Lice: as commom as a cold

Warning: reading this entry may cause some of you to feel itchy for the rest of the day. Readers beware.

Today I was teaching my first grade class Torah, and all of a sudden, one of the girls shouts out "a louse just fell out of my hair and onto my book!! I walked over and looked down at her book, and I did indeed see a louse. It was tiny, black. About the size of a poopy seed. I took a tissue and killed it and threw it out. It caused a lot of commotion in the class, but everyone settled down and we continued to learn. While this may have been the first time something like that happened in my presence, lice here is as common as a cold. It's not just common, its also not something Israelis are at all embarrassed about. One day one of my students, who normally wears a ponytail, came in with a very beautiful braid. I said, "wow, thats beautiful, who made that for you?" she said "my mother, its because I have lice." "Wonderful," I said, as I slowly inched backwards. You hear something like that and you can't help but be paranoid the rest of the day.

Back in September, when I was just starting to get acquainted with the school and the kids and all the policies, one of my students came to me crying saying, "I have lice and it itches me. I want to call my mother." I thought that was a legitimate request. I was all ready to take her to call home, heck I thought they'd send her home, but I figured I'd check with the homeroom teacher first. She turned to the kid and yelled at her, "You know we don't deal with lice here! When you go home, tell your mother to take care of it!" While I can't say the teacher's tone was appropriate, I have since learned that that is indeed the school policy. It is against the law to send a kid home for lice here.

I was getting my haircut for the first time here, so I said to the lady who was going to cut my hair, "I'm a little scared of lice." She laughed at me and started combing and cutting etc. She said, "I haven't seen lice in years! They must have died out or something.." Just as I was begining to feel reassured, the mother sitting next to me said, "No, my kids have lice all the time, I just think its disgusting to clean it out" I responded "Thats not fair for the rest of us..." But I don't think she really cared for my opinion.

Theres a woman in our community who is a proffessional lice lady. She coined the name "Kinanit". You hire her to pick out the nits and lice, she charges by the hour. This kind of thing exists in Brooklyn, but not here. The local newspaper did a whole article about her. The day after the article came out, everyone was buzzing (no pun intended) about it at school. "Did you see?" "Did you read?" They thought it was absolutely ridiculous!

When you move to Israel, Nefesh B'Nefesh tells the olim, "Don't try to change the country; you won't succeed. Just take it as it is..." Merry Rosman told me the same thing, but she gave me permission to change the policy on lice. I will try to make her proud. Next on the list of necessary reforms: chocolate chip cookies. I've got my work cut out for me.