Africa Night

Back to life in Iasi. 

While pretty much everyone I know in Iasi is NOT white and NOT from here, pretty much everyone in Romania IS white. And from Romania. In Iasi, a city of 350,000 people, maybe 1,000 are not white. I think I'm being generous with that number. And quite honestly, if you go into the countryside, there are loads of Romanians who have never seen a brown or black person. So in order to raise awareness about not only Africans living in the city but also African culture in general, the recently formed Africa Association held its first big event: Seara Africana. Africa Night. It was a night to celebrate Africa in a variety of ways- dance, music, fashion, food, and culture. Given that I know, oh, say 90% of the English-speaking Africans in the city, I was totally stoked about this. Because it would basically be an extension of my Iasi family in one big cultural evening. 

I thought the night called for an extra measure of African-ness from my not-so-African self. So I tried cornrows. I have to say, I was totally skeptical and really thought it wouldn't look good, but since it would take ONE hour instead of SEVEN (as with the braids). However, they turned out well, looked pretty good, and didn't even make my head hurt (as I had been warned)! The icing on the cake was borrowing some traditional attire from a friend. And shazzam, an honorary African was made of Spangles. Nothing much else to tell about the night that can't be done much easier with pictures. So I will leave you with these 'thoughts': 

                                                                                                

African ladies + Honorary African ladies

Oh my word, there is NOTHING in the American wardrobe that even compares

Fashion show

All dressed up!

Three of my guy friends who go to UMF (the medical school) and their names spell UMF- Uche, Musa, Femi. And they represent the three major tribes in Nigeria. And they live together. And I love them very much