Wax, string, sugar and some scissors

Well, yesterday I went to the place to have my hair cut and arms waxed. I normally wouldn't mention the arm thing but in the interest of ...well... interesting things, I decided to go ahead.

My SIL took me to a lady that she has seen in the past, and that she trusted to do a good job with my hair.
It was just down the street a few blocks so we walked there.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was hoping for a/c at least. lol
However, there was no a/c. There were however, flies! And they seemed to love me no end. :D
Anyways, there is one sink for washing hair, and one chair for cutting hair.
It's a bit small, but there was a waiting area with a smallish couch/setee type thing.
I'm assuming the door in the back led to a bathroom and there was a small closet in the front for storing things.

So, I was there to get my hair cut, just a couple inches off the bottom, and my arms waxed and I thought I would also try something they call threading. This isn't widely practiced at all in the States except by people from middle eastern countries. I'd never even seen it done before. However I have heard that it's nice and so I thought I would try it for the little peach fuzz above my upper lip.

First thing that happens is they sit me down in the chair.
A girl comes over and pulls out what looks like a spool of thread, and she was doing something with putting it in her mouth and around her fingers and next thing I know she's coming at my face with this string contraption. lol
Well, I was surprised to say the least. I really wanted to watch but I couldn't see the mirror and I couldn't exactly see the front of my face.
It took just a couple of minutes and didn't hurt at all. I was so pleased. I had heard from people that it hurt, but maybe they just never had that area waxed before. Waxing that area hurts for sure!
Well... the threading was about the only thing I was pleased with. lol

After the threading, they took me over and got my hair wet in the bowl. I didn't want it washed because I'm picky about my shampoo/conditioner and what they smell like.
So she wets my hair down and then puts a towel on me and brings me to the chair again.
At this point, I don't have my glasses on so for the rest of the time there I can't see much except what is right near me.

So, the girl that did the threading had gotten out this piece of dark colored substance that I'm assuming was the wax they were going to use. There is a type of waxing they do here called sugaring, or halawa, in which they boil a combo of sugar and water (and honey?) and get it to a point that it's stretchy and elastic.
They then take that and rub it around on your arms to get the hair off.
I had just assumed that the wax would be spread on like the normal wax is when you go to the salon. They take a wooden stick and get some melted wax on it and spread it on your arm.
But.... I was oh so painfully wrong.
She took this ball of stretchy halawa and started rubbing it up and down and around on my arm. OH MY GOD! The pain! lol
I have had my arms waxed so many times and the pain is only brief and totally no big deal. I could go to sleep getting my arms waxed. But the halawa? Man oh man that hurt. After about 10 or 15 seconds I had her stop because it was so painful.

Well, she stopped and so they were going to do the waxing in the way that I was used to, but they cut my hair first.

Cutting my hair couldn't have taken more than 10 minutes, and basically she just cut it the same length all the way around. Not the greatest cut ever but it did obtain the objective of being a couple inches shorter.

After the cut came the wax. The way that I thought she was going to do it and the way that it was done, were not the same.
lol
I'm used to a pot of wax that is heated on a little mini burner and then the wax is applied, as I stated above, with a wooden stick. You then put on the muslin cloth and rip it off. Sounds more painful than it is. At least in most areas.

What this lady had were tubes that you fit a piece of wax into, and then plug the tube in to heat it up. After it's heated, you roll the tube over the area you want to wax. The problem with these devices is, in order to get the wax rolling out when you first start it, you have to roll it around a bit. And she was doing that on my arm. With dry wax on the tip. Can you say ouch? Again? lol
Well, after she got it rolling, it didn't hurt so much.
However, she wasn't very skilled with the waxing at all and I sincerely doubt that she ever had any training except watching someone else do it.
I've seen it done a million times but that doesn't mean I know enough about it to go and wax someone else. lol
They wanted to know if I wanted my legs done and you never heard anyone say no faster than I managed to get that word out. lol

After she was done with the waxing, she slathered some white greasy cream all over my arms, necessitating a wash of the shirt and light sweater I had on.

All in all, this experience of pain and disappointment cost me 100 pounds.
Now, since I paid for this with money I brought from home (after having my dollars exchanged into pounds), the cost to me was roughly 20 dollars.
And I could never have done what I had done here for the same price in the states.
However, I would have been mad beyond belief if I had worked for that money here in Egypt, and was paying for it with my Egyptian labor.
Ahmed taught me to think of money here in this way:
A dollar in the states can buy you a certain amount. Well, a pound in Egypt can also buy a certain amount. And even though you can buy more in Egypt with a dollar than with a pound, I have to think of pounds as if they were dollars. All things being equal. Like, if I spend 100 pounds here on a haircut and wax, I have to think of it like spending 100 dollars in the states.
Which would be okay in the States, as things are expensive, but the service and performance of what I got yesterday was no way worth 100 pounds.

On top of that, my right arm is bruised to hell because this lady didn't know what she was doing with the wax.

Lesson learned I suppose. Next time I will ask the ex-pats for a recommendation and maybe I will find something, that while it's a little more expensive, will be a lot less painful and a lot better service and product.
*sigh*
:D

Alright, now that we've had more than enough of the subject of hair, shall we move on to pigeons? :D

First up, we have the pan full of pigeons after they've been cleaned and are ready for doing whatever you want to do to them. lol



Next we have a pan full of the pigeons after they've been stuffed. There were 15 total at the end, this picture is short one that was being worked on when I took the picture.



Now we have the mixture that was stuffed into the pigeons. I'm sure I wrote about this the other day. It's a small pasta cooked with onion, pigeons liver and kidney pieces, onion and oil. Probably salt and pepper as well.



After they stuff the pigeon full of the pasta/liver mixture, they stuff the head of the pigeon inside to keep the stuffing from coming out, and then they sew the end shut. After sewing shut, they then tuck in the legs into some part of the skin at the end. I think you can see the final thing a couple pictures above where they are all sitting on the plate stuffed.
In any case, when the last pigeon was being stuffed, there was just the one little head left in the pan. lol
I couldn't help myself and had to take a picture. I guess my sense of humour can be a bit on the strange side at times but it really made me giggle.



After all of the pigeons are stuffed, they go into this ginormous pot full of broth with onion and cardamom pods and they also add something like a gum. not gum that you chew, but well... I don't know how to explain it. It's golden in color and like a little nugget that is kind of see through.



After boiling, they are fried, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that.
Here is the end result, pigeon in a pot. lol



Maybe someday I'll try pigeon, but it just wasn't going to be after I watched them being stuffed and their heads put inside. lol
My SIL was eating hers and she sits across from me at the dinner table, and while eating, she took the heads out from the inside and set them down next to her plate. So I'm eating and there's this pigeon head just staring at me. :D
Life is rarely dull here, in many senses.


Did I mention that hubby bought me a mosquito net for the bed?
I was so surprised, I didn't know he had been looking for them and then he came home with one on Wednesday night! It works wonderfully and I have had two very nice nights with no worries about being bitten and needing to wear too many clothes in a hot humid room.
I took a picture but it's not ready to post, so I'll post that tomorrow or soon.

Hubby is back from Friday prayers. Not sure what we will do today except I'm still thinking to make some goodies. I think maybe snickerdoodles since they are fairly easy to make. We shall see.
A little taste of home would be quite nice.
:D