Awake

Cross-Cultural Ear Piercing: 101

It wasn't too surprising to find Ruth over at her mom's apartment in the building adjacent to her own place. It wasn't surprising at all to find six kids, two teenagers and four adults hanging out in the living room when I arrived. But I was a little surprised to be summoned upon to help with pierced infected ears.

A package had arrived from Africa (home sweet home). Besides some new colorful outfits and wraps, jewelry had arrived, specifically earrings. And the earrings were going straight from the package to the ear—with or without an existing hole. (Ouch is right.)

The teenage girls were taking turns with the simple (painful) procedure and I was content to let them handle things. But finally they gave up and Ruth turned to me, "Teacher, help." I took a closer look. While it wasn't as bad as Jenn's staph infection in high school, there were definite signs of an infection: puffy, oozing, bloody ears on both Ruth (who I was supposed to be teaching English) and Famo (who's about 12, I think). I told them I'd be back in "15" with some supplies.

On the way to my house, I called my mom. She suggested rubbing alcohol and Neosporin and ice. I swung by Freddy's for that plus some cotton balls, swung by my house for latex gloves and an extra empty ice tray (and dealing with another issue: an unused winter hooded jacket and black work shoes for Ruth). I only had a couple of cubes of ice in my freezer, so on my way back to Ruth's mom's apartment, I swung by the Taco Time on Allen and filled a cup with ice.

Back at the apartment, I cleaned up Ruth and Famo's ears and they demonstrated for me that they could treat their ears with rubbing alchohol, cotton, and Neosporin (and ice) that I left with them. After giving explicit instructions to keep the alcohol out of reach of the kids ("It's NOT water!") and to use the Neosporin every day until next week, I left with a gift of a banana. (Whenever I do a favor for them or give them something, they give me a banana. When I brought the kids school supplies, I got two. =)

So, the lesson I learned tonight was once again flexibility. And how to deal with pierced ears among Somali Bantu in Beaverton.

Now to eat my banana. ;-)