It took me nine hours to drive from Shelbyville to Bay St. Louis, Miss., on Friday; it only took me 8 1/2 hours to drive back, and that was even with stopping at what I now believe to be the Slowest Waffle House in North America, somewhere in Alabama.

I was on the Gulf Coast to spend some quality soap-making time with Dave and Carolyn Schussler. Carolyn has been a teammate of mine on both of my previous foreign mission trips, and her daughter Michelle was on my 2003 team to Nicaragua.

This August, both Dave and Carolyn will join me on the LEAMIS International Ministries Kenya team -- but we won't be working together. Carolyn, who taught soap-making last year in Nairobi, will do so again this year, while I will teach soap-making in Kisii province, in southwestern Kenya. Dave will be with Carolyn, in Nairobi, teaching nutrition.

In a previous editorial-page column, I talked a little bit about the process of making natural soap, so I'll give you the quick version here. The basic process is that you combine lye (which has been dissolved in water) with melted fat and then stir until the mixture starts to thicken, at which point you pour it into molds. This is "cold process" soap-making; it doesn't involve cooking the mixture the way your great-grandmother might have done. Because of that, the soap must be allowed to "cure" for a couple of months so that any remaining lye can combine with fat before you attempt to use the soap. The lye is extremely caustic, and you wouldn't want it on your skin or in your eyes. In fact, the scariest aspect of the mission trip for me is the thought of me or one of my students spilling or splattering lye.

I'd been practicing my soap-making skills here at home, but it was good to get a refresher course from Carolyn and Dave. We also worked on something I hadn't yet mastered at home: "hand-milled" soap. This means taking some already-made soap (either your own soap, a commercially-available soap, or a special "melt and pour soap base" designed for this purpose and sold by soap-making supply houses), grating it and melting it down, in order to add color, fragrance, moisturizing or skin conditioning additives, or a scrubbing agent like finely-ground oatmeal. Hand-milled soap is a great way to get involved in soapmaking if you're afraid of having to deal with lye.

I also got to talk to Carolyn about how she organized her workshop last year, what sort of supplies and equipment she took along, and so on. You must be very careful about taking along everything you might need, because you can't necessarily run to the nearest convenience store in Kisii like you could here in the U.S.

Nairobi does have a Wal-Mart-like department store called Nakumatt, but even so the selection isn't what we're accustomed to here. And the town of Kegogi, in Kisii province, is much more remote and even less likely to have necessary items in stock.

But some things I won't be able to take with me. For example, lye can't be taken even in checked baggage. In theory, I could take lard with me, but it's better to find out what type and quality of fat is available in Kenya. Last year, Carolyn found out that the lard she was given was not as clean or refined as that to which she was accustomed here in the States. There were even bits of rind in it. If we're supposed to be teaching a marketable skill, we must do so with the type of supplies to which the Kenyans will have access after we are gone.

All work and no play, of course, makes John a dull boy, and so we did do a little sight-seeing. Dave and Carolyn took me out for a po' boy for lunch on Saturday, and on Saturday night we went to a McElroy's Harbor House, a wonderful seafood restaurant right on the water in Biloxi.

The Schusslers, both of whom work for du Pont, were wonderful hosts. They kept apologizing for their lovely house -- they moved in less than a month ago, and are still waiting for the contractor to finish the punch list -- but I hardly noticed.

All in all, a great weekend, and it makes me even more excited about my workshop and the trip as a whole.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com. "Countdown to Mission" will appear each weekend from now until the trip in August.