Henna Bootcamp!

CIEE offers non-credit courses (basically extracurricular activities) designed to engage us with Indian culture. This semester, we could choose to learn Katak (a type of classical dance), sitar (crazy string instrument), or tabla (really cool little congo-like drums). A few of us had the idea to create a new non-credit course in "Indian arts and crafts"-- like henna, embroidery, tie and die, ink art, etc.  I have really loved all of the craftsmanship in markets and the art around the house. Art has always somehow been part of my life, and one of my favorite activities outside of school. The CIEE directors really listened to our request, but they were not able to immediately find an instructor with that multiplicity of skills.  So, the idea was modified to simply henna lessons, which is totally fair considering that this is an impromptu course.

The instructor is a local women who does henna professionally, and she is SO talented. She showed us photos of some henna that she has done for weddings, and it left us all speechless! Which is really fine, because it turns out she speaks basically no English. This language barrier means that we must communicate through art... she draws and we copy! When she does try to communicate verbally, it is usually in simple phrases that come off harsher than intended. As we work, we show her our papers to be sure we are on the right track, and if there is a mistake, she flatly says "not fine." Turns out, you need some thick skin to learn henna!! But, we all have a great sense of humor; my friend Jess and I started to joke that we were in henna boot-camp. The analogy is too perfect, and the image had us both cracking up. Obviously, the laughing was messing up our drawings, which brought angry broken English from the henna sergeant, which made us laugh even more!

Between jokes, we are actually learning a lot. It started off really basic-- six kinds of flowers and shading techniques. But, with just two hours of instruction a week, we are already learning all sorts of designs and have graduated from pen and paper to henna and hand! My two homestay-mates were brave enough to be guinea pigs, as I tried my first real Arabic-style, partial-hand henna design. I am really proud of how it turned out, and (despite their expression in this picture) they are happy with their temporary-tats, too! We have a joke going around the house that I am going to drop out of school and make big bucks doing henna in the US... I'll just sit with the street musicians outside of B&N in Bethesda wearing my Indian garb and charge $20 a flower. Its really a pure-profit industry because the henna costs next to nothing here. I will definitely be bringing a lot home with me.. and don't worry, there will be a friends/family discount at my road-side henna shack!