Village Visit, Three Barbers & Van Persie and a lesson in cultural differences

It was our turn to do village immersion which involves a group of four or five students going with a mama into the village and spending time with her and her family. We walked out of the Iris base and then into the village market where we bought some rice, oil, mangoes, tinned tomatoes and a frozen chicken. The mama was a widow and had seven children and after quite some walking we arrived at her home. She kindly made us feel at ease as we sat under the shade of a large tree and ate some delicious mangoes. We met some of her children and we listened to her story though it was difficult because of the language barrier, fortunately a young man Salemo had joined us with permission and he translated for us. Brian and Cathy from Hawaii were playing games with the kids and Brian even made a swing whilst I took plenty of photos of the beautiful children and they enjoyed seeing their funny expressions. Andrea and Kelly chatted to the mama and older girls while the process of preparing lunch had begun.

The beautiful eyes of the children

Village Mama portrait and family

We heard intermittent loud music from a small bamboo stall which we could see not too far away and Kelly said that it was a barber shop. I went over to have a look, asked to take a photo of Joam who was the barber and as I was in need of a haircut asked how much it would cost. There was a considerable delay with the issue of language and at one stage I heard the word from his friend Ibrahim "complicado" - I should have known. The bamboo stall was rather tiny and many children had by now gathered but after a reasonable price of 100 meticas I agreed and was seated down. On the walls were several haircut styles with numbers and I chose number 11 which was shortish on the side with plenty of hair on top, not unlike Joam and Ibrahim. Before me was a massive Manchester United Poster with all of the famous football players above the golden mirror and loud music coming from a speaker box at my feet and soon a clean looking white sheet was draped around me - what can possibly go wrong. 

My Three Barbers Joam,  young Salemo and Ibrahim 

Before I knew it young Salemo had the clippers and quite literally let rip and a large chunk of hair seemed to be missing from the left hand side of my head. Joam stepped in, took over and it felt like hair was flying in all directions and I could hear Brian standing outside chuckling. Totally at the mercy of the barbers I tried to make a bit of small talk and obviously started talking about Manchester United and spotted Wayne Rooney then Salemo said they would make me look like Van Persie - well he was just above the mirror on the right hand side and I felt rather honoured - I am a Van Persie fan and still sad that Holland lost to Spain in the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.

Salemo with the opening shave with Van Persie on the top right of the mirror and an photo inset too. Joam taking over and lastly a photo taken by Salemo of the transformation

There was some brushing of my head and I was now aware that the clippers were very close to my scalp although I couldn't quite picture the Van Persie interpretation. Now the third barber Ibrahim stepped in and he was vigorously tracking the outline of my head and I was wondering if I was finally going to become a monk. They switched to another clippers and the shaving was getting even closer now and rather uncomfortable. I was asked about my stubble and eyebrows and politely refused - I think Van Persie still had his eyebrows. They kindly warned me about some solution they were about to apply to my scalp and neck and my goodness did it burn - the haircut was also now finally finished. I thanked my barbers and plucked up the courage to face the world outside knowing that somehow everything hadn't exactly gone to plan - probably much like the Dutch team's 2010 world cup final.

The finished look and a selfie with young Salemo who probably performed his first haircut

In all of the chaos the mama had actually stormed into the barber stall and took my camera away out of concern that the children would steal it - we later heard that some of these children often ridicule her as she is a widow. A little while later we all had a delicious chicken lunch together and realised that a lot more was going on that we were unaware of. Not only is our hair physically different but our ways too and something that seems so obviously appropriate to us is not in another culture. There were some other events during the day that made us realise how similar we are and yet how diverse we are too. I do believe we all have an inherent sense of what is good and what is evil however culture displays itself in it's own unique way in each people's group and how wonderful it is when one starts to celebrate and value the beauty of the nations. I lost plenty of hair that day but gained so many nuggets regarding the sheer beauty of the human race - there is indeed so much more going on.

Rope skipping fun - a common joy