Hanging Out With The Girls

Saturday, June 17, 2006

For the past week or so, I’ve been meaning to go down to Sahm (area in Dakar), where my Thies host sisters live. I meant to go during the week so I could see my dad, but logistics can be difficult here. Yesterday, I got a call from one of my sisters.

Normally, I have gone to the hospital on Saturdays, more to pass time than anything, but today, I didn’t. Because of this, it was feasible to head in that direction to Sahm and see my sisters. I have made it no secret that I enjoyed the company of my Thies family, so it was nice to see my sisters. It was the first time since leaving Thies that I had seen on of them.

Where they stay in Dakar is far different then where I live here, but it seems very homey, as did the house in Thies. Every time I have been there, I have felt at ease. Today was no different.

Today, I hung out with my sisters for about an hour and a half or so. In that span, I saw a few others that I had met before. Also, because I was the only guy in the room (the ratio was 1:4 at one time) there was a lot of girl talk going on. It really made no difference though because I had little clue as to what they were saying.

Also, I got to watch hair extensions get put in. It was cool. I’ve seen a lot of used hair extensions lying in the dirt on some of my walks here, but I had yet to see new ones being put in. It amazes me how hair extensions can be put in with ease, yet my hair can be butchered so badly at the barber. During the course of this, I wished I had brought my Barbie along so we could style her hair and play dress up…maybe next time.