All blood, no tears.

I thought I would let you all in on my first, "I'm in India" moment. I've been known to occasionally get bloody noses and yesterday I had a couple. One at the Buddhist temple with the kids from the school. I have come to realize that individually wrapped wet wipes are like gold and so is toilet paper. I had packed both in my day bag. I used the toilet paper to clog the blood and the wet wipe cleaned my now bloody Kurta (my new Indian top I was wearing.) All of the rubbish went into the ziploc bag that was in my pack, another essential item while traveling in India. I packed out my own blood.

So later in the day, I arrived at the youth center to try importing some footage onto the Final Cut Pro system. As soon as I sat down I got another bloody nose. I grabbed more toilet paper out of my bag, although I hadn't restocked since the afternoon field trip. I ran to the bathroom to wash off the blood. A few drops of water, then no more. I searched for more toilet paper as I was running out, but none. This is India. Who would have toilet paper? I called to Liza (the other volunteer) to find some napkins at the center. We found a couple. A concerned Indian guy asked me if I needed to go to the hospital because I was bleeding badly. I assured them that I didn't. One guy led me to another bathroom when I explained that there was no running water in this one. I turned the sink on to try to wash away the blood, which was gushing out at this point. After a minute, the water was out. No more water. No toilet paper. Blood is dripping into the sink. How will I clean this up, let alone stop the bleeding? I look down, only to realize that the sink doesn't pipe out of the room, it just drips down into a bucket below the sink, which is now filled with blood and water. Sorry India, I am bleeding all over you. I then notice a small leak in the sink where it attaches to the wall. I couple of drops of holy water. There was a small bucket in the room, which is a staple of bathrooms for the bucket showers that we take here. I put the cup underneath the leak of clean looking water to catch the drops. It is enough that over time the cup fills up and I can wash the sink. I will just say that this bloody nose is probably the worst I have ever had. It poured from one nostril and then after a bit started in the second. I had Liza take a picture of the bloody massacre because it was so amusing. We were laughing at the whole situation. I bled into the sink and used a few napkins from the center and then used recycled water to wash up the mess. I just kept thinking, of course this sink doesn't drain to anywhere but this bucket, of course there is nothing to wipe up my blood, of course there is no water because I am in India. I used my final wet wipe to wash my face and arms (as best I could). I also washed with the recycled water and then I rubbed hand sanitizer on my face and arms. Glad I packed these essentials from home.

I won't post the picture of the bloody mess because I don't want to gross you out, but we did document this moment.