The Princess and the Fleas

Last week there was a musical workshop for all the little village children at the academy. About seven musicians came and taught the children how to play their traditional Adivasi instruments. The kids really liked it. Really. They'd be playing with these instruments for like 8 hours a day and they wouldn't stop. Even at night when they could be running around and playing, they'd be beating the dol and blowing on their flutes. Believe me, it was really cool when they'd be playing at 7 AM and I was trying to sleep.

I stayed over at the village for two nights. The first night was fine, but the second night was the worst night of my life. I was sleeping on a matteress on the floor, which was cool, except that there were all these bed bugs crawling all over me. It was so gross! I could feel them and they kept biting me. I couldn't sleep because everytime I drifted off, one of the little buggers would take a chomp at my back. Now, it looks like I have a bright red rash around my torso, but it's really just hundreds of bug bites put together. And it's so itchy! Ugh!

The bed bugs were just the beginning. I was trying to sleep and twitching everytime I felt a bug when I heard some scampering and then FELT some scampering on my covers NEAR MY FACE! A mouse had run up on my mattress NEAR MY FACE. I freaked out and threw my sheets off and I heard it scamper away. Everytime I made some noise, I heard it scamper farther away. Gross! Luckily, there was a pile of mattresses nearby, so I slept on top of a pile of about ten mattesses. It was like I was the princess in the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. You know that story, when they test to see if the girl is an actual princess by seeing if she can feel a pea at the bottom of a pile of mattresses. Except instead of a test, I was sleeping on a bunch of mattresses to get away from mice NEAR MY FACE and instead of a pea, I had a bunch of fleas to keep me up. You know, I bet that's how the story really goes. A girl was trying to get away from mice that were scampering NEAR HER FACE and being kept up by fleas crawling all over her and biting her (a very valid explanation, believe me, I feel her pain) and somebody just assumed it was her being prissy and princessy. (And when I say "someboy" I mean "a stupid boy")

The next morning, I was very grouchy from being kept up all night and worried that I might have lice. So I went to talk to one of the doctors, and he said I had lice! But I think he mistook my gray hairs as a lice infestation. But I didn't want to take any chances so I bought the shampoo and furiously used it.

On the way home I was feeling very glum and thinking about being Dirty Lice Girl. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to have contact with anyone for the next two weeks and that this was probably how Rogue feels from X-Men. You know how she has that power to suck the living energy from people, so she can't touch anyone? And I was wondering whether I would rather be a mutant or Dirty Lice Girl. I mean, on one hand, if I was a mutant, I would have a power instead of parasites. On the other hand, if I was Dirty Lice Girl, I would have to power to get rid of my lice, at least I was praying that I would have the power to get rid of my lice. But the next day I spoke to the other doctor and he said I didn't have lice!!!! I wasn't itching my head and all my bites were bug bites, not lice bites. So I don't have lice!! I was so relieved. But as a precaution, I still boiled all my clothes. I hope they all die.