Henna

My neighbors have been giving me beauty treatments.  In Cameroon there are two types of henna (no idea how to actually spell the Fulfulde names, but this is how it sounds): Seeppa and Lalay.  Seeppa is the black stuff that you use to draw designs on your hands and feet.  It's really liquidy and tends to run all over the place, especially if you lotion up right before you get it done.  Lalay is the orange stuff you put on the bottom of your feet and on the inside of your hands.  it starts as kind of a light orange, but the more layers you do the blacker (okay... dark reddish-er) it gets.  Lalay is applied as a paste and is slowly blotted on to the whole foot.  The design on my hand was done by putting down electrical tape before the paste.  It takes forever to get it on and then you wrap your feet in plastic bags to let it set for at least 2 hours, depending on the intended result.  I've done Lalay twice so far, and it takes 4-5 hours total to get it done.  The women doing it wanted me to come 5 times but I don't think I can handle it.  People love to see that we get it done and children always yell "A didi seeppa!" (You drew henna!).  It's also a fun bonding activity to get to know women because they are rarely out of the house.  They have a lot of fun with it, so it works out for the both of us.