I had braced myself for crowds of tense shoppers.
You see, I had braced myself for the description that mirrored how I felt about myself at the time: ugly, fat, unattractive.
When I moved from Australia to Tamale to write about UNICEF's work there, I had braced myself for the unfamiliar – villages of squat mud huts, gritty harmattan winds and the crackled sound of the muezzin's call to prayer.
"I had braces when I was young, but maybe I need them again," I told her.
"I'm sorry, but you didn't recognize me as the Messiah when I had braces and glasses".
I just didn't have the curves that most girls have, until very late, and I have really frizzy hair, and I had braces.
I played Bert the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins when I was 11: the brush was taller than I was, I had braces, short rolled up trousers.
However, I have one filling in my mouth, and I got that only when I had braces as an adult 15 years ago.
"I'm thinking to myself when I'm twelve, thirteen years old, How am I going to be a fuckin' rapper when I have braces and I'm from Romeo?" In a fit of professional anxiety, he tried to pull his braces off with pliers; he succeeded mainly in mangling his teeth.
And the wives at 9 are more focused than the ones at 11. Childhood obstacle: I was born bowlegged, and I had braces to correct it, but they were too tight, and the bones fused incorrectly.
