Hair Cut

Maggie got her head shaved yesterday. Not because it is fashionable (although the majority of young girls in Uganda have shaved heads), but because she has a severe fungal infection all over her scalp. I took her to a clinic on Thursday and the attendant took one look at her and said she had an infection and that the medicine was going to cost close to $40. I said I would get a second opinion and left. Took her to the school clinic Friday and the nurse was very kind, told me exactly what she had, what to do about it and gave me an ointment and oral tablet she has to take for 30 days. It didn’t cost me a dime. In order for the ointment to work, she needed to get a hair cut. Off to the barber shop!

We walked up the hill from the school, Perez carrying Maggie on his back the whole way. We reached the top of the hill, called for boda boda’s and off we went. I didn’t think about it until we were already en route to the barber shop, but I had a fleeting thought of, what did I just do? I just popped my kids on the back of a motorcycle with no helmets, a complete stranger at the wheel and I shouted to my 9 year old saying, “You hold Maggie on OK?” while I hopped on a separate motorcycle. Like I said earlier, it was a fleeting thought, but it entered my mind nonetheless. I laughed about the adventure and, of course, repeated the same thing on the way home.

Found the barber shop and Maggie plopped down in the chair. The only issue was, getting your head shaved when you have hundreds of blister type sores on it can be very painful. The stylist did a great job cutting, but when it came to the end and he applied the soothing oil, it wasn’t so soothing. Maggie cringed up and her eyes filled with tears. I asked him if he could wipe it off and he did the best he could, but the damage was already done. She got over it quickly, but I felt really bad for her.

On the way back we stopped at the market, got a pineapple and some bananas and started walking back home. On the road down to the school we ran into the Ugandan version of the ice cream man. A happy older man was pushing a bike with garbage bags tied to the side and a large white bucket on the seat. In San Diego, you might think “that’s no ice cream man” if you know what I’m saying. Kids (and even adults) were gathering around him as he scooped out what looked like rainbow sherbet and placed it on cones. How can you resist rainbow sherbet on a hot day! I bought some for the kids and we continued on with smiles on our faces. Total cost for two scoops of sherbet on two cones? 1,500 shillings. About 50 cents. Now that’s the kind of prices I rave about!

It was a good afternoon for Perez and Maggie. They got to spend a little time together away from all the activity and other kids at the school. We are planning a few more outings like this, one of them may even involve swimming at the pool at a local hotel! Gotta find a suit for Maggie somewhere and then we will take the plunge!

From Uganda with Love,

Ali