Jisonayilli and Braids

Last week I moved into the new house that I’ll be renting a room in for the rest of my stay here. Our area of town is called Jisonayilli and it comes with a built in alarm clock at 4am…ie the Mosque right behind us. Haha It’s a great area of town though, the tennis courts and pool are just 10 minutes away and we are located on the same street as the army base so there are far fewer power outages here than in other areas of town. I’m about a 25-30 minute casual cycle from my house to Tamale Polytechnic now…and by the time I get to the office I’m very thankful for the air conditioning!

One of the most enjoyable parts of living in Jisonayilli is our Ghanaian “Mom”, Asiah, who lives in the house and looks after it. Asiah likes sharing her Ghanaian cuisine with us and so far the dishes have been really tasty. Her extended family lives in the compound right next to us so we always have visitors coming in and out of the house. Little kids come over to do their laundry on our driveway because we have a hose and I also discovered that they bathe in the backyard. On Saturday I was doing the dishes and realized the water pressure was really low. I looked outside and saw the kids out the window and figured they must be playing with the hose. But as I looked closer I saw that they were actually having baths in a couple of metal buckets they had brought over. I giggled a little to myself and then all of a sudden someone slapped my but from behind, prompting me to let out a yell of surprise. I turned around to see one of Asiah’s little cousins, a little girl with a couple of teeth missing, grinning mischievously and we both started laughing. She didn’t speak English but she hung out while I finished my work.

BRAIDS

On Saturday morning my “team” arrived at the house to put my hair in braids. One woman did the extensions while three girls crowded around finishing the braids. Four hours and two bags of plastic hair later, my “African Makeover” was complete. My first look in the mirror was a little shocking as I took in the image of my face framed in a mop of big, black braids that I didn’t recognize. Thankfully the women took it easy on their poor “slaminga” and didn’t pull too hard…they haven’t given me any pain at all. Apparently I don’t have to wash them for two weeks and can leave them in for the month. I’ll probably see if I can make it until Saturday…the hair seems to trap in the heat and makes me feel like I’m always wearing a plastic hat on my head.