Beauty in a Helping Hand

Beauty tips from Audrey Hepburn- My Favorite: " Remember if you ever need a helping hand you'll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others."

July 18-23, 2009

I have become the village "rescue rat". Catherine gets so sick, with a fever the villagers think she might die. I am frantic. I sit at her bedside with a "My Little Pony" coloring book and crayons. I try to convince the teachers to let me sleep next to her but they are afraid for my own health and say I have been in her sick room too much already. She doesn't die. She has now regained a lot of her health and is now out of bed.

The teacher's are really busy this week so I spend a lot of time with William who has become my "security blanket" since the event with Martin. We are almost inseparable as I understand his Swahili and he somehow understands mine. Sometimes I forget that we are so different. That he is Tanzanian, speaks no English, has just finished primary school, is married and has a five year old son. Finding him was like finding a long lost friend I have known my whole life and we communicate with no problem, which surprises me. I find out that his son is handicapped and he will have no more children, His love for his son only endears him to me more. Also the fact that he will drop anything to help me. My door wouldn't lock and I kept forgetting to tell anyone. So for about a week my front door wasn't locked. I finally told William who was furious that I had been sleeping in the house alone with an unlocked front door. Within two hours I had a new door.

I sit at the bar and watch him fix his motorcycle and am reminded of my high school days where I used to watch Rian fix whatever broken down car he own. William is inventive using a screwdriver for everything. He pulls up a chair for me, buys me a soda, motions toward the rest of the guys and says "Okay, Brie, Tell them about condoms." We play checkers, they play slightly differently, but me, with my competitive, show-off, Aries personality says "Okay, whoever wins has to buy the other one a beer." Turns out, William is really good at checkers... Brie not so good. I think I owe him about five beers, I am yet to win one.

It is beauty week in the village. Jen wants to know why my eyebrows look so good. I tell her about tweezers, she thinks it is a weird idea but wants me to try to on her. So I spend about an hour plucking her eyebrows. Suddenly, I am in demand. I think I plucked about ten African women's eyebrows this week (not really my plan for my PC service, but things don't always go as planned.) They look through my people magazines to find the shape they want. (Beyonce was most in demand.) I tell them about waxing, which totally freaks them out and I teach them about tampons which is a very foreign idea. They are confused by why I wash my hair instead of add oil to it and I try to explain American hair... They all paint their nails with my nail polish. The whole exchange sort of cracks me up... Does PC service lead to beauty school?!?