Be nice to me, I gave blood today

After noticing that a rather large number of patients have been getting blood transfusions lately, I wandered down to the lab and asked the manager, Salah, if there was a need for blood here.  He replyed in the affirmative, citing a need for type-O in particular.  (I am O+.)  I was working at the time, but promised to come back after my shift to donate.

During my shift, I tried to encourage my collegues to donate as well.  Unfortunatly, Palestinians seem to be as lame as Americans when faced with the idea of voluntarily going under the needle, and I didn't get any takers.  However, at least the excuses where different.  Rather then citing a colorful recent sexual history, most stated that they could not donate during Ramadan, that married people couldn't donate, or that women couldn't donate. 

I actually didn't think that I would be able to donate myself, as my hemoglobin is generally through the floor and I have been joining the rest of the hospital in the Ramadan fast.  But I guess that a diet of yellow rice and chicken is high in iron, because I was actually in the double-unit bracket (although I only gave one.)

I did warn them about recent travel to Haiti (which is a rule-out for America because of the risk of malaria) but that was not a problem.  As an ex-screener for tissue donations, I was pretty shocked that I didn't have to fill out a 10 page survey of my medical and social problems, but things here are pretty different.