Social Worke Confessions Part 4-The ponytail trauma

Lice.  That is why I always put my hair up in a pony tail when I go to visit families. If I don't have a hair bow, I'll use a rubber band or yarn or glue.  I love my job and I really love these families I have visited with over the years.  I want them to see I am comfortable in their homes, but as I watch their children scratching their scalps like a dog with fleas, I am forced to take action.

Another smelly trailer.  Another dirty home.  Another perfectly lovely family stuck in the grip of poverty and ambivilence.  The accusation was that the children were going hungry.  So before I left, I made sure I scanned the kitchen to check for food.

It all happened rather quickly:

• I opened the refrigerator
• Dozens of large cockroaches scurried out onto the floor
• I stepped back in order to avoid a roach invasion of my sandles
• My pony tail got stuck in the very effective fly paper that was hanging from the ceiling.

Sticky dead flies had to be picked out of my hair.