Friday 24 September 2010

Hair and hospitality

Greeting strangers is an art form here. The handshake - which involves shaking and clicking fingers almost simultaneously - is no easy feat. The fact that we repeatedly try and - as with our Twi language skils - so often fail seems appreciated to a point beyond our understanding. In the UK we would not consider stopping to meet people we don't know. Here every walk is the start of a conversation.
The hairdresser Atta has spent two hours trying to teach me Twi and taken me as friend. She cut my hair and eyebrows with a razorblade - laughing hysterically at my every attempt to explain or retort in Twi. Friendliness doesn't quite cover it.

1 comment:

  1. I see it is a two woman job to trim Mully's barnett. One to chop the hair and the other to apply Grecian 2000 to individual hairs? Hope you're getting a saltire shaved in at the back?
    Tippy

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