The Car Family
Last week we stopped by
the Car’s apartment to give them an article about the oldest son in the family,
Mulbah Car. Mulbah is finishing high school this year and has been one of the
best high school running backs in the United States this year, gaining over
1,600 yards and scoring 33 touchdowns. He has been heavily recruited by major
colleges but has committed to play for University of Houston next season.
Mulbah is a very modest kid and active in the Church. He spends a lot of his
time looking after his younger siblings while his mother is working long hours.
His father is in Liberia and he hasn’t had contact with him for many years.
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| Mulbah Car is one of the best running backs in America. He will play for University of Houston in Fall of 2016 |
The Car’s live in a small
apartment that houses 7 people when you count the mother Oretha, her 5 children
and a family friend named Wilfred who stays there so he can get to work. His
family lives in another part of the city but Wilfred has no transportation to
get to Whataburger where he works. There home also seems to be a gathering
place for many children who live in the same apartment complex where many
Africans live and often look after each other’s children the same as in Africa.
Mulbah wasn’t home but
his mother, Oretha and his sister Blessing were. Oretha can read very little so
Eileen read the article we brought to her. She was beside herself with joy. She
shouted and cried. She couldn’t believe that such an article was talking about
her son. Blessing also shouted and laughed for joy because her name was
mentioned in the article. They both hugged Eileen so tight and we so happy to
have the article which included 3 pictures of Mulbah.
On another day we stopped
by the Car’s apartment. This time only Oretha and Blessing was there and we saw
a most amazing mother/daughter event. Oretha was sitting on the couch and
Blessing was seated in front of her on the floor; her hair braided in tight
rows on her head. It looked very nice I thought.
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| Oretha selects strands of artificial hair to sew in Blessings braided rows |
Then I noticed Oretha had
a large curved needle like an upholstery needle and she was literally sewing
something into Blessing’s hair. It was quite dark in the room as African homes
often are. But in the dim light I could see what looked like long strands of
artificial hair that Oretha was sewing into the rows of braids on Blessing’s
head.
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| Layer by layer, fake hair is sewn into Blessing's tight braids. |
It took a while to see
just how she was doing it. Starting at the back of her head she sewed in a
layer of artificial hair but running the curved needle through the braided rows
on Blessing’s head. As she finished one layer she would start sewing another
layer about an inch up higher toward the crown of Blessing’s head. She repeated
this process several times with each layer of hair covering the previous
layers.
Eventually she had
artificial hair covering Blessings entire head. It looked like real hair and
you could not see where the individual layers had been attached. Oretha combed
and brushed the hair and it looked so real. You would never guess that it was
artificial hair at all. In spite of the poor light I had to try to take
pictures with Eileen’s phone. Blessing was so delighted with the end result.
The rows of braids were completely hidden and it looked just like her natural
hair. Oretha told us this is done commonly among African women who are very
particular about their hair.
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| Blessing shows of her new hair. Looks so natural!! |
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| Little Gloria has braids. But Jaimylynn's curls are sewn on! | | |
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| Folded to the side Jaimylynn's fake curls expose her braided rows. |
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| A better view of how the new curls are attached |
