The Blood donation Camp...

Given that i've successfully bunked another afternoon at college, i might as well put the time to good use, and update!!....well, as marc rightly said, this blog demands an update, so marc, this one's for you..

The blood donation camp...held at nandanam on the 10th..and am glad to say that it was actually successful...we (youth for equality) had organised this camp along with nandanam news...

Was a bit of fun, although i didnt get to donate, with a funny looking van for the doctors and the donors, vivek's 'incident'..getting people to actually donate their blood and not steal the free food,..campaigning in the middle of the day for new donors (at one point of which we almost entered an appartment of an ex-MLA, only to run in the opposite direction)..

Its funny to note though, how grossly misconstrued people are about things that come to blood...some seriously irrational fears...but despite all the last minute hassles we did manage to collect a fairly decent amount of viable blood..

Oh, we also had some time to take some candid photos of the core members of the YFE...(me included)..so thats me with my hippie look at the blood donation camp having fun with the camera...

Casual Update..

"well...the last thing that i left up in the air was the blood donation camp, sonja!,...college, my aids awareness camp..yeah thats about it...
Perfect time to be blogging actually right now....close to midnight...raining outside..that nip in the air...excellent...
Well...first things first....the aids awareness camp....10 days in (i finally got the name..Thirunanravur..i think) a school called Sevalaya for orphaned and abandoned children...based entirely on donations...so anyway, we went there to teach the 8th and 9th graders what we know on aids...and a lot of other things actually...It was 8 students (me included) from my college and 15 students from an university called the Johns Hopkins University in the states..extremely varied backgrounds..as appealing as that sounds, trust me, it does have its own set of problems..
not meaning to sound square, hey, i can get along fairly well with anyone...but not everyone can...the language barrier, the cultural difference,...led to a few problems actually...

The camp as such was quite a cartload of fun, kids can be really receptive at times..although the lack of proper education and the background of the families did make them highly rambunctious at times...man, that was tough to control!...And not only did we teach, but we also had to play 'simultaneous translator' to the other students...not as easy as one might think it is...

The horrible parts were of course, the lack of proper hygiene, food, water..accomodation...things which can really get to you after a point..so much so that when i came back home, a bath for more than 5 minutes in warm water was such a luxury..!!...

Anyway.. there were things to be appreciated about the camp..we did really learn a lot..its fulfilling to have to teach and spread valuable information to kids..10 days is a lot of time to bond with them and connect..so much so that they cried when we left..ok, i admit, i'm not the type comfortable with public display of emotions and affection but that moment floored me..
But all things said and done, it was a good time, despite the problems...