Friday, October 25, 2013

(Not-so) Rapid Integration Techniques: African Hairstylin'

A solid group of girls cut their hair before they came to Africa, generally for very practical reasons: it's hot, it's humid, hair is a pain to wash via bucket bath, etc.

Then there's the crazy girl (me) who decided, I should make my hair twice as long and twice as thick!! Sound impossible in addition to unwise? You'd be wrong.

This Sunday, I got my hair did, African style. I went over to my friend Calla's house because her home stay mom is a hairstylist. I had warned her ahead of time, so she got my weave at the market before I arrived - blond, brown, and purple weave, to be precise. And it's not even weird here to have purple hair, people do it all time. So I hung out with Calla, and her mom, and her 2 young home stay sisters. Our other PCVolunteer friend, Lauren, even stopped by for a bit. We talked about life, we talked in French and in English, and I even got a late lunch of my favorite Cameroonian meal: couscous and legumes. If you're thinking it sounds like I was there a while, you'd be right. Go ahead, ask me how long! I'll tell you. SEVEN hours. From 11am to 6 pm, I did the equivalent of letting small children pull my hair. Except I did it by choice, and the person pulling my hair was a professional adult. 


If you know me, you probably find this hard to believe, since I have approximately no patience. But life here in Cameroon will teach even me some patience, and I have been thrilled with the decision ever since. On the one hand, it's so natural, I feel like I was born to have hair like this and I feel like an African princess. And furthermore, Cameroonians love it. Mamas stop in the street to tell me how beautiful I look with my new hair, random teenagers stop and touch my hair and smile, boys tell me I'm pretty without even trying to dérange (all-purpose french word meaning to annoy/bother) me, and my home stay father has started calling me his "white African daughter." It was the second easiest way to integration - right after putting on a caba (muu muu). 

Speaking of seven hours, I just wanted to point out that time works differently here. Cameroonians at least, and I suspect Africans in general, have a different concept of time. Perhaps it's because time is not money here. Perhaps it's because the bus/train never leaves on time anyway. Perhaps because its more important to greet everyone in the room one-by-one than it is to start the meeting on time. Or perhaps these are symptoms, not causes. But here, people do not have a sense that time - or even the future - is in their control. Here, time is still in God's hands, and we will only arrive at a specified time if he wills it. And though that might sound crazy or naive in the U.S., it seems much more reasonable here: you never know when the car won't work, or the bus will break down, or the rain will start pounding down and delay your leaving the house or even render the road impassible… There really is so much in life that is out of our control, it's just much more obvious and, ultimately, more easy to accept here. C'est la vie. 


Moral of this story? Don't stress & weave, y'all! 

2 comments:

  1. Incredible idea of time...As some one who is USUALLY late, I may start looking into the fact that maybe I'm actually supposed to be late to things. Also, I'm kind of jealous of your hair.

    Keep writing and keep me posted. Oh, and keep using y'all :)

    -Your favorite Texan thats still in school, and wishes he was having as much fun as you.

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    1. Ryan! Favorite Texan indeed. It made me so happy to see your name pop up! You could get weave too you know, just come to Cameroon and I'll make it happen for you. Otherwise, you can just admire mine ;) I hope you're not working too hard at SC, or at least that you're amusing yourself as much as you're working. I have confidence in you haha.

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