Shivani Lice girl By: Lulu Sackville

On our second day of teaching, we were introduced to a new girl at our school. Her name is Shivani, and she is 6 or 7 years old. At the beginning of our day, we took notice of her because she was new and looked a bit different from the rest of our kids.  She had a very skinny face and darkness surrounded her eyes. The most noticeable thing was the amount of dirt on her clothes, face, and her hair. Her hair was in a ponytail, the back was matted, and her hair was so dry it stuck straight up. I don’t think any of us thought much of it at first until later in the day. Her slim face made her check bones stick out and her eyes that looked like she wore eyeliner made her look scary. Along with a devious-looking face, she wasn’t the sweetest to the other kids. She was very aggressive with the other girls in her class and cried so much. This is why her nickname became Villain.

Later that day when I was teaching her class and noticed how sad she was. Eleanor and I were sitting in her class while they were matching flashcards in a circle, we both noticed how bad her hair really was. I sat behind her and asked if I could do her hair. She seemed skeptical at first, but she let me do it. It took me about 15 minutes to rake through her hair with my fingers. There wasn’t much I could do without washing her hair, so I put it back up into a neat ponytail. I showed her a picture of her hair with my camera, and she finally smiled. She looked at me for a moment before grabbing my arms and hugging me. Shivani wasn’t a villain she just needed a little bit of love. For the rest of that day all she wanted to do was play and show her hair off.

Her mom and her grandma would watch every day on this ledge by the school. Anytime her grandma left she would freak out. She told our translator that when her grandma isn’t around her, she feels sick. She won’t stay in class, and she just wants to be alone. Her Grandma and mom would watch us play and smile and wave at me. After school they told the translator they were so happy someone wanted to play with her. Over the next 2 days we became close, and she wasn’t as mean as she was before. I asked Taylor if It would be possible to wash her hair. I brought shampoo and conditioner to the school and washed her hair while some of the other kids were playing. She hated it at first but calmed down when she realized her hair would be fresh and clean. Her mom and her grandma watched the whole time and seemed very grateful. While I washed her hair, I noticed she had an insane number of lice. I washed and conditioned her hair twice and brushed through it with a fine-tooth comb. I let it dry for a while before I did pig tails with braids in her hair. She was so happy. Her Grandma and her mom waved and smiled at me all day and gave me a few little candies. It made me so happy to see something so little make a kid so happy. She still had a little bit of a temper, but her attitude improved so much. Her eyes looked brighter, and her hair looked fantastic.