All about my hair

After one week in Africa I decided to get my hair braided. I did this on my last trip and I loved it. When my hair is in braids I don't have to wash it, brush it or really even worry about it at all. It always just looks pretty good. Coryn found this lovely lady to do my hair for a good price. Her name is Sumin and she is a total sweetheart. It took 8 hours or so to braid all of my hair.

This is me almost 2 weeks after I had it done. I am sitting at the source of the Nile river. I didn't even have to do anything with my hair this day. I just woke up and off I went. It was so great. Especially during my time in Bethany Village, I never had to worry about washing my hair in a bucket.

Finally after 3 weeks I was ready to take my braids out. The roads here are really dusty and when my head sweats the dust just sticks to my head. I could have kept them in longer but I just wanted to feel totally clean.

It took me and some of the other girls about 2 hours to take out all of the braids. If I had running water I could have just done it in the shower, but I am in the village and there is no such thing.

After three weeks it felt so good just to have my own soft hair. I did have to wash it in a bucket using a jerry can but it worked out. I lost quite a bit of hair from the weight of the braids pulling constantly. For Africans their hair is much stronger and can handle the stress but I guess I can't. I loved my braids but because of the hair loss I am not going to be doing it again (or at least that is my plan for now).

The day after I took out my braids I did another bucket shower and washed my hair. It was then that my "Mom" informed me that she had a blow-dryer it had been well over a month since I had used one. It was so nice just to be able to have clean soft hair that looked nice.

This is me after I was done blow drying it. The kids love to feel how soft it is. As you can see from this picture I have also introduced them to some of my electronics. They love playing games and watching cartoons on my computer, listening to music and playing games on my ipod and taking pictures of everything with my cameras.