Baby slings? No, baby wraps is more like it!

So in Ghana, women carry their babies on their backs. I showed a picture earlier of a little girl carrying a baby. This is my friend Kwesi. We just love this guy. He's sharp, works hard, and single for all those ladies. Anyway, I asked Kwesi to show me how to wrap Spencer. Spencer just loved this, however he just loves Kwesi so he thought it was fun. When I do it, he gets annoyed. So it's called an akataso, or a second cloth. Most women use a cloth that matches their dress. It's a 2 yard piece. When I tried to put Spencer on, it didn't go to well.

Kwesi was able to master it though.

I decided to aske my neighbor who is a woman to show me. Kwesi has only learned by watching, but obviously he doesn't carry babies. My neighbor is so cute. I have no idea what her name is. I think they call her sister Salata? She doesn't speak very good English, Twi, Gaa. She's not from here. Oh well, we're able to communicate by eye contact.

So first, you have to lean over and put your baby on your back. You can keep the baby steady by placing one of their hands under your armpit. Now, you use your free hand to do the top roll. You wrap one side of cloth over your chest, then take the other side and wrap over that (like a wrap skirt) and then you roll the two cloths down or fold it down so that it holds in place.
Then you have to bounce the baby a little to get the cloth underneath his bum. Then you have to take the cloth and bring it over the legs. Now take the two bottom sides of the cloth and bring them together like she has in the picture and you are going to twist them so that it is tight.
(This was a better view of what's happening next on my friend Ana.) After you twist the two ends twice, you then tuck each end under the cloth that is wrapped around your body. You don't tie it in a knot because it doesn't hold as well.
After having 3 different people show me how to do it and each one giving different techniques, I took advise from each one and came up with my own way of doing it. Now, I'm able to carry my baby on my back and let me tell you ladies it really is so much easier to carry them that way because your arms are free and you don't have something blocking your front view!
If this is confusing to you, I can show you how to do it when i get home.