When I report to the Fulbright Commission each month, there is a section that asks about health related problems faced in the last month.  This is one of the six sections that we fill out monthly when reporting on our accomplishments and experience for the relevant weeks.  Inevitably, some of these unanticipated experiences are bound to take up your time, and that is simply part of the experience of exchange.  That being said, I have been preoccupied for the last week trying to get rid of head lice.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to share this or not, but I decided what the hell, it's part of the "Indian experience." 

Caring for one's hygience in a hotter, more humid climate can be much more demanding than central Pennsylvania.  Not only do you have to be on the lookout for the bacteria and parasites that easily live in the air and the water and can create a disaster in your stomach, but you also have to be alert for snakes, scorpions, mold during the rainy season, the transfer of malaria via mosquitos, sunstroke, prickly heat ,fungui, itchy catepillars, poisonous plants, and the list goes on.  At first I thought my lice could be dry skin; after all, I had started to wash my hair more often lately since the sweat from my runs left my hair with an undesirable texture.  A few days later, though, two of my housemates announced they had lice.  One of them has been working at a village kindergarten, which is most likely the source.  Then again, after talking to people, working with kids in general seems to put you in a position that is likely to attract lice.  Many of my older friends with kids say that they are constantly caring for their children's hair; one father even told me that it has been as frequent as once a week that his daughter has brought home lice.  When my housemate called the school to inform them that she couldn't come to work for a few days, they replied that the lice were not a big deal, and all of the kids have them anyway.  As for my housemates and myself, well we have been washing everything we own and picking through each others' heads for days.  I've had four different people search through my head in the past few days, cleaning out lice and their eggs, all the while telling me their own personal experience with lice.  Sometimes the story ends with combing them out, and other times it ends chopping off a head of hair.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for the former.  And it seems like we caught the problem before it got out of control, which keeps me hopeful.

I think I may have finally gotten them all out, five days later. I've learned that head lice are in fact quite common here; everybody goes through it, and anybody with kids is used to dealing with the problem more than once.  I've been using different methods all week, from a chemical mix that is supposed to take out and make the lice imporent, to neem and camphor oil, and finally today with coconut oil and then a rinse of water boiled with neem leaves (the neem tree is native to south India, and it is well known for many healthy qualities, such as skincare and its use against bacteria--I'll attach a photo of our neem tree tomorrow). I hope the mess is over. 

Tomorrow I have an interview with another pioneer and I am deciding whether or not to join on a research project here that is aiming to make  an ecological sustainable urban five year plan for AV.  It is sponsered by L'Avenir, Auroville's planning committee that currently operates in accordance with the Master Plan.  This research seems to be an attempt to engage the community.  Anyway, I'll chat more about that next time.  Life in India doesn't always run as planned; she throws a lot of unexpected bumps in the road, but it keeps the mood light.  Hopefully my days can get back on track with research rather than hygiene in the next few days...