Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The 27th good thing about Northern Nigeria: Memories and pictures last longer than hennaed hands

When we visited the hareem, we admired the henna decoration on the hands and feet of some of the young girls in the palace.







Paulette asked if one of the women in the palace who henna the hands of palace folk could come over to our hotel to paint henna for our group. That evening I took advantage of the opportunity to have a temporary souvenir of our trip


The woman decorating us with henna was very quick and skillful. Everybody who was painted had a unique design. She would look at the hand and wait just a second to plan it out before she began painting. Once she started painting, she worked quickly and confidently.




I thought her designs were really beautiful.



The henna lasted just over a week on my hand, a bit longer on my foot. The decoration faded, but the memories of our trip to the Durbar festivals in Northern Nigeria will be imprinted on my mind. It was an amazing and memorable experience.

2 comments:

Tricia said...

I have always wanted to get something like that. The designs that she did are really beautiful! I was wondering how long it took them to do it. Just so you know, I changed my blog adress to naokiozzie.blogspot.com
I'm also going to make it private in a few weeks, but I think I have your email address so I'll send you an invite. How much longer are you in Nigeria?

Carolee said...

She was amazing -- really steady hands and fast work -- I'd say she spent about 5-7 minutes on each hand or foot. Then you had to not wash them for an hour or two. Keep me on your blog list please. There's a good chance we'll be away from here by next summer, if not sooner. I'm looking forward to being back in Katy for Christmas. Say hi to your mom for me!