Infectious disease...

I feel like I start every post with something disturbing that is happening here in American Samoa, but the tradition is going to have to continue. First of all...

Because there is no shopping on the island everyone gets clothes made. There are countless sewing shops where you can buy really cheap fabric and they will sew it into anything you could dream of. Well I have officially been duped or cheated...I can't decide. I had a long skirt made, and the fabric cost a total of $3.50. It is supposed to be ready tomorrow, but I sneaked a look at my ticket and it says that they are going to try to charge me $47.50 for labor. I just don't think so. I think they are trying to take advantage of me because I am a palagi, and if that is the case they can take the incredibly amazing skirt that I designed and hang it in the window. Actually, I am taking a Samoan girl with me who means business. The average skirt price is around $8.00, and you can get a pulitasi, which is an uncomfortable looking,traditional dress, for $20, and it is composed of a skirt and shirt. In another shop I could have two dresses and a skirt made for the same price. Something just isn't adding up here.

Even more disturbing than being ripped off is getting a horrible note in your box when you get to school. I got to school this morning and had a note in my box telling me that a parent called the school because her child saw another child in my class pull a bug out of her hair and smash it. I had to read the note three or four times wondering what they wanted me to do about it. I thought surely this was not in the job description, but I was quickly corrected. I had to do a lice check when school started. I had to do the check without gloves or those poker things nurses use...I only had my fingers for the search. I thought that I was going to throw up at any moment. I will never again have to wonder what lice looks like. It was rampant and infesting my classroom. One poor girl had lice so bad that you could see it without even moving any hair. As I continued my lice check I had kids telling me that I didn't need to check them because they already know they have it. Well, thanks for telling me before I let my head get anywhere close. I just know that I am going to get it. I have been itching like crazy since the dreaded disease was even mentioned, and if I get lice I am going to be grossed out. I have had other people check me three times today and so far I am clear, but I don't think you can ever be too careful.