Small Sacrifices

 At first I wasn’t sure what Hashiri was talking about. She always sends me lots of messages, but the way she spells the local language always makes it a bit of a puzzle to decipher. She adds letters to match French spelling or she drops letters/sounds.

Henna-ed hands and fingertips of an island bride

But finally I realized that she wanted to make me henna! She had access to a henna plant and she wanted to make some for me so that I could dye my fingertips. Sometimes islanders use henna to make elaborate designs on the arms and feet of brides, but generally married women would only just use it to stain their fingertips or toes, maybe on their palms. Nail polish is frowned upon here, but henna is okay.

I have gotten used to how it looks and the intricate designs can be very pretty, but I have never found the dying of the fingertips very attractive, especially on my skin color, but I have never been in a position where I was pressured or asked to do it, though teammates have.

Hashiri kept on with the messages telling me how beautiful I would look with the henna, how much like an islander. She also let me kow how grateful she was that I had given her a book with stories about God and so how now she wanted to give this henna to me as a gift.

Applying the henna paste

As the messages kept coming, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this. If it had been an offhand offer to make me henna, I would have been able to turn it down without causing any offense. But Hashiri had put thought into it and was making it specifically for me.

When she came to deliver it, I was relieved that she was just dropping it off (so I wouldn’t be pressured to doing it a lot) and extra thankful that she mentioned that some people just use it on the nails and not the entire fingertip (meaning I could get away with doing it that way). I made a point of thanking her for her gift and the thoughtfulness it demonstrated.

I wasn’t excited about it. It’s not really my style. Henna also doesn’t just wash off. On the skin it will last a while, but on nails, you usually have to wait for the stain to grow out. Tom suggested that I could get away without using it since we were traveling shortly afterwards and Hashiri may not even see me again, but I knew she might visit one more time and if she saw that I hadn’t used her gift, she might be hurt. So I took out the thick henna paste and applied it to my toenails.

Once the paste dried, I had orange nails! Not something I would ever choose to have, but in the end I got off easy and it was only a small sacrifice for the sake of relationship.

Nails dyed orange!

I sent Hashiri photos of the finished product. She returned with her compliments, suggesting I do it a second time to make it even darker!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’re thankful for relationships and creative solutions to cultural differences.  We are thankful that our trip to the US embassy went smoothly and they accepted all our paperwork without incident.  Now we’re just waiting for the new passports to arrive.  It feels like we have been using our time here well, getting plenty of work done.  We’re thankful for the time we get on the weekends with our kids.  We are thankful that WhatsApp has allowed us to keep in touch and encourage our island friends.  Some colleauges recently had to travel to South Africa for some medical testing.  We are thankful that they arrived safely.

PRAYERS REQUESTED

We’ve heard that electricity in the islands will probably not improve for a month or two.  Although we are uneffected by this at the moment, we feel for our colleauges and neighbors who have to deal with long and unpredictable outages both day and night.  Pray that Hashiri, Muki, Mtsa and others would remember to read the booklets/books they’ve been given and find encouragement for their hearts.  Pray that we could continue to use our time here wisely and that the passports would arrive quickly.  Pray for this upcoming weekend, as we celebrate our kids’ mid-term break from school.  They’ll be with us (and off school) from Thursday evening till Monday.  Pray for our colleauges in South Africa getting all their medical testing done.  Pray for good reports and good healing. Megan had another skin biopsy taken, pray for clear results.