A day full... of so many things. Beautiful to my eyes and ears... and things not so beautiful to me. Although... ah, culture! There are things here that seem so odd to me and yet in their cultural way are gorgeous. We were painting the girls' finger nails at the colony. (crazy, but they LOVED it!) We were sitting on the ground and they were sitting in chairs all lined up with fingers poised, ready, waiting, expectant! Two timid girls emerged from... I don't know where! But suddenly they were with us, wanting painted nails like all the other girls. I spotted the left hand of the smaller girl. It was covered in manure. Well, her palm was. I was thinking... Oh my heck. She needs to sit over by Steph, cuz I am NOT touching that... wait a minute! What am I THINKING?!?!? OF COURSE I'm touching that! That's why I'm here. I'm gonna love on this girl. She definitely wants her nails painted. I've got hand sanitizer in my bag. So, I guess I can do her right hand and then... well, we'll see what happens when I try to do her left. If that's even possible... is there a translator around here? I've got to...
My thoughts were interuppted by Steph, "Does she have cow poop on her hand?"
"Sure does!" I responded quickly.
"Oh. Allrightie then!" Steph was upbeat and optimistic. She was willing to deal with it too!
My thoughts were interuppted by Steph, "Does she have cow poop on her hand?"
"Sure does!" I responded quickly.
"Oh. Allrightie then!" Steph was upbeat and optimistic. She was willing to deal with it too!
We kinda giggled, cuz... what do you do? That's so foreign to us. We pulled up a chair for the little girl and kept on painting. To tell the truth, I thought the little girl maybe had a bad case of upset stomach or something and didn't have a way to wash her hands after going to the bathroom, so she used the field and... well, it turned into a big cake-o-something that looked like a cow pie. I know. Gross. But that's what I was thinking! And we were not near civilization, shall I say. So it wasn't too far fetched... so I thought. Moments later, Michelle asks, "Why does that little girl have poop on her hand!?" Praveena (one of the guides) responds matter of factly, "Oh no, that's Henna paste."
So, as I was saying "odd to me and yet in their cultural way gorgeous" - there is my example of what I'm trying to say... Cultures. Gorgeous.
