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it's a very nice country
nice people, beautiful landscape
and I think it has potential as well
my name is Matthias Kuntze, I was born in Burundi
in 1969
I left Burundi when I was 12 years old
I went to Germany to finish school
and did my studies
spent about 10 years in Germany
came back in 1993
and then took over the business of my father
this is the soap tank
it is where we make the soap
we mix palm oil and caustic soda
soap is defined by its total fatty-meter
meaning the more oil is inside, the higher the quality
so a toilet soap has around 70 to 80% of oil
a laundry soap averages between 50 and 60%
this is going to Rwanda and Congo
this is the soap base for toilet soap
which they made this morning
and this is a typical laundry soap
...for the Burundi market
we also make it black - pitch black
the black one goes to Congo and some parts of Burundi
in 1993, the year I arrived, the war started in Burundi
the civil war, which actully ended 5 years ago
those days were quite difficult
but I see now Burundi on the way up
and looking quite good
this is the refinery where we refine the crude palm oil
into palmoline
these are the boilers where we make steam
we need a lot of steam to make soap
this is something that we've made ourselves
it is a mix of mud, fibers and shells
from the crude palm oil production
it's a waste, which we press and then it's fired in the boilers
it is the second in Africa
but it is the 8th generation
because it started in 1814
when my great-great grandparents started in East Germany
to make soap
100 years ago soap was made like this in Europe
so there's no drying - it's just drying by air