June 9 - No rain today. It's been pretty hot here today, actually. There is a funeral going on in the village of Ve-Deme, just a little ways further up the road. Funerals here are impressive to say the least. Everyone who has ever known the deceased shows up in bright red clothing and socializes, dances, sings, and drinks for days on end. The road just outside the orphanage/school compound is normally very quiet, lots of foot traffic, but it is rare to see an automobile go by. This weekend, however, cars and tro-tros and taxis have been flying by in a steady stream. Music has been blaring constantly since about 3 pm yesterday. And I mean constantly - all night long.
Aside from the funeral, there isn't much going on today. It's Saturday, which means no school, so I don't know what to do with myself. Luckily, the kids had some plans for me. They were going do my hair. It was quite the production, and quite the sight, too, I'm sure. So I sat down on the floor of one of the outdoor classrooms, having my hair "did" by about a dozen children. It started out with a simple combing and squeals of "Your hair is too nice!" (what that means, I don't know).
Soon enough, a consensus was reached that what I really needed was braids. I soon had dozens of teeny-tiny braids spread randomly throughout my hair. As I sat patiently, all the little girls were explaining, each louder than the next, that they wanted to be hairdressers when they grew up. Hairdressing is a very serious endeavor here in Ghana. You can't go anywhere without seeing a God's Grace Beauty Saloon or a Jesus Lives Boutique and Saloon. And those aren't typos you're seeing. S-a-l-o-o-n is the most commong spelling here. When C. and I tried to explain the difference between saloon and salon, in American English anyway, our guide, Edem, just laughed and shook his head. Personally, I think the extra 'o' adds a touch of much-needed irony to the names. Anyway, as I was saying, hair is very important to Ghanaians (especially women, but men too). Many women have weaves, complex braids, dye jobs, chemically straighted hair, etc., etc. And they are all very concerned about keeping it nice - scarfs, or plastic bags, if necessary, are worn in poor weather or long tro-tro rides. It seems like every third woman I meet here aspires to be a beautician. It'd be funnier if it weren't kind of sad. I mean, hair is great and all, but this country could use some workers with other skills. What about fields like medicine or education or public health and welfare?
So, I put up with the hairdressing for over two hours, then went to fetch my dirty clothes because Saturday, if nothing else, is laundry day. Thank goodness. Every stitch of clothing I have has been worn for days and is pathetically dirty. One of the older girls took one glance at my attempts to wash my own clothes and practically begged to be allowed to do my laundry for me. Washing your clothes by hand, and doing a good job, is harder than it looks. So I let her take over, and sat there watching for the next 2 hours, running to hang up the clothes to dry, and, at very least, washing my own underwear.
So that is how I passed my Saturday: getting my hair "did" and watching someone do my laundry.
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