My China Bumps!

The sisterlocks are growing and I LOVE doing my signature style of putting my hair up in little neat knots-in Togo, I called them Bantu knots, in the US, they are also known as nubian knots and now in Jamaica, I have been told they are called yet another name-China bumps! The name is so interesting to me because I keep asking my friends in Kingston where the name originated and why it is called that and not nubian knots or Bantu knots? I have yet to see a person of Chinese descent wear the style. Apparently, no one knows from where the name comes.

After a fresh retightening, the hair was put up into the China bumps (will use the new name since when in Rome…well, you know the rest). This time around, they were made into smaller bumps because I really wanted to make sure the curls lasted and were fuller. I used nothing but my own hair. I was only going to wear the style for the day and then take them down the next day. When the final bump was done, I took a look in the mirror and was like “Oh, yeah baby, I am going to wear these for at least a week as a style.” Later on that week, I sprayed my hair with water and kept it moving. I work in a very conservative environment but I decided to wear it to work during one day that week (suit and all). THE COMPLIMENTS I RECEIVED!!! Man!

Behold the neatness!

I was like ‘this is beautiful’. Yes, I know I am in Jamaica and many people believe that such a hairstyle at work would be acceptable but keep in mind that my work place is conservative. You can not just show up wearing anything you want even though I am tempted to see how black fishnet stalkings would look like with that one heather grey suit I have…. But let’s reroute to the hair-I had taken the chance and felt so wonderful walking around my work with it. The China bumps were clean, neat, and well done.

From work to play, I rocked that style. It is a great hairstyle for the beach or pool since you can just put on your swimming cap and run out into the water. Even if water gets into your cap, it is not so bad since once the sisterlocks dry up, it is another way of ensuring that your hair will come out nice and crimped. With sisterlocks and China bumps, there is no excuse to not go to the beach or pool anymore. I was so happy when my friends invited me to go to the beach with them. I did not have to do a thing with my hair. I was feeling so brave and cool. I even got back on a horse which is something I had not done since high school. Your best comes out when you have no inhibitions.

Just took my China bumps for a ride with Mr. Horse

After my week of experimenting with the hairstyle, I decided to take it down and see how the sisterlocks would look. I carefully fingercombed them out and fluffed them out for a very sumptuous look. I have had my hair for over a year now and it seems that the fullness factor is finally taking shape. I have always been told that I have very thick hair but I like seeing how the thickness is growing more and more with every several months. I used to be obsessed with my sisterlocks when I first got them and dreamed about having the biggest, thickest, healthiest head of sisterlocks. I guess living in Texas does something to you with wanting everything to be bigger and better. Of course, in order to get this level of volume, I would need smaller China bumps which I wonder how much smaller I can make them without snapping off my sisterlocks? I would love to have a Chaka Khan blow out but with sisterlocks.

I can say that I am extremely happy and am looking forward to wearing more China bumps in the near future. I liked the end result and I love the beginning to that end result. I love the fact that my bumps or knots are internationally known. It does not matter if they are called  ”nubian knots”, “Bantu knots”, or “China bumps”, it is all good because they ALL look good. And when the sisterlocks look good, there is only one word to describe them- FABULOUS! It is so wonderful that such little effort brings such great joy. Makes me want to spend all day looking into other styles, but that would be kind of odd….Well, must go think up of a new hair style and new name but until then, keep it positive!

2 day-old fingercombed China bumps

Cheers,

Adaeze

View outside of my balcony

Hello ALL! After having moved away from New York City and my wonderful consultant Kelli Brown Daniels, a couple  of months ago, I must say that I am not crying as much as I used to earlier. Ha! I am not crying at all! I AM ON A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND! Like, HEL-LO!!! Yes, I am now officially settled into Kingston, Jamaica. I am loving the locals and they are loving me right back…

And the best thing, is that so many people are loc’d here that my head hurts from snapping around to see the loc’d brother or sister who just walked by me with the gorgeous locs. I have seen every type of locs possible-from the big knotty locs of those people coming from the hills-the Rastafarians (nuff respect) to the smallest sisterlocks I have ever seen. The locs run the gamut. And they are all beautiful. I thought that moving to Kingston would lessen my attention to my siserlocks. If anything, the move has increased it. I am constantly in the mirror or my hands are in my hair trying to keep up with the Joneses and the Johnsons here. The locs are looking FABULOUS!!! The feeling about them are so different from what I remember growing up. I grew up around Jamaicans and only one of those families have locs. In fact, the closest Jamaicans to my family talked so eloquently about why locs were not seen as very beautiful and were worn only by those outsiders called Rastafarians.

