Damn cows...

So yesterday was a very interesting and exhausting and wonderful day. First off, just an amusing little tidbit...I went to take my bucket shower yesterday morning as usual, leaving the bucket of water in the shower stall while I went away for a minute to put on my towel. And when I came back, I discovered that one of our cows had drunk up ALL my bathwater!! Those damn cows will eat or drink ANYTHING! They even attempted to eat my underwear off the laundry line this morning! Nothing is safe around a cow.

Also, I have successfully made friends with our cat, who I decided to name Baba Ghanoush. He will now come and cuddle with me, and even likes to scare me by climbing up the inside of my curtains and then jumping on me while I'm lying in bed. I loooove having a kitty to cuddle with again!

So on to the main event. Yesterday was the day of the much anticipated Sauri blood drive I have been helping to plan and advertise for in the villages surrounding my house. The Sauri cluster of villages is HUGE, so we had decided to launch this initiative in just a small area at first to see how many people we could get to come and donate blood. The villages included were Bar Sauri and Nyamninia (where I live).

Blood donation is a big deal around here because so many people need transfusions (children with malaria and women who give birth in the clinics in particular). However, people are scared to donate for numerous reasons: they think we will sell the blood, they think the needles are tainted with HIV, they think we are secretly trying to test them for HIV, they claim they don't have enough blood in their bodies, etc. It's difficult to get people to come and donate! The last blood drive they attempted here got only 5 people to come. ONLY FIVE PEOPLE. There are several thousand living in the Sauri cluster, so it was a spectacular failure. This time, however, we mobilized within the villages themselves. We attended church meetings and sang and danced with the members, then the bishop would let us distribute fliers and he would translate from English into Luo so everyone understood us. We went to community meetings and talked to the men and women there. We went to the local high school and talked about the importance of donating blood. We went to the clinic and explained to all the women bringing in their children that their blood could save the life of their child. We also got the Community Health Workers to talk about the drive during their normal rounds. We worked SO HARD. And guess what...

It payed off!! We got 106 people to donate yesterday!! And even more WANTED to give blood, but we actually ran out of blood bags to take it with! It was a huge huge success, and now the villages here have enough blood to last them an entire year. It's truly amazing how just a little extra effort and understanding of how people think can make all the difference.

I am feeling very good about my work out here, but these days I and most of the other MSID students are getting really disillusioned with the MSID program and how it is managed in general. Details will bore you, but I'm really starting to wish that I was here of my own accord rather than under the hands of Minnesota. They have no idea how to REALLY allow us to get the most out of our time here. It's so so frustrating and I just hope it all gets resolved soon.

Tata for now! Lanzy