Bugs In Israel
“Bad news.” Husband announces.
“Oh no, what now?” I say.
“Something transparant just jumped out of Jojo’s hair.”
“Oh god no. Please tell me you imagined it.”
“Nope.” And poor Jojo was promptly frogmarched to the chemists.
I had heard that nits are rampant in Israel, but like most nasty illnesses, I just never thought it would happen to us. Indeed Jojo has been scratching his head for a few days now, but as I have never experienced nits I hadn’t paid much attention. I was always told they liked clean hair, and as curly hair doesn’t respond well to frequent washing, I always thought we were safe. Turns out the Clean Hair thing is one of life’s big myths. Nits, it seems, are really not fussed. They will happily live on anyone’s hair. Contrary to popular belief they don’t stand around making comments such as “oohh, let’s go to that one Sylv, I hear she’s just used Herbal Essences”.
I blame Jojo. He is far too promiscuous and now he has brought shame on the family and it’s costing us 85 shekels worth of spritz-stuff to remove it. Plus a nasty looking nit comb which does not look like it’s designed for Jewish hair.
Apparantly the nit patrol here is not as vigilant as the UK. The kids aren’t sent home from gan with warnings and instruction on which nit lotion to buy, they just pass it amongst each other and nothing is said. It’s part of life in the semi-developed world. So now I have no idea which kids have it and no way to track it down. From now on, Jojo will be wearing hair bands and I don’t care if he looks like a girl. I cannot believe, in 31 years of never getting the darn things, he has managed to pass it on to me. I had been blaming the new organic brand of shampoo and conditioner I have been using, but it turns out I have actually had creatures living off my scalp.
Just what was God thinking when he created these blood-sucking critters? I am just trying to get to grips with the thought process behind creating something which can only survive on man (or more often, womans) hair. Did He say to Himself “Hmm, these will come in handy as a weapon against the Egyptians”. Possibly. If they suffered the way I have been it must have really pissed them off. It does indeed make you feel lousy. And poor Jojo was up til 2am having his hair painstakingly nitpicked, whilst being bribed with kinder bars. Then it was my turn, only this was an almost an impossible task as I have been growing my hair for donation purposes and Husband was struggling to work his way through. Am thinking its unlikely anyone will actually want my hair now that it has squatters.
So it seems we have a whole plethora of exciting things to look forward to. Besides headlice, the promised land has plenty of other treats for us to experience in our early years of aliyah, including worms, new tummy bugs, a variety of sniffles and lets not forget the mosquitos, predicted to reach epic levels following an unusually long dry summer.
For this we left our home in Hertfordshire behind.
[Just out of interest, how many times did you scratch your head whilst reading this entry?]
8 Replies to “Bugs In Israel”
It was lovely meeting up with you and the family the other night. Please thank Jojo for his generous gift which the girls are sure to enjoy as they recuperate from their recent bout of chickenpox. Have invested in said expensive comb and lotion now. ‘Till the next contageous disease… Shalom!
Will let you know when Jojo gets chicken pox. Meanwhile thanks for the swollen glands…
If you can get hold of it , try anti-head lice stuff with neem oil in it. They really hate that. Don’t like tea tree oil either, so tea tree oil shampoo discourages them (if you ever got any in your eyes you wil know why…)
Also condition and nit comb about every 5 days as it prevents them from developing. The lifecycle takes about a week, so if you comb out the eggs every few days then it doesn’t develop.
Seriously can’t stop scratching….DO U GIVE IT TO US?!?
I don’t know which gan JoJo is at, but when Nati’s gan broke out in lice last year, a note and email was sent to us immediately, which included instructions of which shampoo to buy, etc. After that, weekly reminder emails were sent home to tell parents to check their kids’ hair. A poster was even posted at the entrance into Gan.
Yes, it’s true that they don’t send the perpetrator home until the lice is gone, but I don’t think that’s out of ignorance and laziness. By the time lice is spotted in kids at this age, most of them have it, and there’s no way to know who started it; unlike kids who are older and aren’t likely to share things in the same way as kids this age are. I also don’t like that they don’t do regular lice checks, but perhaps that’s something that can be changed in the future.
I also never had lice before I came to this country and then got it twice in a 2 month period within 6 months of coming here. It’s because of the more wild nature of Israel.
Jojo not in gan (we think he got it from one of his many girlfriends). I just heard they are not as vigilant here. In america they apparently have designated nit nurses!!!
Indeed will take a trip to superpharm when I am feeling better….
No, I didn’t scratch my had and no, Joaquin did not have nits when I was visiting – as I washed his hair 3 nights running I think I would have noticed!