September 10 ... shearin the lice killer

Last night, I dreamed of tarantulas. I also had this dream where there were girls in our room and they were pouring bugs over our heads. I was half awake and half asleep because it felt so real and I kept thinking, where are the girls and why would they do that? Then I remember telling myself that I have to ask Tarynn if they were really in here. Now that I’m awake and sane, I realize that it was a dream … hehe and I’m very thankful for that.

On to other things… I’m feeling a lot better than I was feeling Sunday. Tarynn and I have been working at the daycare since Monday and it’s growing on us. The ladies in charge don’t speak English at all so it’s a good thing that Ingrid was there with us because her Spanish has been saving our butts. We got there and the kids were watching a movie (it was Stewart Little in Spanish… just in case you were wondering). After that, she told us that we had to give the kids baths. So we were pushed into the bathroom with the three open “showers.” The showers are stalls with pipes in the wall for the water to come through. The boys came in and a lot of them were fussing and telling us they didn’t want shampoo for the piojos because they didn’t have piojos. Piojos = lice. Yes, lice. I know. It makes me nervous too. You learn quickly that you can’t always believe what the kids say to you so we made them use it anyway. We made them jump into the ice cold water (I thought our showers were cold) and then they had to come back to us so we could shampoo their heads. Then they had to let the shampoo sit in their hair for five minutes before they could wash it out. Here we are, in a little flooded bathroom filled with little naked children that are jumping up and down with water everywhere and there is high pitched screaming (their voices haven’t changed yet). People are pushing each other and splashing each other and then they start using the soap for their hair. It’s complete chaos. Then it was the girls’s turn… another time of absolute chaos, but less rough. When all the girls were showering, there was this one girl named Jazmin who did not want to go in with all of her being. She said she was too scared to shower. I can’t blame her… that water was cooooollld and the lice shampoo looked like it burned some of their eyes. She started crying and then another girl started crying because she wanted to wash it off already. So there are a bunch of little girls squealing and jumping and crying and asking how much longer they had for the shampoo. Then the kids put on their dirty clothes to go to devotional. We’re hoping that we can get them to bring another pair of clothes if they have it so we can teach them that they need to wash their clothes.

Now on to the really dirty stuff… after the showers, the kids ask us to look for the little blood suckers. Silly old me thought they were joking (or at least I was hoping they were). Ingrid tells me that they want me to find them and kill them. I, ladies and gentleman, am now an expert lice killer. I’m seriously pro status. Disgusting, right? Haha, I thought so too… especially when I saw the kids’ hair. Some of these girls had lice nests… there were eggs everywhere. After the first day, Tarynn and I freaked out, we started scratching our heads off on the way home because we thought we had lice. I searched Tarynn’s head and another girl at the Hogar searched mine, but there was no sign of lice… YET. They say that we’re going to get it eventually, but we’re trying to stay away from it as long as we can. Now before we go to the Infa, Tarynn and I French braid our hair and put it up as close to our heads as possible because of our fear of lice. The lady at the Infa noticed and laughed at us as she pointed out our hair. She accused us of being scared of piojos and we didn’t deny it for a second. She laughed some more and pointed to her own hair which was in a neat bun and said that she was scared too. I figure that these kids’ parents don’t take the time to take the lice out for them so somebody needs to. I know that even thought it’s extremely disgusting, my mom would search through my head any day that I ask her to. I’m here because I wanted to love these kids… and if that includes picking and killing lice, then that’s what I’m going to do.

Today, September 10 is a holiday in Honduras! It’s Felicidades de Ninos. This is a holiday where kids are celebrated. They play games and have candy and all the other fun stuff they like. We asked Isabella, one of the ladies in charge at the Infa, what we were going to do today. She said that the people from the college might come to bring a cake, but other than that, there wasn’t anything for the kids. Tarynn and I quickly fixed this. We asked if we could go get a piñata. Fernando, one of our favorites, took us to the place where they sold piñatas and candy. Because Fernando was so helpful, we bought him some ice cream. He was excited, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t as excited us. I have a deep deep love for ice cream.

The kids loved the piñata. It was a little hard to maintain anything close to an orderly circle, but we tried. After all the kids had tried to hit the piñata and there was no luck, it was my turn to hit it. I was actually supposed to break the whole thing. All the kids were kneeling on the floor, hands out, ready to be the one with the most candy. Little did they know, I am the weakest person ever. I have no strength at all whatsoever and so I didn’t break the piñata… even without the blind fold. I know, I know. My muscles need some work. Good thing Tarynn stepped in and broke it for me. As soon as it broke, she couldn’t move at all because all of the kids were moving in on her. It was a really cool sight to see and I’m glad we got to experience that with the kids (plus, we didn’t have to struggle to give them baths today so I’m okay with that. =) It’s their day and they don’t have to bathe if they want to. hehe).

I still miss home like crazy, but the days are going by faster here. I’m getting used to the routines and I feel more comfortable with them. My Spanish is getting better and so it’s a little easier to talk to the kids when they talk slow. I haven’t gotten used to the bugs yet, but I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever get used to. I’m pretty much a big baby. Who knows, maybe I’ll toughen up and start befriending the creepy crawlies… but probably not. ;)