shopping!  You can also change up which essential oils you would like to use and the amount that you use, depending on what you need and how you would like it to smell.

My mom and I are both independent distributors of Young Living, so we get our oils at the wholesale price.  I have no affiliate links for Young Living, Amazon, or any company on my blog.  But if you would like more information or have questions about Young Living or any of it's products, please contact me.

We use Young Living for a variety of reasons, some of them being that they have safest, purest, therapeutic grade oils. They refuse to cut them with chemicals or to sell any oils that do not test Young Living's high quality standards.

I hope you will give this recipe a try and that this will be one step towards a chemical free home! If you do try it, I would love to hear what you think about it!

Tri Loom Continuous Strand Weaving Part 1

Weaving has intrigued me for about as long as I can remember.  Patterned cloth has especially fascinated me.  Even as a little girl with my very basic knowledge of weaving I wondered how people, especially hundreds of years ago, worked patterns into their weaving.  I still don't know exactly, that's something I need to study more.  But I think it's neat that something that intrigued me when I was so young, still intrigues me and I'm actually beginning to do it!

I think my interest began mostly because weaving is historical. I love history, especially from the pioneer era!  Also, some of my favorite books included weaving.  In the American girl doll series, Josephine learns to weave.  The Iron Peacock and They Love to Laugh both have an emphasis on weaving, to name a few.  Sheep, wool, and weaving was a large part of Scottish culture- and I also happen to love Scotland! Many Americans had to weave cloth for their own clothes too; it's an important part of American history as well.  And it's not just the weaving that's fascinating, there is a lot of work that has to happen before you can have yarn to begin weaving.  I know we don't need to know how to weave nowadays.  For me it's fun and relaxing and helps me appreciate the work others had to do years ago.  And I do think that's important.  

I also just enjoy learning many crafts.  Crafts with yarn especially.  Isn't it amazing all the different ways we can take one long string and turn it into so many different things?!?  You can take yarn, knot it, knit it, loop it, weave it, and voila! You've taken one long string, made from lots of short fibers twisted together to make it stronger and longer, and turned it into something beautiful and useful.  And if you enjoy making something, why not make it?  It makes it special and you value it more that way.  Weaving is also a more unusual craft.  A lot of people knit and crochet, and I enjoy both, but not as many people weave.

When I was a little girl my mom taught me how to weave potholders.  Since then I've probably made a couple hundred!  I love all the different colors and patterns you can make. They are fun and useful...but there is only so much you can do with oodles of potholders. It was time for something bigger and a little more advanced.

We have an annual local fiber fest which I got to attend for the first time last year.  It was so fun!  So many different fibers, spinning wheels, dyes, roving, looms, knits, etc.  But my favorite part still, was the weaving!  One of our family friends actually makes these continuous weaving looms, and a variety of other projects, and sells them as a small business!  It was my first time being introduced to this kind of weaving, which isn't traditional, but it is perfect for me right now! 

This loom comes in different shapes and sizes, I think mine is three feet wide at it's widest point.  I can set it in my lap or on the floor or a table in front of me.  It's a lot more practical to buy, find a place for in the house, and a LOT easier to use than a full size traditional loom.  You weave smaller pieces,  then put them together to make a bigger project.  I'm currently working on a shawl.  Which I haven't finished yet, but hopefully will do another post when I am. :)

I guess this just shows some of why I'm interested and excited about weaving.  Next time I think I'll post how you actually weave a continuous strand and call it part 2.  For now, I'll show you some pictures of my project I've been working on this winter.