Wardrobe: At School

Post by Lara & Kevin, photos by fellow volunteer Mike

8^th December 2012

For the next installment of our “wardrobe” series, I’d like to show you what we typically wear on a school day.  Before we came to Salone, we were told that men wear long pants (called “trousers” here…”pants” are underwear) and women must have their knees and shoulders covered in professional situations.  This usually means a skirt or dress past the knee, but sometimes women will wear long trousers as well [see “Not a Real Blog Post 5” for some information on women wearing trousers].

On a typical weekday, we wear something like the next two photos:

 

That first photo was taken on a Thursday. You can tell because Kevin is wearing a bow tie, which he does every Thursday.  Kevin has befriended a fellow teacher who is also a tailor and is married to another tailor, and that couple now provides him with about one new bow tie each week from whatever leftover fabric they have.  Kevin plans to return to the states with some very interesting Africana bow ties.

Also in the first photo, Lara’s hair is tied with an enkicha [kerchief], which she wears pretty frequently now that she’s decided to grow her hair out.  Women are not required to have their hair covered at work or school, but when they go to church or the mosque, they must have something on their head, so Lara has quite a few enkichas. 

In the second photo you may notice that we are wearing open-toed shoes to work—which is just plain crazy for most Americans. Bear in mind, though, that it’s not uncommon for temperatures to reach 100 degrees in the shade here, and air conditioning is almost non-existent in our lives now (as in, the bank is air conditioned, and some of the supermarkets, and all of those are at least 50 miles of terrible roads from our home). 

You may recall that Kevin’s school is about a mile (maybe more) from our house.  That means that he rides his bicycle to school most days, which means that he gets dressed for school and then rolls one trouser leg up, dons a helmet, and rides off into the sunrise.  When it’s raining, he has to be a bit more creative to avoid showing up to school soaked and covered in mud.  This sometimes means wearing shorts to school and changing once he gets there.

Next “wardrobe” post will focus on dressing up—the fanciest outfits we have and what events we wear them to.  If you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to ask!