I had made a promise to myself that on this trip I would avoid any situations requiring me to dress up in 'traditional' outfits but unfortunately due to a funeral in the village I was forced to strap on a khanga and bandage my head (I'll blog properly about the funeral later) for now I'll give you time to giggle at my ridiculous get up.
You can't really see in the piccie but each Khanga has writing around the bottom and ladies choose the fabric according to the message. Obviously my Swahili being very much on the basic side, I just said thank you to my neighbour for loaning me her stuff and strutted off down to the village.
Not surprisingly most Khangas have a religious theme, namely... My heart belongs to Jesus, God is the light etc, also some proverb-type messages... Be true to yourself, I will always be your friend, My heart is pure. It wasn't till I met one of the Village Africa staff with a better knowledge of Swahili than mine that I realised the message on my skirt read 'Fear not - I will not steal your husband' !!
I swear to you that's what it said !! The longer translation involved something about my heart being full already therefore meaning I wasn't looking for love and urgo all men in the village were safe.
Apparently being 36 and single is very suspicious and my neighbour obviously felt the need to help me put the record straight. Talk about a Khanga for every occasion!!
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