Jabi

Many times for weddings and other special events the Malian women get really dressed up.  One part of getting all fancied up is to get Jabi on your hands and feet.  Jabi is kind of like henna.  Well, I didn’t really have much to get all dressed up for, but I thought ringing in the New Year counted as a special time, so I spent most of New Years Eve day getting Jabi done to my feet.  Here how it went:

 She’s placing the tape – this took the most time.  I think it was 1 1/2 hours each foot!!

Next she placed the mud/leaf mixture that would dye everywhere there wasn’t tape.

All mudded up!

Then my feet were wrapped in plastic bags with a sock over top to keep it all together.  I wasn’t suppose to walk so I took a nap and then read.  Often times the women do this right before they go to bed and sleep all night with the bags on their feet.

After 3-4 hours she pulled the plastic bags off and scrapped the mud and tape off.  (a tiny bit painful)

Here it is without the mud or tape.  Now to make it dark…

This next mixture smelled like ammonia. I’m not exactly sure what it was but I was suppose to leave it on until my feet started to tingle.

Finished product!! (This lasted about a month.)

Enjoy!!