A practice in patience!

Yesterday morning we headed out early to a freinds field to help with the weeding around his corn crops. Boris dug with a hand plough and I had to pull and pick up the weeds between the stocks. This is one time that I really enjoyed the different gender roles! My job seemed much easier, especially after seeing the blisters left on Boris' hands! We are starting to build a real appreciation for the work people do.

Last night I headed out for some girl time with Salmata. We went to the salon to get her hair done. Often here the girls add layers of plastic hair to their hair and sow hair pieces on. The girls in the salon had a lot of fun touching my hair and giggling. This was a true moment that I wished my Dioula was better so I could understand what they were saying. Before we left all the girls grabbed me and stuck me in the chair. Here the women love to paint their eyebrows with henna. They make their eyebrows really long and thin. So before I could even protests I had long black eyebrows. What looks great on them, doesn't quite work on a tubabu, white person. Its definitely not my style, but now I am kind of stuck with it. I scrubbed as hard as I could last night, but my eyebrows are still black. I feel a little like a clown. Oh well it is all part of intergrating, right!?

At home we have been adjusting, but the mom doesn't think we know how to do anything. In her opinion we don't know how to cook, clean or do the laundry. Given it is not often I have to do the laundry by hand back home, but I don't think I'm that bad at it! Everytime I try to cook, the mom comes into our kitchenand takes the vegetables out of our hands as we aren't cutting them right. Before we know it our meal is made, with about 10 times the amount of oil and salt that I would use. I know she is trying to be helpful, but it is a little tiring some times...

This morining we were woken up by drumming off in the distance. It sounded so nice. We still haven't quite managed to wake up at 6am yet. We met up with a freind this morning who took us to see how Dolo is made. Dolo is a kind of Millet beer, that I have to say tastes aweful! There are two versions, one that is not fermented and one that is. The fermented one could knock your socks right off it is so strong! A few sips and that was all I could manage!