How did you manage periods in your life when you had the least money?

The best part of my growing up was having to spend a few of my teenage years with my mother before going off to boarding school. In those years I learned enough, so much to take care of myself whether anyone was there with me or not.

Source

I was eleven years old when I saw a bloodstain on my underwear for the first time. My aunt had taken it upon herself to educate me on what a menstrual flow was so I wasn't completely ignorant.

I ran to her immediately and asked for a sanitary pad which she helped to place securely on my panties before handing it back to me. That day, she told me I had become a woman.

I didn't know what that meant, at least not yet.

My period didn't return the following month like it was supposed to, instead, it came again the following year. This time, I was totally unprepared and there was no female in the house so I ran into the bathroom and quickly placed a call to my mother.

“What is it Treasure? I'm in the middle of work”

“Mummy, I'm stained!” She gasped at the other end of the phone and then thought a while before asking me to check if there was tissue paper in the bathroom.

“Roll out a sizable quantity and fold it until it is thick enough to hold liquid then put it on your underwear. I'll get you a sanitary pad on my way home”

I didn't understand what my mom instructed me to do but with common sense and some practice, I was able to get a sizable amount of tissue and used it just the way she asked me to.

It was the most uncomfortable feeling I ever had but there was nothing I could do. I had two brothers and I didn't want either of them to know that I was on my period.

That incident was very useful in my later years.

It wasn't until four years later that I had to once again practice what my mother told me over the phone. I woke up that morning feeling groggy and rather angry. First off, I had submitted an assignment for a senior colleague and she was no longer taking my calls, secondly, I didn't have any money to navigate the expenses for that day, thirdly, my sim was blocked and I couldn't receive calls.

I lay on the bed thinking of what to do with the torn two hundred naira note lying on my table when I suddenly felt something moist between my legs.

I sprang up from where I lay praying that it was not what I was thinking but when I rose, a crimson stain was staring back at me from the bedsheets.

I couldn't pinpoint a worse day.

I immediately put on some dark clothes and hurried over to the stall just beside my house. Thankfully, it was a child that was there and not the mother so I handed over the torn money and collected two rolls of tissue paper then hurried back home before someone called me back.

I didn't quite remember how I had rolled it that particular day but I did something manageable and decided to rush to a friend's house so I could get pads and something to eat.

“My sister, it's been a long time since I bought pads o” Anita told me as we ravaged the noodles she prepared for me.

“What do you mean? What do you use then?”

She took out some pieces of clothes, and thick black materials and showed them to me.

“Rags. I have three of them which I use interchangeably”

“Is that even hygienic? Where did you learn that from?”

“Yes, they are very clean. I got them from a tailor. My mom doesn't use sanitary pads because they react harshly to her skin. I learned it from her”

“And how do you take care of it so it doesn't get infected?”

She chuckled as she threw a whole egg into her mouth.

“After my period every month, I soak it in hot water. I don't wash it with detergent, I wash it with my bathing soap, I cut out a portion of my bathing soap for that”

I thanked her and silently told myself it was too much drama, but when my rolls of tissue were exhausted and I still didn't have enough money, I decided to convert one of the thick scarves I had into a menstrual rag for the time being.

When I finally got paid for the assignment I did, my period was already over but I still got a packet of sanitary pads and went to the tailor to get half a yard of thick black material just like Anita told me.

In subsequent times when I didn't have money to get pads, or my period came unexpectedly, I made use of tissue and the black materials I got.

I only recently discarded the materials, especially since I started to get my sanitary pads in bulk, but they were of great help to me then and I would recommend them to any other lady.