|  | The "henna's party" Here you can see are my hands, with the henna drawings on them. The family we were visiting organised a big "henna party" for us. It took about 40 minutes each pair of hands... looking at Hassana, the girl who did the painting, while working was kind of mesmerising!!
It was amazing. We were 5 Spanish girls, and we were in a house with a lot of women (mother, 3 daughters, a daughter in law, 2 nieces, one cousin and two friends who joined the party... while the 2 men of the house were working). So, it was kind of harem without any Sultan annoying us :-) The "henna's day", after lunch, they give us "keftans", the traditional women's wear, as gifts. We all wore these, and we all played music, sang and danced, while Hassana started doing her job. The henna is made of dried leaves, triturated with a coffee mill, and mixed with roses' water. She did the draw with a syringe, directly, following her inspiration. She's a real artist! When the painting is finished, you have to put your hands over a recipient with coal and incense until dry (abut 20 minutes). Later, they put some cotton impregnated with roses' water to protect the henna until it dries again and falls apart (overnight). The fun lasted several hours, including eating traditional pastries and other delicacies (not easy when you have your hands covered with cotton!! lots of laughing!!)
One week later, I still have the paintings (now they are orange color) on my hands. Everybody looks at them :-)))
I really feel so fortunate for having the opportunity to live such experience!! |
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