The Piojos that bind us

The other day my head was itching. Assuming it was just dry scalp, I bought some head and shoulders and stopped washing it everyday. However, the itching didnt get better, it only got worse, and worse and worse.

Knowing that there are kids with piojos (lice) in my community, I asked my fellow PC Volunteer, Joanna, to check my head out. She looked, and said, Nope, youre good. You dont have lice. (But then again since we really dont get lice in the US, we really dont know what it looks like either)

So the next day I had my host sister, Mona, look through my hair. When she parted my hair she said, Xuacala! Su cabeza es llena de piojos!! (Shoot, your head is full of lice).

What happened next showed my how much the women in the community care for me. Me being the single, white, female...without a man, and without babies, Im odd in my community to say the least.

Two woman sat me down and searched, and combed and scratched and turned my head raw from all the work. Then my host sister washed my hair twice, scrubbed it even more raw, and combed it over and over and over agian.

Throughout the whole week, anywhere I stopped the women would look through my head over and over again.

Now it might sound gross. Because it kinda is. But when it happened, I saw how much they care and how much I am a part of the community.

My counterpart said it best, he said, Chame, youre no longer a gringa, youre an indian, just like the rest of us.