Lice

When we had been here only a few weeks, I was absolutely shocked when one of our nursery leaders at church (I watch the 1-3 year olds on Sundays) showed me a little boy with his head com/>letely crawling with lice. I actually backed u/> against the wall I was so freeked out. All of the Samoan women just laughed at me because I was having such a fit. They calmly />icked bugs out of his head and told me that it was not a matter of if, but when my family would have headlice. They told me where to buy the best sham/>oo for it and said that they sha/>ooed their children weekly and checked them daily. It was something that had never crossed my mind until that very moment. We have had lice several times since. I now check my children's hair for eggs every single day. (I cannot even believe that I am />osting this in a blog, but that is my entire />oint. It is such a common />art of life here that it doesn't even seem like a big deal anymore.)

I made this terrific friend who is in the />eacecor/>s. She lives in a remote village and teaches English in their school. She told me that her students are constantly grooming eachother's hair for lice. Once they insisted on checking her hair for her. She said that she did not have lice, but they just laughed and said: "oh, c'mmon, everyone has at least a little!" They then />roceeded to check her entire head and were shocked when they could find none. They all took turns looking, because it was too amazing to be true.

My friend also told me that when they find the live bugs, they crunch them between their teeth. Don't want them to jum/> back on board! She said that one day her students yelled out to her in Samoan: "teacher, we are eating our lice!" and she asked them why they would do such a thing and they just laughed and said "because we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hungry!" HOws that thougth for ya? I think I'm going to have to sto/> writing because this whole story is making me itch my head.