Kingston outside my window

And in talking to older Jamaicans in Kingston, there was a time when that was true. You could not get a job if you had locs-no matter how small they were at the time. They told me stories of how Jamaicans from “good families” would never get locs or allow anyone in their families to grow them. Well, times are different. Oh, boy are they different. Does not mean that some of these sentiments that the older Jamaicans were talking about do not still linger with in certain families, but from what I see, locs are more appreciated. Kingston, generally, speaking is full of locs. I would have taken pictures of people and their locs but I respect the privacy of all. And I do not hide behind trees or structures trying to take candid pictures of people. That is quite uncouth. I never quite understand why complete strangers come up to me and ask to take pictures of me because of my hair but nonetheless, I still get a kick out of it. I know that bothers people but I can tell you that nothing like that happens in Kingston.

As for me, I am happy with my sisterlocks and will continue to sport them all over this wonderful city. I have found a sisterlocks consultant and she has been doing a great job with my hair. It feels great knowing that I am in good hands even though I left those of Kelli’s. Until next time, people, stay positive and take care!

Cheers,

Adaeze

As I am leaving, I just had to stop in and check in with my oh-so fabuloso consultant and stylist, Kelli Brown Daniels. She loves my sisterlocks and they lover her! That meant the mandatory awesomeness of a trip to Brooklyn, NY to see her. Yes, I WILL commute for this lady! And I do- NYC is only a 3.5 hour commute from Washington, D.C. and every 6 weeks is nothing at all! My hair says it all! Thank you, Kelli!!! I wish I could write more but the movers are here…I do not even have time to write a complete blog about this adventure but I am just letting you all know that life is still good! Until next time, good people!

Cheers,

Adaeze

Soooo happy with the locs!

I have embarked onto a new chapter in my life and it is incredible! I have finally been offered my dream job!!! And I can not tell you how happy I am and how happy my friends and family are for me. It is truly fabulous to know that I have been able to fulfill a longterm goal of mine…there were mishaps and challenges but I finally prevailed! And I did all of it while being beautifully locked…sisterlocked that is for those out there who still do not know. But with the acceptance of the new job, that meant the move to a new city, Washington, D.C. So as soon as I got to D.C., my very close friend, Kompa Lover insisted on taking me out to celebrate. It was indeed a celebration and I am so thankful for her and to her. Of course, we celebrated responsively. I am trying to keep my job, you know.

It feels great to have the dream job, the great family support, the wonderful friendships.. And did I mention, the beautiful hair?

Fried capitaine

Last year, in this very blog, I wrote about making the Senegalese dish, yassa poulet (chicken). You can add different types of meat to your yassa dish but since I only eat chicken and fish, I use these. If you are new to the blog and to the recipes I sometimes put up, you might be appalled that I do not use measurements. Like I say, when anything edible is made with love, it will always taste right. However, if you have been reading for awhile, then you know the deal already. To start off, for the dish I made, you will need the following: capitaine fish, 5 or more large white onions (or yellow or red- and yes, some people really like it oniony), some apple cider vinegar, some dijon mustard, bouillion maggi cubes, 3 large lemons cut in half, 4-7 cloves of garlic (diced nicely), salt, black pepper, green habenera peppers, oil and carmelized shallots (optional). The first thing you want to do is make the marinade which you will need to put the fish in and cook with after you have fried the fish in oil. The marinade is basically adding in all of the ingredients I wrote about above in a big bowl. Make sure to squeeze as much juice out as possible from the lemons. Do not worry if at first, it seems like the amount of onions is overwhelming and you do not see any liquid marinade. Once the marinade is in the fridge for several hours, the onions will naturally release their water and the mix of ingredients will have more liquid. (Just to let you know, I left my fish to marinade over night.) I took out the fish, put back the marinade in the fridge and fried the fish. Once fried, I placed it aside resisting every temptation to nibble on it. The aroma was delightful.

Marinade slowly brewing and becoming a stew

As I fought with myself to not eat the fried capitaine, I took out the marinade from the fridge and poured it into the pan in which I had fried the capitaine. The oil left over from the fish will add another layer of flavor to the dish. At this point, you should taste the stew to make sure it is salted and peppered to your liking. Since I like my dishes very spicy, I added the habenera peppers now after having finely chopped them. These peppers are very potent. You do not want to cut them and touch your eyes. I made that mistake once and I will never do it again. When the peppers make you start coughing, you know that you have some high quality items on your hand.

Capitaine and marinade

Let the marinade stew for at least 45 minutes before re-introducing its fishy friend, capitaine back into its mix. I like doing this because this allows the fried capitaine to absorb even more of the marinade as it is stewing. Do not bring it to a boil since you want the maximum amount of absorption to take place. Just step aside and let the fish mix in nicely with the marinade. Every so often, you can pour some of the stewing marinade onto the capitaine as it simmers. At this point, you want to start cooking your rice so that it will be ready to eat all together. 

