Shopping Spree

So as soon as we got off the plane in Meskine, I noticed all of the missionaries were wearing African attire. As if I didn’t stand out enough as a white person, my clothes were glaringly different too. I was in need of a makeover shopping spree.  Well to my dismay, there are no Targets in Meskine or even a shop that sells premade clothes. So just in case you find yourself in a similar situation, here is how to get clothes in a rural African village-

Step 1- go to the weekly market with your Fufulde teacher to “practice greetings, “but really with the secret mission to buy cloth. Get her to haggle the price with the sellers. The cost of cloth for an outfit- about $10 each

Step 2- Soak the cloth in vinegar in your cement “shower”. The vinegar is supposed to prevent the colors from fading.

Step 3- spread the cloth out on your porch because it is monsoon season and it looks like this outside

Step 4- take the cloth to the tailor. (I went to 2 in town as to spread around business. This is Christine). Have someone translate for you what you want and hope that they are actually telling them what you want. (I wanted some dresses- they actually turned out to look like HUGE muumuus- not my favorite).

Step 5- wait 1-2 weeks.

Step 6- Either your domestique (house help) will bring the finished outfits to your house or you take your whole family and bike about a mile to the tailor in 95 degree humid weather. Very important- do not wear a wrap skirt while biking. You will flash the people in the village- trust me- been there, done that!

Step 7- Get lost biking and have to call for directions because every mud hut looks alike.

Step 8- Pick up clothes and literally drip sweat on the tailor as she fixes something on the dress. Then ask how much you owe only to have to ask her to write down the price because you have no idea what she said. Each outfit cost between $3-$10 to have hand made for you.

Step 7- On your way home, stop at your Fufulde teacher’s house because she lives next to the tailor and it is rude not to. Also, play with her cute baby. (Daada Esther also made me an outfit that I picked up)

Step 8- Bike home and drink a big glass of iced tea because you are sooo hot and the electricity is off which means no fans either.

Step 9- Look at your new dresses in a mirror and realize you could sneak an entire family into the movie theatre underneath it because it is a HUGE muumuu!

Step 10- Wait another week and get another missionary who can translate for you to go back to the tailor to see if she can make the HUGE muumuus into a less huge version of a muumuu- only to find out that the tailor is not there.

Step 11- Get another missionary to make the journey with you a few days later. This missionary will yell through the open window in order to get the tailor to open the door for you.

Step 12- Try the clothes on in the tailor's house only to realize when you are naked, that you are not alone in there. Thank God that it is only a teenage girl and a few mice- and not some man!

Step 13- Finally 5 weeks later, return home with some new clothes! Christine made dresses for Charlie also! Isn't my "mini-me" cute?!