getting a hair cut

The adventures of getting a haircut

I knew the day would come that I‘d need a haircut. I tried to postpone it as much as possible, because telling by posters and photographs at the saloons, I was going to look like a perfect 80’s model. And even though I know that there is a 80s revival going on in Europe at the moment, the looks of it did not appeal to me very much.
But it had to be done. So yesterday I asked Shewaye, the girl who does my washing, if she knew a hairdresser for ladies, as I only had seen hairdressers for men in town. She said that there was a beauty salon closed to her home. And this afternoon she was going to take me there.
When I came back from town after lunch I passed at her home to see what time would be best. She was not at home, but her mother was. And I had forgotten that Monday is “’tella”-day at her place. ‘Tella is the local beer, it looks like mud and to say it carefully, it is not my favorite drink. But of course it would have been impolite to refuse. So I had my glass of mud and told Shewayes mom that I would come back later to meet her daughter.
After some consultations at the hospital I went back to Shewayes home and together we headed to the beauty salon. But the hairdresser there was afraid of cutting my hair. She said she didn’t know how to do it. And I can understand this. I must be like cutting afro-looks for the average Dutch or German hairdresser. The girl told us we could better go to one of the hairdressers for men. And so we did.
As usual, on the way through town dozens of kids came running, shouting “faranji, faranji” and shaking my hands. And at a certain point we passed a preacher. The orthodox preachers walk through the streets a lot. The people approach them, kiss the procession cross (see picture below) the priest is carrying and get their blessings. Sometimes I think the priests do not get further than 500 meter per hours, because they have to stop every minute have their cross kissed.
A mother with 2 kids crossed our way. The kids came running towards me to shake my hands, while the mother went to see the preacher and kiss the cross. Everybody has their “heroes”… :).
We made it to the hairdresser and asked if he was willing to cut my hair. And yes, he would do it, but there was no electricity. It appears they only work with the electrical machines now a days. So we decided to go to the Wubet and drink something while waiting for the electricity to come back. We realized that soon enough as the peaceful quite of the hotel was disturbed by the television that switched one with the electricity. We had a laugh at the program: overweight inhabitants of Addis doing some sort of spinning under the instructions of a teacher that also instructed TV audience on how to do the steps. It reminded me of another European/American phenomenon of the 80s: those work-outs on TV our Video.
But after all, our plan was to get my hair cut. Back to the hairdresser. I explained what I wanted: just a little bit shorter especially around the ears and in the neck. He started at the right side. When he “finished” that side was too short and the other side not cut at all. Okay, I explained again, with Shewaye being a very patient translator. Now, the left side was much shorter than the right side. Explaining again. Better now, resulting in more or less thelenght on both sides. Now the front: He was sure he could not do anything else but a straight cut on my pony. But after some explanations and checking his work every 30 seconds, we managed to get it to an acceptable result. Only the hair in the neck is way too short, but on our way back, we got some hair wax, so I can try to “style” it a little bit in the mornings and I think the result is okay. You can judge yourself on the picture below (taken in Dr. Adrienne’s room with a stylish Ethiopian poster on the closet). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when I went to the hairdresser: A very interesting place as well. I think I was the first female having her hair cut there. There was even a poster of a topless woman on the wall, very uncommon here.
But I still have some photos from the hairdresser who attended Dr. David… so you can get an idea of the latest fashion around here… .
But after all I got a reasonable haircut for a very reasonable 0,18 Euro.
The pictures this time are a mix of the past 2 weeks, some of them taken by Dr. Adrienne or Dr. David. The video (If I manage to upload it) is taken just before the start of the church service on Wednesday afternoon. The pictures of the shepherd and the people at the spring are taken at our last Sunday afternoon stroll with Dr. David. The huge old tree, according to Dr. Melesse, is one of 7 old trees for which Motta is known here in the region. Until now, I have seen 5 of them. The “Motta taxi” takes people home from the hospital if they live in Motta, or brings them to the bus station of they live further away. And then there is the picture with my collegues here at the hospital, from the left to the right: Abebaw and Negese, to midwives with whom I work almost every day, and Yohannis, our current anesthetist (they change every 2-3 weeks). It is taken at the tea-house, a sort of a small snack-bar at the hospital where we have our second breakfast almost every morning.