Hair braiding ***

Yvonne (everybody over here calls her my African mom) owns here own hair salon.  I have been there a few times now just to go and hang out with her and chat with the different people in the village.  Every time I would go there to visit with her she would always ask me when she could get someone to braid my hair (since that is one of the things she doesn’t know how to do to well).  She had said that she really wants me to look more like an African and she thought this was a good way to start my transformation.  I finally had told her that I would go in on Saturday morning with her and get my hair braided.  Oh my boy I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into.  It was over a totally of 4 and a half hours to complete!  Plus they like to pull it really tightly so my head was in pain every time the lady would start a new braid.  After about an hour the lady who was braiding my hair realized she was going to need some help so she had the other worker put the hair ties in my hair whenever a braid was finished.  That still didn’t seem to be going fast enough so then she had Yvonne step in and help as well.  Yvonne would wait for the braid to be started then she would finish it up and the lady would go on the other side of my head and start the next one.  With three different people working on my hair they would all be tugging it in their direction to try to make it easier to complete their task.  I sure had one hell of a headache very quickly!  Thankfully they did most of it outside so I could at least feel a nice little breeze but it was still pretty hot.  This attracted many people in the village since I was white.  A lot of people came to visit with me but since so many of them didn’t speak English I could only understand that they were talking about me because they constantly kept on saying the word for white person.  Some of the people who came to watch sat there up to three hours!  I couldn’t believe that they weren’t bored out of their mind like I was.  When it was all finally finished I was so relieved!  Yvonne told me that next time they do this to my hair again they are going to add fake hair ass well because my hair is really thin and slippery to them.  I was thinking to myself umm next time? ….are you crazy?!?  We then took a few different pictures which the village people really liked since they are amazed every time I bring out my camera.  I then paid the lady who did my hair which surprisingly only ended up being 5 US dollars.  I knew that if I got this done to my hair on vacation somewhere it would be WAY more then that.  On my way home after I had my hair all braided up everyone was stopping me and telling me now I look smart.  Emily and Wilfred said the same thing to me when they saw me.  I don’t understand why they think I now I become smart because I have braids but oh well haha.  I will probably keep them in for about a week or so but after that I will be ready to have my normal hairstyle back.  I hope to god someone was planning on helping me take these out otherwise it will for sure take the whole day!  The braids were a big hit when the kids at the orphanage saw them though.  It definitely didn't stop them from playing with my hair.  They especially liked that the hair ties were all different colors so we have been going over there colors every time they start pulling on my braids.  For now I guess I will just have to learn how to rock the braids and become an African lady!!