When you are satisfied that the capitaine has taken all that it can handle with the marinade, remove the fish and place it over the rice. For my meal, I could not find any Tilda basmati rice (which is my favorite rice) so I went with Uncle Ben’s rice. Either way, you will like it. Bon appetit!

Yassa Poisson

Cheers,

Adaeze

When Jero is not singing he is a computer engineer working in Tokyo. Truly fascinating individual. I love enka and one of my other favorite enka singers is named Itsuki Hiroshi-Chigiri. In the following video, the two are featured singing a beautiful ballad. I get chills listening to this song every time. Enka is enough to make me want to learn Japanese. Well, enjoy for yourself!

Cheers,

Adaeze

Apple Store Manhattan

“Did you hear? Apple lost the prototype for the 4th generation I-Phone”. I had to write about this when I found out about it yesterday from people in a store I was at in Manhattan. This is huge! I could not believe it since it happened so recently but it is truly fascinating. I am a huge lover of Apple media and communications products. Even though I have a Dell laptop, I have always admired the other products which Apple makes. So, when I heard about how, Gary Powell, a young engineer at Apple lost the fourth generation I-phone prototype, I was most intrigued and worried about his future with the company. It seems that in celebrating his birthday (he had turned 27) at a bar in Silicon Valley (California) and while testing the new phone, he accidently left the prototype behind. First, of all, Mr. Powell’s two bestfriends during this escapade should have left him alone. Shame on you, Ms Pauls and Jack Daniels. Second of all, he was testing out the prototype in the field. Maybe the bar where you might be slightly inebriated should not have been the “test field” but hey, it is life. Give the guy a break! Mr. Powell is 27, AND an engineer, AND at Apple. Enough said. I am sure there are people bowing down to him and telling him all day to “take me to your leader”.

Still thinking about going in

The interesting thing is that I had just passed by the Apple store in Manhattan this past weekend to see if I could get a picture of the I-pad and had thought about what would happen if the newest version of any of their products were to be leaked to a rival company. James Bond can make a film out of this one. Apple is known the world around and in the electronics and communications industry, its security measures are legendary. New technological applications are things to kill for these days. You should have known. I am sure Steve Jobs, one of the founding fathers and head of Apple must have felt a little antsy when he received the news as to what had happened. However, since he is a gentleman, he did the gentlemanly thing and called to have the I-Phone returned. I love this man. But seeing how the associated press has not caught on to this story or maybe they have been warned by the feared and notorious Apple police to not do so, it does not seem like alot of people outside the industry know what transpired. Even with all of this, I would still like to be in Mr. Powell’s shoes. Who would not? I do hope that the next time (if there is a next time) that he puts discretion at a premium. But for the moment, I am sure that Jaime Fox’s song is an excuse that he wished he never had.

Cheers,

Adaeze

Me and my fabulous friend/stylist, Kelli

I LOVE my friend who just happens to be my stylist! Mrs. Kelli Brown Daniels is a certified Sisterlocks consultant who owns her own Sisterlocks salon in Brooklyn. She organized a Sisterlocks Meet-Up event last week. And she picked a soul food restaurant to premier the meet-up. I was beside myself with elation when she had first sent out the invites through Facebook. But of course she told me in person since I am just that special, thank you very much. I arrived at her salon early to see her re-tightening another happy client’s Sisterlocks. They were so cute and so small…All of Kelli’s clients have some beautifully made Sisterlocks. Kelli did not install mine but she has maintained them, along with Wariesi, her assistant. And when I say that these are the only two women who will touch my hair while I am in New York City, these are the only two women who will touch my hair while I am in New York City!!! Just had to reaffirm it and make sure it was loud and clear. Kelli loves her Sisterlocks and she is always styling them to perfection. Right before we left for the restaurant, she had put them in a roller set and sat under the dryer for 20 minutes. The look was so chic and sexy. When my hair grows out a little bit longer, I will copy that style. If I did that style now with my Sisterlocks, I would resemble a chia-pet. Not cool. Ever. For my look, I had Bantu-knotted my hair the day before. The next day, I had taken them down, separated them into six parts, flat twisted each part and fluffed out the back of the hair.

