Blood was shed!

On my lastest visit to Funakata Elementary School, I decided to play Steal the Bacon with the students to practice numbers. In Steal the Bacon, there are two rows of kids, each assigned a number. Each row faces each other, and in the middle of the two rows is a "Bacon" (my Bacon was a bright pink stuffed rabbit puppet). When I yell out a number, the two students, one from each row, who have been assigned that number run to try and snatch the "Bacon" first. I often played this game in elementary school, and thought it would be a fun way to practice numbers. Everything was going smoothly- the fifth-graders were really into the game. When I yelled out "15!" two boys ran to the center, and collided as most of the previous pairs had done. However, when one boy didn't get up right away, I thought he was throwing a mini-tantrum because he hadn't won. However, when his teacher came over to see what was wrong, there was a huge pool of blood on the ground! At first I thought he had broken something, but then realized it was just a bad bloodly nose. I felt so bad! I had introduced this dangerous game that had caused blood to be shed- and a lot of it! I asked the teacher if we should continue, and she said it was ok (she gave the students a small lecture about being careful). What surprised me even more is that the teacher cleaned the blood only with a kleenex. With so many health issues and concerns in America, I think it's standard for rubber gloves and disenfectant to be used when any amount of blood is shed. But after the blood was wiped away with a kleenex, the kids continued to play the game, running sliding over the spot where the nose had bled. I still felt so bad that someone got hurt when I came to visit! To ease my guilt, I gave the boy an extra penny. I had given all the students a penny during a BINGO game. The extra penny sure made him popular, making me realize that sometimes money can indeed buy love.