Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Magic of Green Bar

Green Bar is the all purpose soap here in Swaziland.  It literally is a green bar of soap (about 18 in long) made of who knows what, but it works magic.  I use it most regularly to wash my clothes and it gets any stain out.  I also use it to make my steel pots and pan shine like new and most people also use it for general washing of hands and bodies.  Literally it can be used for anything.

Recently I experienced a new use for this powerful little product.  I was cooking and got a steam burn trying to get a handle less lid off of a boiling pot of water with nothing but a spoon and hand towel.  I immediately put my hand in a bucket of water but my thumb was still stinging minutes later and I had to resume cooking.  My host sister said put some green bar on it.  I immediately had a movie moment thinking of the Windex in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  I was like what? She took some green bar and rubbed it all over my thumb.  It burned like crazy and I was sure that I was just trapping the heat in and that I would be sorry later.  My sister promised that the pain was because green bar was actually healing my burn and that there would be no blister. 

It stopped stinging after a while and I forgot about it until the next morning.  When I awoke I looked at my thumb and it was red where the burn was but no blister, just as my host sister promised.  It was amazing.  It’s now been 4 days and my thumb is completely healed.  Green bar is some good muti (magic) I can get behind.  Don’t judge me if I arrive home with a suitcase full of it.

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