Aislinn converts from "nothing" to Islam
Aislinn had been playing today with the receiving blanket I sewed for her when she was a baby (one made from the Imagine patterns inspired by John Lennon.)
At first she had it on as a cape and she was wearing a paper crown with it. I made the mistake of asking her to stand for a picture as she was on all fours: "I'm a HORSE!" She informed me. Dumb mommy.
Soon she was wearing it sort of like a veil, just draped down across her head, but soon I recognized that she had it tied under her chin. "Wow! You look beautiful!" I said. (We live in a community which, for the number of refugees, is actually quite small. We have sizable Somali, Kenyan, Sudanese, Ugandan, Nigerian, Hispanic, and smaller numbers of Middle Eastern and Asian either refugees or immigrants. As you may have guessed, many of these neighbors are Muslim. Tristan has at least two girls in his class who wear traditional head-coverings, but one just has to have her hair covered while the other has to have her only her face showing, her neck, etc covered. Her head-coverings are usually beautifully ornamented.
Anyway, when I told Aislinn she looked beautiful I asked if anyone in her class wore that sort of head-covering. I know she has a Somali boy in her class and a girl who is of unknown background to me. Aislinn said, "No one in my class, but I see people in school who wear them and it's weird."
I told her "It's not weird at all: it's just different than what we're used to." And reminded her how lucky we were to live in a place where we have people from so many parts of the world living all together. When I tucked her in tonight she had her muslim head-covering on, tied neatly under her chin and I just went to check on her two hours later and she's still up there sleeping with it on! How neat is that?!
Before bed, Tristan, constant smart ass that he is, was criticizing her headgear, telling her "it's not right in the back. They don't come down that far...They really only cover the shoulders. Yours isn't right."
That kid! I swear!
At first she had it on as a cape and she was wearing a paper crown with it. I made the mistake of asking her to stand for a picture as she was on all fours: "I'm a HORSE!" She informed me. Dumb mommy.
Soon she was wearing it sort of like a veil, just draped down across her head, but soon I recognized that she had it tied under her chin. "Wow! You look beautiful!" I said. (We live in a community which, for the number of refugees, is actually quite small. We have sizable Somali, Kenyan, Sudanese, Ugandan, Nigerian, Hispanic, and smaller numbers of Middle Eastern and Asian either refugees or immigrants. As you may have guessed, many of these neighbors are Muslim. Tristan has at least two girls in his class who wear traditional head-coverings, but one just has to have her hair covered while the other has to have her only her face showing, her neck, etc covered. Her head-coverings are usually beautifully ornamented.
Anyway, when I told Aislinn she looked beautiful I asked if anyone in her class wore that sort of head-covering. I know she has a Somali boy in her class and a girl who is of unknown background to me. Aislinn said, "No one in my class, but I see people in school who wear them and it's weird."
I told her "It's not weird at all: it's just different than what we're used to." And reminded her how lucky we were to live in a place where we have people from so many parts of the world living all together. When I tucked her in tonight she had her muslim head-covering on, tied neatly under her chin and I just went to check on her two hours later and she's still up there sleeping with it on! How neat is that?!
Before bed, Tristan, constant smart ass that he is, was criticizing her headgear, telling her "it's not right in the back. They don't come down that far...They really only cover the shoulders. Yours isn't right."
That kid! I swear!