Thursday, June 05, 2008

Donating blood in China

On Wednesday last week there was a blood drive at the embassy. It was very similar to a drive in the States other than a few items:
First off, you get this cool book which you can see here.
Also


They type your blood in front of you
You have the choice of how much blood to donate (200 or 400ml rather than the straight 1 pint = 473 ml)
There are all sorts of restrictions that the US doesn't impose (No donation if over 55 or nursing a baby. Can only donate every 6 months rather than 8 weeks)
There are all sorts of acceptable conditions that the US doesn't recognize (No questions regarding prison time or sex with people who had served prison time, no question regarding traveling countries that have mad cow)

Lastly they gave all these cool gifts. I don't know if this is normal but it was very fun. I got a leather cased manicure kit with clippers, scissors, a file, etc. And even better there was a metal travel kit that contained a fork, spoon, and 2-part chopsticks that disassemble and screw together.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This little book sure beats a plastic card. In Winnipeg they stopped my dad from giving blood at age 70. It was a shame since he was healthy and had AB blood(as do I)and it was needed.

Mari's comment about T on the merry go round is priceless. She also was expressing my feelings exactly. However, the grandfather on this side said T is just checking things out. css