It's all about the hair!

The girls' hair is a big part of the culture at First Love Kenya. The younger girls each have an older girl assigned who "plates" (braids) their hair and the older girls each have a peer or staff member who does their hair each time. They usually re-braid their hair once a month, so on Saturdays & Sundays there are always multiple girls getting their hair done...

It really is an art form:

During the school term they are not allowed to have any beads, ribbons, colored rubber bands, etc in their hair. So as soon as the term ended (we were there for a week of their beak), they put colorful beads in all the little girl's hair:

They loved playing with the mzungu's "soft" hair....

Several of us got our hair braided by them...

Irene did me & Alea's hair the first time. Then a couple weeks later, she got the whole head (plus some pink extensions) done by Hilda:

....even Joey decided to get in on the action:

 Beryl, who did his hair.:

He left it in for almost 3 weeks! 

Jonas thought he'd try but it proved to painful for him!!

Damarius is the one who did my hair the second time:

She just took her national exam for beauty school while we were there. She has to wait several weeks to get the results, but she hopes to get a job at a salon. She surprised me by using hair ties that are the Kenyan colors (of the flag):

Mom Irene also painted my toes the colors of the flag so I could take some Kenyan pride back home with me!