We've got something in common

After I took this photo (on the edges of a market in Huarez), I noticed that the child's head appeared to be covered with nits--lice eggs. While walking through the market, I saw a teenage girl picking through an old woman's hair. The woman smiled at me, toothlessly. From the windows of taxis in Quito, I saw adults picking through the hair of children. From the windows of the bus driving through Peru, I saw teenage girls picking through the hair of each other. I assume that they were getting rid of bugs.

These impressions of lice registered strongly to me because my son had lice this fall. I was pretty upset and horrified by the whole thing, seeing the bugs crawling on his scalp, trying to tell myself that they weren't lice, that they were fleas from the dog at his father's house, barely able to tell what was a nit or egg and what was dust. It took two rounds of lice shampoo, massive sterilization of everything, and bagging of all pillows and stuffed animals for two weeks to get rid of the nasty beasties. All the while, I kept feeling my own scalp tingle and itch. Paul and I used the lice killing shampoo and combed through each other's hair as well. Chalk it up to prevention or paranoia.

The real work of getting rid of lice is the daily combing. For at least two weeks (the life cycle of the nasty thing), one has to comb through the hair thoroughly, looking for and removing any nits. It can take up to an hour. My son has thick, long hair, so this was a long process, and one that filled me with anxiety and repulsion.

But, there is also something intimate about combing through another's hair looking for bugs--no wonder chimps do it all the time--mutual grooming behavior. When I focus on the filth--which is factually wrong: according to a Harvard School of Public Health report, lice prefer clean scalps--and presume immediately that the appropriate poisons and insecticides must be distributed free of charge to all who want or need them, I occlude the opportunity for closeness and intimacy that lice removal opens up. I'm reminded of an interesting article I once read on water in a refugee camp. Good-intentioned NGO workers assumed that the biggest issue in the camp was running water, so they worked hard to get it. Afterwards, people complained: regular meetings at the well were the prinary opportunities those in the camp had for sharing information. 

Comments

[Bob Allen]

ah yes, the Joys of Parenthood 101...

[Deb]

The thing to remember is that lice attack all social economic background.
No one likes to talk about it but it is very common especially for schol children who pass it around.