Project Baray 08 !

The alarm rang sharply at 6am (argh! on a saturday!!) and I lazily dragged my tummy out of my beloved bed. I rushed my way down to Dhoby Gaut to meet the rest of my toilet-building comrades, and cursed (kidding!) when I only saw Jun Ren and Janice there. After the rest streamed in (read: strolled even when late), we happily made our way to the bus stop hand in hand, humming the song “小手拉大手” that we all missed. On the bus, Terence made one of his worst decisions ever in his lifetime by changing seat when the bus was 3 seconds from our destination. LOL Moment.

There we were. RGS. (I was perplexed when it should be RGSS and this troubled me till now. Any rafflesian wants to enlighten me?). We signed in at the friendly guards as they smiled gayishly to the rare male presences in the school. We were ushered to the science lab. Janice could not hide her happiness along the way as she finally returned to her alma mater, and had her 100-watt smile permanently affixed to her face.

Welcoming us was a bunch of cheerful and enthusiastic girls and their teacher-mentor Mrs Lee. Vincent gave a brief introduction of our wonderful Project BARAY while Samantha did the same for Project GREASE. Personally I was deeply impressed by their projec especially what the 8 girls have managed to achieve thus far. Imagine all workshops, presentations, competitions and interviews they have to undertake while maintaining a straight-As scorecard in school. Wow. I really wonder whether a team of 8 Yonghuis is able to do as well.

Alright. It’s practical time as we switched to the adjacent lab. Images of cracked test tubes and broken thermometers sent a shiver down my spine and caused a ripple on my tummy. Staring down to the container of yucky-looking used oil, I donned my gloves and prayed. Read on for the instructions and you will be able to make soap from used cooking oil.

INSTRUCTIONS

1.      Add flour enough to cover the surface of the oil at least a day beforehand. Pour out the clean oil after flour settles.

2.      Measure out water (200ml), oil (60ml) and sodium hydroxide (30g).

3.      Add sodium hydroxide slowly into water and stir until it turns transparent. CAUTION: HOT!

4.      Fill one basin with hot water and another with cold water. Put the cup of oil in hot water while the cup of sodium hydroxide in cold water.

5.      When the temperature reach 50-55 degrees Celsius, mix the oil and sodium hydroxide.

6.      Stir slowly until tracing occurs. (when stirrer is dragged across the surface, it should leave a trail behind for a few seconds)

7.      Add fragrances if desired.

8.      Pour into a mould.

9.      Remove the soap carefully after the mixture solidifies so that it can be exposed to air, and store it in a cool but exposed place.

10.  Turn the soap over 2 weeks later so that both sides of the soap get exposed.

11.  2 weeks later, (1 month from the start) the soap will be ready!

Tadah~! As easy as that. The active process of soap making will take less than an hour!

Time for the photos!

RGS Girls warming up the oil for us.

A thorn among the roses.

Washing up!

Project GREASE-BARAY group photo!

LO AND BEHOLD. THE PRODUCT OF THE HARDWORK.

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KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GIRLS!

http://oiltosoapmovement.wordpress.com/

Project BARAY, take them as a great motivation and example to make our project as successful!

ENDNOTE

Project BARAY sincerely appreciates Project GREASE for their time and effort to impart their soap-making skills and knowledge to us. As part of the collaboration, Project BARAY will be giving lessons to the Cambodians and teaching them what we have learnt. We hope that through this, they will be able to use the soap they make to maintain good hygenie practices and perhaps maybe even earn a living from the sale of home-made soaps.

yonghui