We Found the Black Town

So we decided to take a trip to El Yunque National Forest a couple of weeks ago and took the scenic route along the beach. It took forever, but was a nice drive. On our way to El Yunque we went through a small town call Loíza. For a split second I could swear we were in Jamaica. Everyone was Black! LOL. I got kind of a kick out of it. Finally Puerto Ricans that looked like us! I don’t remember seeing any non-Black PRicans and this was a first. What does it matter you say? Nothing much I suppose. We are still American and they are still PRicans, but as a Black American I can’t help but get excited to see people that look like me in another country, especially when mostly everyone we see on a regular basis looks more White than Black.

One of the reasons we wanted to leave the US was so A & E could experience life not being a minority, but the same thing we were running from is the same thing we have run into here in PR. There is a visual class divide. PRicans with good jobs, nice homes, kids in private school, and dark skin are few and far between. Already A had to brush away a girl on the playground that kept playing with her hair. Clearly she had not seen kinky-curly hair up close before. Oh well, time to dust off Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children by Sandra Pinkney. “I am Black, I am Unique!”

Busy as a Bee

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 

I was really productive while the girls were napping the other day.  I actually started cooking dinner at 2:30pm.  Chicken in the oven. Check.  Rice and water in the pot. Check.  Broccoli cut up and in the steamer ready to go. Check.  When the “real” time to cook dinner rolled around all I had to do was turn everything on - you have to watch the rice though, because it was soaking it doesn’t take nearly as long to cook - something that I can do while breastfeeding (ah, the art of multitasking).  I think I just found a new system.  I also managed to wash 3 loads of laundry, sweep upstairs and do the dishes.  This, of course, was only possible because BOTH girls took their nap at the same time.  

***edited to add***

The take away is this - You have to do things when you can, not always when you want to.

More Hair Stuff

I continue to refine my technique for maintaining A’s hair. The tightly curly method isn’t very practical for a toddler – at least the curl defining part. I was leaving her hair in double strand twist instead of trying to define each curl and that lasted much better through the first nap. I was also able to cornroll her hair with beads in the week leading up to the move. It lasted a week which was great, but the process of putting them in and taking them out took a couple of days.


Right now since she is doing so much swimming I am doing 3 ponytails, two in the front and one in the back. In the morning I spray her hair with water, put in conditioner and kinky curly and finger comb it. The parts are the same from the day before and I’ve decided I don’t care if her parts aren’t perfect these days. At night I take out the ponytail and make a braid then twist it into a sort of bandu knot. I have started not to braid her hair all the way to the ends and found that it’s easier to take out in the morning.

If she is doing some serious swimming then I just braid up her ponytail and make it into a bandu knot to keep her hair from getting tangled. I also did a similar style for myself at the pool the other day.

There isn’t much to report about my hair. I do as little to it as possible. Co-wash and condition every 3 days (when I have the time), I detangle after the shower instead of in it and have been using some homemade hair goop. That’s about it. If I had more time I could experiment with styles, but since E has started pulling my hair out in clumps (not exaggerating) my go to style is a pony tail.