Road to Mercy: I'm a Big Kid Now!

Ok, Mercy took a giant leap from a baby to looking like a big kid today. We got her hair done! Harriett and a few other Ugandans have urged me to “do something with her hair!” So I decided to bite the bullet and do it. Harriett called a woman who specializes in hair for young children. She came to the house so Mercy would feel more comfortable. I had to run to my lawyer’s office for just a bit, so I left them to get started. I’m kind of sick of making decisions these days, so I told Harriett to do whatever she wanted. They decided on yarn braids/twists (called “threads” here). The whole process took about 3.5 hours. Mercy did great. They entertained her with candy until I got home about 40 minutes into it. Then I took over the entertaining, sometimes more successfully than others. Finally, I put a DVD on my laptop and that did the trick. Then Mercy got really fussy because it was past nap time. So I got her to go to sleep and she slept about the last hour or so. The lady did a really good job of being gentle and not making them too tight. I had to sit really still as she burned the ends of them with a birthday candle. It was fascinating to this white mama to see how she did it and how quickly and adeptly her fingers moved. I tried to pay really close attention, so I can give it a shot on my own one of these days. Of course for me it will probably take about 7 hours. If only I could pay Ugandan prices for hair styling at home ($12 and that includes supplies and transportation)! I’m amazed at how little Mercy has messed with them. She did stare at her reflection in the glass door for a while. Ha! And she’s slept on them just fine… so far. I can’t get over how much older it makes her look. These should last for about a month. Then we’ll see what other new style we can come up with. This is a whole new world for me, but it’s kind of fun.