Misadventures

Remember yesterday when I said that I had yet to have any horribly awkward/funny experiences in my homestay? I spoke too soon. Really, I think I jinxed myself. Here's the story:

Last night I woke up around 3:30, and I had to use the bathroom. Odd though it may sound, I try to avoid using the bathroom late at night here, because the house echoes enormously and I feel like I must be disturbing everyone flushing the toilet and trying to open the door with the loose handle, but last night was something entirely different. I rounded the corner to the bathroom, and there was water on the floor in the hallway. I think you see where this is going. I went into the bathroom, and the sink was leaking. There was water everywhere! Somehow the hose that carries the water out of the pipe in the wall and to the sink seems to have broken or come loose, and it was spraying water out onto the floor. It really wasn't spraying that much, I'm a little bit amazed that it made such a mess. I didn't know what to do, it was 3:30 am, there was water everywhere, I didn't want to wake everybody else, and I had to pee. I was sleepy and freaking out. I tried to make it stop. There was a valve that looked like it would turn the water off, but no matter which way I turned it it wouldn't do anything. I tried pressing and twisting the hose into its connection with the sink, and that only made it spray harder. I finally figured out how to hold the hose just right so the water would stop, and I must have sat there, crouched on the wet bathroom floor, holding this leaking hose, wondering what to do, for at least 15 minutes before I finally resolved to wake my host mother. I'm lucky she's such a light sleeper, because I was not entirely committed to disturbing her and knocked very tentatively at her door in a way that certainly would never have woken my real mother. I showed her the water and the leak, and she reacted relatively calmly, waking the house boy and telling me to go to back to bed while the cleaned it up. She even had the presence of mind to ask if I needed to use the toilet before she turned the water off, for which I was grateful, because I think I was freaking out too much to have asked. This morning I saw a man in the bathroom trying to fix the leak, and, thankfully, the sink is still functional, it's just now accompanied by a bucket to catch the dripping water, so I was able to wash my face this morning. Toothbrushing can be done with a bottle of water, but facewashing is another thing entirely, and I'm learning to view it as a luxury, just like toilet paper.