Ew, Lice!

Lice are extremely common here, and without making a constant effort not to get them, you are pretty much doomed. All the children sit around picking through each other's hair to find the little suckers. The people here all wear little pick combs in their hair, which aid in the constant de-licing process. While I thought the picking of the hair was for the purpose of de-licing, I realized otherwise today.

While trying to prepare my class for their Science test tomorrow, I saw one girl picking lice out of another girl's hair (normal). What I had not seen before is that the girl who was getting "de-liced" then picked up the lice, put it in her mouth, chewed it and spit it out. I really try to be culturally sensitive, but there was no way my face was hiding a look of disgust. After, a 3rd girl picked up a few lice, and brought them over to me trying to put them in my hair. I grabbed her quickly, wanting to keep my lice-free hair as it is. Assuming the girl was just trying to agitate me (she is a constant trouble maker), I didn't think much of it until I saw the girls putting lice in a boys hair. They then explained they want to keep lice in their hair to continue entertaining themselves with the process of picking them out- and that when they pick them out they like to crush them with their fingers, or in their mouth. My class can be great at times: kind, funny, and smart; but I would not say this is one of their best qualities, as I will continue to keep my head nowhere near theirs.