Henna...sort of

Henna is a fashion style in many non-Western countries. Particularly in Africa, henna is used to decorate brides' hands and feet before weddings. Many women get henna just as a status/beauty symbol. Ashley has had henna put on her hands and feet several times in other countries, and so she was excited to have it done here in Morocco.

Our host mother, Mamma Jamilla, one day offered (or strongly suggested) to put henna on Ashley's hands. Here are some photos:


A day or two later, however, we were walking through the Djemma el-Fina, which is the "Mother of all markets" located in Marrakech. Vendors, "salesmen", snake charmers, and faux guides fill the huge courtyard in front of the market area. While we were observing this chaos, the Djemma's overload on the senses, and the bustle of everything going on, a lady came up to Ashley and offered to put henna on her hands. Ashley said (in Arabic), "No thank you, I already have henna." And after a short conversation where the lady insisted Ashley needed more henna, she offered to do a small flower on Ashley's palm for free. This was the result:



This turned out to be a learning experience for us, however, because after this lady finished the "small flower" on Ashley's palm, she said, "You pay me whatever you want. This is just for luck." After we disagreed politely for a bit (because, again, she said that this was 'just for free'), the 'henna-lady' began to get extremely angry and insisted that we pay her something. She said normally this design was 250 dirham (about $32). Of course, she was lying...it would normally be worth 30 dirham, if even that much. But I (Ben) refused to pay (mainly because I didn't feel like getting exploited that day). Eventually, we gave her the 5 dirham we were planning on using for fresh-squeezed orange juice (which is so good on a hot day in Marrakech).

After this exchange, we went home later that night to our host home. We told our host mother about this 'henna-lady', and (get this!) she told us that the 'henna' design on Ashley's palm isn't even henna. It's hair dye! That's right, hair dye. For tourists, henna ladies often use watered down hair dye because it's cheaper and initially looks like henna. We definitely learned a little bit more about being a shrewd guest in another country -- and also about the fact that we need to be overly courteous hosts to foreigners in our country.