It was on 25th october 2008, when I had - another God encounter

So, I got a call from my friend Steve. Some of you may recall I blogged about how I was healed from a circulatory problem through this man. Actually I wrote it on my website in 2006. Anyway, he and wife are good friends and God uses Steve in this way often to bring restoration to the body of christ. So this morning,(25/10/08) he was telling me that he sensed there was a problem on my head. I said no, cos he was asking if it was some headache , migraine or similar. I kept saying no. He was quite insistent. Then he said it's the top of your head - across the top of your head. Then it suddenly hit me. The hairloss and sensitive scalp issues I've been believing God for to be resolved! That was what was going on on the top of my head. Well he prayed with me, and broke the whole awful thing off me. And I'm healed - totally. I was overjoyed. I've been standing in faith for quite some time. The week b4, I told God that I know he's heard and answered and I believe he's doing something about it. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it's not his will for me to lose my hair - But that it would be nice if someone confirmed it. Nevertheless, I believe his word, .....Psalm103 - bless the lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits...who forgives all your iniquities and HEALS all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and destruction.... And in Isaiah,'he sent his word and HEALED me' It seems to me that God is restoring everything about me, one step at a time.And then he sent Steve to confirm that indeed he's heard and I've got what I was asking for. Thank you Lord, you are so gracious and kind.
I saved this post when I wrote it, and forgot all about it. Looking through my 'edit posts' I found it and decided to post it to give God all the glory. My hair's doing well and I'm really grateful to Him who is able to make all good things abound to me.

A's wedding.

We attended a friends wedding on sat. We had to fight through 'nightmare' traffic to get there(London). We took over an hour to go about a mile.I don't know how I kept my cool, it was surely by God's grace. Fortunately we still managed to look good on arrival, not dishevelled and disgruntled.I thought we were very late, only to find the neither bride, groom nor bridal party had arrived. We were actually part of the bridal party. Obviously, they were all battling the same traffic. This is the situation here in the UK. We have to put up with narrow roads, bottlenecks,etc. On top of that there are roadworks every corner. Diversions without warning seem to be the norm. This particular road we had to negotiate, is notorious for traffic, and I noticed a large shopping mall has suddenly sprang up smack bang in the middle of it with no provision for extra roads, so lets just say you had 1000 more cars trying to fit onto this dual carriageway with buses in bus lanes and rd works....it was quite interesting.

I must say I so enjoyed the praise and worship at the ceremony. Very refreshing after that drive! I styled Arashia's locs. I pulled the hair up into about 7 flat twists at the back, curled the top. It was lovely. Note the outfit Arashia is wearing? She made it herself. She is a fashion designer, and likes to make evening/formal wear - with a bit of flair. Click on the images to see it better.

Check out my Nigerian outfit and 'gele'(headgear). Even my friend Funmi said I carried it well.This is the 1st time I wore the gele, and I tied it myself.I'm already used to tying headgear the Ghanaian way, but I wanted to try the Nigerian method, as it gives extra sparkle and I think they are just beautiful.

The gold scarf covering was made by my good friend Helen.

wghs dinner dance

A few pics of us going to an old school re-union. It was a dinner-dance held at the Royal National Hotel in Russell square - London. A truly memorable event fundraising for the school. I set my sls on perm rods and soft spikes. My old school, known us Wesley Girls' High school is about 150yrs old, located in the town of cape coast(famous for it's forts and castles and role in the slave trade). It was begun by Methodist missionaries (British)in the 1800s and is probably the best school in Ghana. They've consistently achieved the best exam results since I can remember, and produced some very well rounded individuals including moi! Seriously, old girls have achieved many influential positions, high court judges, doctors, heads of institutions, business women,fashion designers or SAHM home educating like me. I have many fond memories of the place, as it was a boarding school and it became home from home for 5yrs during my teenage yrs. In 2006, we had the privilege of meeting ms Garnet again, the headmistress for over 30yrs. She was the guest of honour at our 'do' and believe it or not, she knew all of us who attended the event and even remembered our names. I guess we were sent to her office enough times for breaking some rule or other. She was always just and fair and allowed you to explain yourself.

Notice the length of Arashia's locs. Hmmm, loc envy is not a good thing. Re tightening is well over due.

1st recipe -waakye and stew

Justlocs,Thandi,Meimeika, this is for you,recipe no 1, Enjoy.....


For the waakye(rice and black-eyed beans)

Take a small bag of black eye peas (beans)-about 300 gm, and add enough water to cover three inches above them. Add a large pinch of baking soda. In Ghana there are special leaves/sticks added to give a distinctive colour and flavour, but here in the west, we don't always have access to it, so baking soda does the trick. Boil until the beans are soft to the touch (not mushy, but soft). The water becomes a burgundy colour. Add about a teaspoon of salt then add enough rice about 400gm so it's 1 1/4 in under the water. Mix. Reduce heat to medium/low and cover for about 30 min, or until rice is finished cooking. You can cheat and use canned black-eye peas, as I have done before, but results are not the same. My personal trick is to add 2tbs of dark soy sauce and 1bs sesame oil for flavour and intensify the colour whilst rice/bean mixture is cooking but it's entirely optional.

