PLAYING WITH HAIR

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While I was in China in early August, I met a woman from Thailand named Ai Ling at a Bible study. We connected deeply as Christian women. When our mutual friend came back from collecting research data in the Chinese city of Xiamen (pronounced sha men), she brought me a chopstick from Ai Ling. The chopstick has an elephant bangle with some beads on it and is meant for holding up long hair. Our mutual friend, Esther, asked if she could come to my room in the Graduate House - that’s the dormitory in which I live - to see how the chopstick could be anchored in my hair. These pictures show the results of her and my collaborative hair styling efforts taken two nights ago. One shows me sitting on my bed. In another, I’m climbing the last set of stairs in the lowest lobby of the Graduate House before taking a lift (elevator) to my room. The pillar is outside a restaurant in the Graduate House, called Joseph’s. The dress I’m wearing is one I had tailor-made in Fuzhou, China in August.

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