It was bound to happen

So last Thursday, at around 12pm I noticed little white things on the head of one of my students. He's three years old with Downs Syndrome and wasn't too happy when I tried to examine further. I called his teacher over to help and sure enough she told me she found the "utu" (lice.) My own head had been itching for over a week but I thought it was just because I hadn't been prudent in shampooing daily. I ran to my principal bent over and asked her to look through my head. Sure enough she said "Ema, you got 'utu'". Now, I had lice once before in my life when I was 13yrs old. I remember finding them in the morning as I was getting ready for school and then running panic stricken into my parents room. I was crying and yelled for my mom to help me. I wish I could say that at 26 years old I would react with less panic. However, Peace Corps was coming to pick me up in 30 minutes as I was to help out with a training session for the new peace corps trainees. I yelled "fa" to the kids as they got on the bus (I usually take the time to say good-bye to each one individually but not today) I ran upstairs with the lice shampoo we had at the school and quickly washed and tore apart my apartment bundling up my bed sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc. to take to the laundromat. I usually wash my clothes by hand but there was no way I could let the "utu" sit around my house until I got around to doing it. All in all I spent over 40 tala to wash and dry my laundry. I didn't even have enough Tala when I came to pick it up. But Samoa is great and the woman trusted me enought to let me come back the next day with the rest of the money. So Peace Corps gave me my "utu" comb to comb out the rest of the eggs and I'll be shampooing again in a week. My head still itches however, I still feel better that I have the resources to get the special shampoo and do not have do what the Samoans do when they get lice. You often see the girls paired up going through one anothers hair picking the little bugs out and biting them in between their front teeth. At this moment I'm happy to work for a developed nation that can purchase lice shampoo for me.