Homemade buffalo wings fast disappearing

Kelli chose for us to have the dinner at the Supper Hill Restaurant, a soul food venue in Brooklyn. We were the first to arrive which makes sense since she was the host. There is nothing worse than to arrive somewhere and the host/hostess is not there to receive his/her guests. I, immediately liked the view and chose to sit next to the huge window overlooking the street and where we could see the other Sisterlocks wearers arriving for the shin-dig. Six women arrived and we let the good times roll! The buffalo wings and shrimp cocktail appetizers came and went. The drinks were flowing and the conversation was non-stop. The laughing spread like wild fire until it engulfed the whole restaurant. The way we acted, you would have thought that it was our own private restaurant and party. We were loud, lively, and loc’d! You could not tell us anything. Surprisingly, no one did. I am sure you could have heard us several blocks down but that was just how much fun we were having being together. And that was before our entrees arrived. I had ordered fried chicken, with french fries, and steamed broccoli. Had to add in that green somewhere seeing how everything else was fried. Anyone on a diet should never enter a soul food restaurant. But they do. And I do not blame them.

My heartclogging and wonderful meal

I know that people in my life who do not have Sisterlocks equate it to a wanna-be sorority or in a more insidious nature, a mini-cult, in that all the members are passionate about their hair and try to recruit others. I remember when I half-joked about Sisterlocks wearers being a cult with my friends before becoming one. I can honestly say that it is neither (and not because I have been brainwashed but because I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, which allows me to know what a great sorority looks like) but because, I see the acceptance for all types of hair from Sisterlocks wearers. Also, I am not stopping women in the streets with pamphlets and telling them about Sisterlocks. They are stopping me and asking the questions. It happens multiple times on a daily basis. I do not need to recruit because I have accepted the fact that people are going to do what they want to do as they see fit for themselves. It is their perogative. Yes, we do question why Black women perm their hair or chemically alter it but for the most part, we accept our sisters for who they are. Kelli would never turn someone away from attending the meet-ups if they did not have Sisterlocks. And to do so would be in direct conflict with who she is as a person. None of us would. Now, if you are interested in Sisterlocks, hanging out with crazy random women who happen to have Sisterlocks or are thinking about getting them, or are interested in knowing more about natural hair, then you should really contact Kelli at her salon’s number, 1 (917) 291-1162. I am always amazed at how much she knows about natural hair in general- well, then again, she is forever attending someone’s conference on natural hair. That is the best thing, when you think about it- to have a stylist who is so knowledgeable that it hurts and who does not mind sharing the info. As we have more NYC Sisterlocks Meet-Ups, others will come to the same conclusion. I am looking forward to the next one!

Cheers,

Adaeze

New Yorkers going to see Madame Butterfly

As you probably can guess from previous blog entries, I love the arts. Opera. Ballet. Musicals. Film Festivals. Yesterday, was the last showing of one of my favorite operas, Madama Butterfly or commonly known as Madame Butterfly. This version which probably is the version that everyone knows moreso than others is by Giacomo Puccini. As usual, I was so excited for the day-there is just something about leaving your house on a Sunday afternoon to join fellow New Yorkers on the streets. I could not wait to get down to the Lincoln center and specifically the David Koch theatre where the opera was showing. The day was beautiful and it was so nice knowing I had my ticket before I arrived to the building. And as I saw the crowds of people gathered outside and inside the theatre, I was even more elated that I had purchased my ticket in advance.

My seat was was way up high...excuse the gentleman's bald head but I wish I was in his seat

Once inside the theatre, I loved the decor and could not help noticing that the acoustics were going to be out of this world seeing how I could hear several conversations from people three tiers below me. I felt like a spy since all I had to do was concentrate on their lips and for some reason, I was able to hear what they were talking about. And juicy conversations, too! I really hope that lady does not find her husband in bed with his male lover again. What she could do to him might end up on the 6 o’clock news. In attempt to not become anyone’s witness at the trial, I moved on from that conversation and then was pleasantly surprised when I heard the orchestra stringing up. Of course, since we are not allowed to take pictures of the show, I can only say that the opera was AMAZING! The singing- OMG! I loved it! I felt chills through my body when the main character of Madame Butterfly or Madame Pinkerton, as she wanted, hit those extremely high notes. Suzuki, her maid, was another impressive singer who won the adoration of the audience. When the show ended, I exited the theatre and it was still relatively light outside.

The water fountain infront of the theatre

It was nice to see people enjoying the day and enjoying the arts. If you have not seen Madame Butterfly or have never been to the opera, I would encourage you to do so. As someone who loves live performing arts, it is always an enchanting experience to attend one of these events. I was so pleased to see the numerous children who were dotted all over the theatre. The couple next to me had brought their 9 year old daughter and she was so engrossed during the 2 hour and 55 minute opera that she did not make a peep. She even came with her miniature scopes. So cute! And if you are in New York City, definitely check out New York City opera. You will not be disappointed. I know I never am!

Happy after seeing Madame Butterfly

Cheers,

Adaeze