per your requests . . . :-P

OH LOOK. It's a picture of my AWESOME hair. :-P Whew. This isn't the lady who actually did it, but she was one of the ladies who I hosted at dinner that night. They have been hair braiders for 15+ years, working in a little pavilion where all the tourists can walk right by and see them. I ended up being really glad I had gotten it done . . . I had a headache for two solid days, but it was fun getting to hang out with Margaret on her turf instead of mine, asking her questions about her family, seeing how the women interacted, and so forth. When I got there, she introduced me to several people as "her friend from the ship" . . . many of the women there had made friends on the ship - as the crewmembers' hair could attest to. :-P Let's just say that it looked better on some than on others . . . I had at least six different people look at me and then just burst into hysterical laughter. I liked that the most, because I felt like it was genuine (because it was exactly how I felt about it). Anyway. Enough jabbering about a silly hair style. :-D

And there was light . . .

So, the Bahamas were wonderful . . . the people were super friendly and I loved getting a taste of the city as it really is, not just through the eyes of a typical tourist. I had one awesome day of exploration and several awesome conversations with people who came on the boat. Often I was quite confident that I got way more out of it than they did. Which just makes me wonder again, "God, why did you really send me here?" :-)

Tonight is our second night sailing. Since we obviously don't have work in the book fair, tomorrow I will be working as an Angel (cleaning staff), which means I have to get up SUPER early and I don't have much time, but I wanted to tell this first. :-)

For some reason I went outside tonight - I don't remember making that decision, but somehow I ended up outside by myself. All the big lights were off, so the only light was what was shining on the water from the ship's windows. The stars were fabulous, and I saw this one that was so bright and twinkly that it appeared to be changing all different colors. I stood there for a while, musing about how neat it is that the only lights for miles around were us and the stars . . . when suddenly I looked down at the waves we were churning up and . . . are they sparkling? What? Is that light in the water? Am I seeing things?

I ran inside looking for someone to enjoy it with me and the first person I saw was my Korean friend Woo Young. I said, "Woo Young! Come see!!!" and he said, "What, glowing plankton?"

GLOWING PLANKTON. I think I might have heard of such a thing sometime in the past, but that's totally different from the feeling you get when you suddenly realize that the waves are producing their own light. The flying fish are fun. The huge sea turtle I saw last time was exciting (and I hope we didn't run over it and kill it). :-P But glowing plankton? Now that's just AWESOME.

Bahamas!

I think on Wednesday I am going to go get my hair braided. Braided. In those tiny cornrows that look so silly on most white people that generally only tourists get them done.

Here's why though.

Today I hosted some local people for supper . . . I was somewhat skeptical about it because it was my first time to do that, and because they kind of invited themselves (slash, very pointedly asked me for an invitation). It ended up being a really nice time and I enjoyed it very much. They told me they had been braiding hair in a booth outside the cruise line terminal for seventeen years, and they told me that I really needed to come and let me braid their hair - as a gift, as a favor, for no charge - as many ways as they could think of to say it. :-) My first reaction was to just laugh it off and not take them up on it - I think it would look ridiculous on me and make me look like a total tourist, plus it hurts!! But eventually (after they had mentioned it multiple times) I decided to go for it.

Bahamas culture is really unusual in that it is such a tourism culture. Every single day, thousands of people arrive in the morning and are gone by the evening. Thousands of others come spend their vacations at all-inclusive resorts, which they never have to leave unless they really want to. Odd as it may be, Bahamian culture is kind of "imported," and this is the way they are accustomed to interacting with people like me.

I think afterward I will feel enthusiastically amused . . . and I'll probably have one heck of a headache. :-)