Out Of Africa

I’m an American living in Africa and tomorrow I’m going to London “for the weekend”! That’s something a year ago I would have never imagined would be part of my vocabulary.
This time last year I was nursing a serious leg injury that kept me from running The Boston Marathon and counting down the days until “Red Sox Opening Day”. The thought of missing opening day and not seeing JV on his 35th birthday “honestly” makes me homesick more then anything right now. Someone please send him my warmest Birthday wishes from Morocco.

Let’s talk about today.
I took the day off - -I still had clients calling me and I was returning e-mails but none the less it was an official day off.
Earlier in the week I had Rachida make an appointment for me at her friends Salon in Tetouan. I was hoping to get a manicure in London but we don’t get in until late Thursday and there would be no time before the show on Friday. I thought what the heck. Maureen has had her hair done there twice. It turned out quite nice and was dirt cheap. 400dh which is about $45 dollars for a cut, highlight and style. You might want to fly over for that deal alone! I know women who travel hours even across states for a good cut ;0) The manicure is scheduled for 11:30. I made plans with Souhaila to meet me at the Marjane and I would follow her there since she was getting a hair cut and knew where this joint was. She was due to call me when she was leaving the office. I hate being late, no new news there. It’s now 11:15 no call so I head out to the meeting point to be on the safe side. She finally arrives and we get there about 12:00. No sign of the women who is dong the nails but I hear a baby crying in the background so I’m guessing she’s a bit busy. Souhaila and 2 other women who work in the salon are chatting away in Arabic. Interesting shop - some Matrix and Biolage products, other lotions and unknown potions too. Signs written in French and some random Egyptian show on the TV. FINALLY at around 12:30-12:45 the girl takes me in. Her name is Hennah – not pronounced how you would think. It means happiness. Luckily she speaks a bit of English. Very sweet, attractive, young girl. I get the scoop…..she’s the owner of the shop and has an 8 month son named Ryan (pronounced that way, wrong spelling) means doorway to the kingdom and her husbands name is Elias meaning prophet. Thank God we cleared that up. She was meticulous in her work and applied enough lotion to my hands for 10 people. Granted I had not had a mani in over 2 months so there was major work to be done on my digits. The baby came into visit us since he was still crying up a storm. I was freezing, zero heat in the room I was in. The nail color selection was minimal at best. I was scared…..she asked if I wanted a French Manicure but I told her maybe next time. Was there going to be a next time was my thought process. We chatted some more she said if I taught her some English she would teach me some French which is 1000x’s easier then Arabic. At this point I had no clue what the time was. I ended up with a very pale pink, which was perfect and we were finished. At this point I had no clue what time of day it was. We walked out and she said 70dh!! I almost fainted less then $10 I gave her a 20dh tip so the whole thing cost me 90dh about $10. I jumped into my car and looked at the clock 2:15. Well I guess I won’t be running there on my lunch break anytime soon. I must admit she did a very nice job and I would definitely go back to her again. A successful adventure!!!! Next time maybe I’ll risk the brows?!?!