It is true. I was one of the many World Racers who was unfortunate enough to acquire lice. Also known as headpets, as my teammate Leanna so lovingly called them. A few of my teammates had a lice in previous months. I thought it was pretty straight forward. Bugs move in, your head itches, someone picks them out, and done. Turns out, that’s not quite the case. Instead it was an emotional, if not slightly traumatic ordeal. I shall explain.
It happened one fateful night. We were all sleeping on the floor for the month. And a nameless teammate slept right next to me, as you do on the World Race. One lone louse, or maybe a whole family, decided to take a little trip from her head over to mine. And then they lurked in the shadows. Once lice were discovered on nameless teammate’s head, I had someone check mine just in case. All was clear, or so it had seemed. I continued on with my false sense of security not aware of the tiny bugs procreating on my head. I try not to dwell on that too much. Since I’ve never had lice, I was somewhat ignorant as to the symptoms. My itchy scalp didn’t seem that bad. I’ve never seen a louse before, so the big bug that fell out of my hair was one that surely just fell in and got trapped in my thick mane of hair. It’s okay if you snicker at my cluelessness. Probably about a week went by and then I wondered if it might be lice. A week and half goes by and I’m pretty darn sure it is lice. And I just have to know. So there I am, exploring ruins at Angkor Wat and I have one of the girls I’m with check my head right then. My suspicions were confirmed. And there was nothing I could do about it for two more days until we were back in Phnom Penh.
And so it began. Unfortunately, I needed help tackling the issue. It is most definitely a two man job. However, the number of people willing to help… pretty slim. I don’t what I would’ve done without Stephanie. She was instrumental in the demise of the head lice. She also happened to be the one person who I didn’t feel like I was burdening by asking for help. For a few day she would sit and look through my hair pulling the big bugs out. It wasn’t until I was combing my hair with a normal comb and lice began falling out in large numbers that I realized it was a pretty serious case. I formulated a battle plan. Stephanie would comb through my hair with a nit comb, and I have a lot of hair, so this was no small feat. And that night, I would sleep with olive oil in my hair to smother the little suckers. As Stephanie combed, I began to feel incredibly humiliated. Hundreds of bugs were coming out. I’m not exaggerating. It was disturbing to think that they were living in my hair. I started crying because it was that overwhelming.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the worst. The worst was how a few people treated me. Like I was dirty. They kept a distance. And someone went as far to continually remind me to be super careful and not touch anything. Because apparently my I’m going to rub my head all over people’s stuff unless you tell me not to. It seems my common sense supposedly left when the lice moved in.
To make sure the lice were completely finished off, I went and had my hair dyed. Surely soaking in chemicals for a half an hour would eliminate any survivors. I got a fabulous new look on top of it. Three weeks later and my head is still clear. Victory is mine!!!
*maniacal laugh*
