Learned how to wrap my head

 I took a walkabout yesterday. Yes, I know some of you are laughing about the irony of living in Africa and being cold. So on my perambulations I saw a woman sitting on the church steps with a bright dress and a matching head wrap. I sat down beside her and asked how the wrap was wrapped. 

It is absolutely amazing to me what these women can do with a length of cloth. Everything!

This lady (sorry I forgot to get her name)  takes off her head wrapping and shows me a triangle. She puts her forehead in the middle of the base of the triangle and folds it to the back into the two ends. She brings those around with a twist at the back and tucks them back into the circle formed around her head. She actually showed me three different ways to wear that wrap. Come to find out the material is a very big square that has been folded into a triangle.

I watched on the airplane trip over from New York, a woman put a young child on her back and wrapped a cloth around her and her baby and then tied the ends together in front. Women carry their babies all the time in these lengths of material. Sometimes they tuck them together (somehow - need to find somebody to show me) and it looks pretty good in front with the baby tucked in the back.

Those big bundles that are carried on women's head -- They wrap a cloth into a circle for cushioning, then balance the load on top of that. I thought they might have a particular hat, but no, it is merely a cloth wrapped up to help with the stability.

This is a lady I met my first Saturday. She took down her heavy bowl, and showed me how she wrapped this second piece of cloth into a circle and then balanced her bowl on top.

Turban head covering with a smaller piece of cloth wound around in a circle

She can carry large amounts of ice and drinks to sell - all balanced on her head.