For the Stew: You will need:1 tbs tomato paste(optional), 1 large onion sliced. 2 cans 435gm tomatoes, blended or chopped, 1 large stock (boulion)beef/chicken /vegetable cube, 1/2 finger ginger peeled and diced, 2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced, 1/4 tsp. Red chilli pepper, black pepper,salt/season all to taste., 1/4 cup vegetable oil. 1/2tsp Curry powder (optional). 1lb cubed meat (You can use chicken or fish).

If you are using meat....

(you can see the stew simmering away)

In a pan add the meat, garlic, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of salt or season all, and enough water to cover all the meat. Stir all ingredients together and allow to boil until meat is tender to the bite. When meat is to your liking, fry it in heated vegetable oil , until crisp on the outside, but soft inside. This step is optional as not everyone likes their meat fried. DO NOT POUR THE WATER FROM THE BOILED MEAT AWAY. This will be used as a seasoning for your stew later.

For egg eating vegetarians.......

Boil some eggs and set aside.

In a different pan, add 2 generous tbs oil, and allow it to heat up on medium heat. Add onions and allow to fry for about 10 minutes. This will remove the water from the onions. Add the tomatoes and allow it to fry as well. Stir often, as you don't want the bottom to burn. Add the tomato paste. Mix into the onion/tomato mixture add some garlic, a little fresh chopped ginger and add about 1/2 cup of water(use water from the boiled meat if using meat.) add about 1/2 of the stock cube, 1/4 teaspoon of curry, and a little bit of the chilli pepper. Mix until it's dissolved. taste and add more pepper/seasoning if needed. Allow this to simmer until thickened, and there is a film of oil on top. Turn off the heat, peel and add boiled eggs.

Meat eaters........

Add the meat and most of the meat stock (from boiling)to the stew and stir so that meat is buried in stew. MAKE SURE YOU STIR FREQUENTLY. Allow to simmer until thickened and there's a film of oil . Keep stirring and add more water from the boiled meat if needed. Add seasoning to taste. It will be done, when it's thick with a browny-red colour.
This is usually accompanied on the side by SHITO sauce, which is a hot pepper sauce made from chillies and smoked dried shrimps and fish. You may be able to purchase it in a Ghanaian shop, but I do without it sometimes and it's just as tasty.

Don't put stuff on your locs!!!

So I thought I was being smart and decided to put a lil' gel ...u know the type white folks put in their hair to harden and mould it?..yeah that type, on the ends of 5 locs to hold them together. Instead of holding together, they all totally unravelled. But u can see from the previous post that my consultant fixed them. I was quite embarrased to tell her how those locs came apart, seeing that I know better. Anyway, I thought I'd tell you sisterlocking/microlocking folks this:
Just don't put stuff on your locs!!! You could cause them to unravel. (A little mist of a few drops of eo and the tiniest amount of oil is probably fine.) This will also apply to anyone who has micro-locs, but not necessarily traditional locs. In my experience, it's much easier to unintentionally, undo tiny baby/teenage locs than bigger ones. So be warned.

art journals/5th retightening

A group of us have started another round of art journals. In the 1st we picked a colour or season for a theme. This time we picked an emotion/feeling. Mine's FAITH. Actually, mine's neither emotion nor feeling, faith is a spiritual choice. Still....Each woman gets a book/sketch bk. You decorate the cover and do a few pgs of your journal. It can be drawing /painting/stitching/glueing/embroidery,whatever you want to do. You then pass it on to the next woman who will do some art- in your theme- in your bk. You do the same with the bk that another woman will send to you and so on. This is 1 of 2 I did in Seiwa's journal.(click on it to see it close-up).They're wax paintings. I'll put up a better pics tomorrow.

AND.....

I got my hair did! It only took 2 1/2hrs so it was well worth it. My loctitian's now working from home again so no more nightmare parking. She gave me a voucher to park.Also she says I can use sls moisturising spray, nappylocs dew spray or similar. I might just make me own. Check out my locs.

Loc jewelry

My 1st attempt at making earrings. I decided to learn to make jewelry. Actually, I want to make loc jewelry - with matching earrings. I watched a couple of youtube vids and decided to get some tools and dive in. So I've made 3 loc-rings, Arashia's wearing one. These 2 , I made to fit Anne's locs. My friend's setting up a workshop with a pro so I can learn properly. Hopefully I'll be able to make some for sisterlock wearers to be tried on my locs when they are more settled. I was inspired by these ladies on 'luvinlocs' knappysoul and 'pinky2D4'(youtube)making beautiful loc-jewelry