I officially got LICE during my month 10. The evil little critters of the Race arrived and became a huge part of our time in Vietnam. So, let me tell share the fun and potentially gross details, because I’m sure you all want to know this stuff…
(I hope you can learn from our mistakes!)
What did you find on your own head the first night?
Well, to be honest, we were naïve and definitely did not realize the lice were the problem right away…and because of that I literally ended up with a colony on my head.
- Overwhelmingly itchy head.
- 20 big bugs picked off my head the first night.
- 20 little bugs picked off my head the first night.
- Tons and tons of eggs.
- Lice Shampoo, lice combs, oil treatment.
What were your initial thoughts?
It’s crazy thinking of how I knew that I had tons and tons of the bugs running around on my scalp, laying eggs, multiplying, but I really only gave into the feelings of “this is disgusting” a few times. I decided to instead make jokes about it to get through it… strangely enough, the jokes have been quite fun and honestly there are so many ridiculous things to throw out when this type of terrible thing is happening the worst on your own head compared to everyone else. I wrote this little comparison:
“Currently, we are experiencing World War III. We’re back in ‘Nam and our troops just returned from a couple of nasty battles. It’s only me and my team of six against an unseen enemy that is growing exponentially by the day. It’s sick. We found the eggs yesterday morning. Yes, that is correct what you heard. “We’ve got eggs.” It’s somewhat of an unfair battle. They are so small. We can’t even see them… and they are attacking at one of my weak spots. I used to just think that it was all in my head. But then I found out – They are all in my head! We attacked, full force combat at the brink of night. They didn’t even know what hit them. First, we stunned them. Then, we teamed up and removed them kicking and screaming. The death count for them totaled over 20 of their big soldiers and over 20 of their little recruits in my head alone. I watched them and gladly counted their dead corpses piling up. Eventually, we had to give our men a break. We stopped attacking an hour later with a follow up nighttime prevention. We have now resorted to chemical warfare…”
What did you learn from this experience?
I realized how thankful I am to be experiencing this.
“Tonight, for Round 2, Gina and Cicely spent close to 2 hours picking eggs out of my hair. I realized during this time of sitting head bent over, listening to worship music, how I felt so incredibly loved.”
This became one of those defining moments on the Race for me. In the middle of a seemingly terrible situation, I got to receive God’s loving blessings through two of my teammates. When this hit me, it made me cry. And that’s what our team time looked like for the month – lice checks, worship music, podcasts. I tried to imagine that we were just having girl’s nights every night.
I also realized that I got a small look and taste of what life is like for so many people on a daily basis. Lice are a real struggle and something that people here have to look out for daily. We always see people on the side of the road doing lice checks. Always. I feel blessed to be able to relate to them in a small way.
It also made me think of the people who are too poor to afford the lice shampoo or the special combs or the tools to help with this in general. Our contact, Amy, was telling me about working with low-income kids who had heads covered with bugs all the time – biting them, and their parents refused to pay for treatment because they couldn’t afford it. They live with this pain everyday and there is nothing they can do about it. At least I can do something about it and I have teammates who love me enough to help.
What are some of the signs of lice?
- You may think you just have dandruff, but be sure to check.
- Itchy scalp. This could mean you just have a dry scalp. (Which is what we thought at the beginning, and led to ignoring the issue.) At the beginning of the month, my head was overwhelmingly itchy, along with a few of my teammates.
- Tiny white dots at the roots of your hair. The difference between lice eggs and dandruff are that eggs stick to your hair. Dandruff will shake off. You have to pick eggs off. When you pull an egg off the hair, it will turn brown and is the shape of a sesame seed (but smaller).
- Lice insects are the size of ants and are very, very fast.
- You should probably do a hard comb-through after visiting orphanages where children have it just to be safe. And yes, we did get it from working at an orphanage for the month.
My advice to Future Racers:
- Bring a metal lice comb with you and some tea tree oil.
- Put tea tree oil on your head when going to orphanages and think about putting your hair up.
- Getting lice is a common problem. If you find yourself at orphanages, NEVER stop loving and hugging on those kids. (Coming back together with the squad, most people kept a bit of a distance from us, which was understandable. It meant a lot, though, when a friend of mine said, “I’m not going to stop hugging kids with lice, so why would I stop hugging adults with lice?”)
- Don’t freak out if you find out you have lice. It doesn’t have to be the end of the world unless you want it to be.
- If a teammate gets lice, it’s not absolutely guaranteed that you will get it, but it’s a high possibility. Getting rid of lice is a team effort. Have a servant’s heart and love on your teammate.
- Look at this experience and cherish these moments. When else would you ever want lice besides being a half a world away on a mission’s trip? You are actually being blessed by being able to experience something that so many people have to go through every day. It’s also a reason for you and your team to get closer if you decide to have a good attitude about it.
- With all this said, I would never wish lice upon anyone and try to get rid of it quickly!
Random Update:
I shaved a little portion of my hair off!
A lot of people are asking why I did this. All growing up I cared way too much about my hair and how I looked. I placed a good amount of my self worth in the beauty that comes from having long, beautiful hair and I never wanted to mess that up. It wasn’t until right before coming on the Race that I realized that my perception of my own beauty and control over my hair changed. I chopped it off. Honestly, this is another step of me giving up my control over how others perceive me and finding my beauty and identity in Christ. This hairstyle has been something I’ve always liked, but never thought I would do. Also, this may sound ridiculous, but getting lice is a contributing factor to the reason for shaving a portion of my hair off. I want to remember everything I’ve learned for a while, and having a temporary physical reminder is meaningful to me… and honestly, I love it!
