lice and e. coli

I don't have lice. I do have e. coli. I do not want to devote any more energy talking (writing) about this devilish bacteria, so thats all I'm gonna say about it... I have it, I'm being treated, I'm feeling better. The end. As for the lice... Friday was the 25th anniversary celebration at Haven Pampanga, the center where I work. Staff and residents planned for weeks; the Mayor came, all the important barangay officials, etc. It was quite a big deal and the girls did their requisite dancing and singing numbers for the audience. When the eating, speeches, videoke-ing, dancing, and more eating were finished and we were all cleaning up, I sat down in one of the chairs to grab a drink of water (non-tap). All of a sudden I felt little hands behind me doing the lice pick!!!! It is a momentous day. I have officially experienced the rite of passage that leads me to believe that I am one of them. Or that they think I am one of them. Or that they think I am enough like them to do the lice pick in my hair. Ok, im getting ahead of myself...let me back up.
When I was still in training back in May in Bataan, all of us PC trainees went for a one week visit to our respective sites, observed (saucer eyes, jaws to floor) the community and facility where we would be working and living for the next two years. The day I arrived at my center, they put on a little welcome program for me, where they...yep, you guessed it, sang, danced, gave speeches, and served way too much food. The pavilion was decorated with crepe paper and a sign that read "Welcome Ms Carry, US Peace Corp". I was so touched. Being the guest of honor, I sat at the front by the "stage" (patch of grass) near the performers, so I was facing the audience. Suddenly I noticed that the girls, sitting in rows, were leaning forward, spreading the hair apart of the person in front of them, peering at the roots and picking stuff out. I tried to keep my composure, as the non-lice-pickers were staring at me, for many, the first white person they had ever met. I couldn't figure it out. What were they doing? Then it hit me. It was reminiscent of a National Geographic show I had seen years ago... the one where the apes are picking bugs from eachothers' hair and eating it. Was that what they were doing? They werent eating it, obviously, but was this such common practice that it was done in broad daylight, in front of everyone, during a performance?
I am laughing to myself as I write that and remember how appaled I was. But you see it everywhere. The staff do it to one another during meetings. You see it on the streets all the time. It is unabashed, free-for-all lice - picking, alot like the public nose picking and public urination (legal) that you see all the time here.
So on Friday when Babylyn, a magical little 12-year old that lives at the center with her mother and siblings, pulled up a chair behind me and started picking through my hair, I felt like I was going to cry. Because to me it means that they no longer look at me as the American, as the white girl, as the lucky girl that can afford cool shoes and earrings, as the outsider. The fact that she treated me like any other person at the center was a defining moment in my service here. It probably sounds ridiculous. But for 6 months I've been trying to accomplish this, trying to make them feel comfortable around me, trying to convince them that I am no different than they are.
So, I am proud to report that I am finally a member of the lice-picking-community. And I couldn't be happier about it.