Save A Life: Give Blood This Christmas.

Last Friday I read about the Korle Bu Blood bank's sorry state: They have only 80 units of blood left and are contemplating closing down (They need a minimum of 200 to run properly). The Christmas Season in Ghana usually sees an increase in accidents and as such this period is the worst possible time for the National Blood Centre to be low in stock. Having them close down means families with emergencies are going to have to look within themselves for eligible donors, or pay people to donate.

The sad news about the people lining up to sell their blood at the blood centre is, they are usually the ones with blood communicable diseases (ala HIV, Hepatitis etc). They are not a SAFE bet.

I decided that this year, I would donate some of my blood. For years, I was too low on Haemoglobin/Iron and too skinny (I once weighed in at 43kg with my 5'8 frame) but now I am of a healthy weight and for the past year, my HB levels have been excellent. I asked on twitter if anyone was ready to go with me to give blood this Christmas and after talking to Blogging Ghana, StACC-Ghana and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, I am proud to Announce the Save A Life Christmas Blood Drive!

Join us on 22 and 24 Dec at the Korle Bu Blood Centre and 27-28 Dec at the Noguchi Memorial Institute and give some Life Saving Blood. Time is from 9am to 2pm for each day. The break in-between is to allow the staff of the National Blood Service to take their holiday break.  These brave men and women deserve the two days to catchup with family.


Donor cards will be ready for all who donate their blood two weeks after the exercise. In order to make things easier, there will be attendance lists for all who participate to facilitate pickup/delivery at a convenient location when the cards are ready. The advantages of having a donor card are:

1. They allow for speedy location of your donation records.
2. If you or a family member ever require blood, you will be first in line for what is available in storage (You get points each time you donate). Since the number of regular donors in the country is low and the bank is always operating at a minimum, it's only fair for regular donors to be given dibs whenever they have an emergency.

Not sure if you're eligible to Donate?  Here's a link to some information from the StACC-Ghana Facebook Page. You can also sign up for the event here. We need to have an estimate of the number of people attending so some form of snacks can be provided.  It is important that donors have something to drink and nibble on after giving blood. So your clicking join on the facebook event page will be very much appreciated.

I will be recording my experience on Saturday 22nd, regardless of whether or not I am allowed to donate. The blood stored in the bank only lasts for 35 days. I am hoping that my experience (and other bloggers') will encourage others to go out and give blood on the regular.  You never know when you, or a loved one may need blood. It would be a shame for the bank to be empty if you should ever be in need of some.

This is the time of year when most people choose to give back to society.  This year, let's do something different.  Grab a friend and head over to Korle Bu or Noguchi. Even if you can't donate, you can help out with serving drinks and snacks. Oh and did I mention it's an opportunity for free confidential medical screening? Let's give a little blood which will go a long way to saving lives.

Now I want to hear from YOU:

1. Have you donated Blood before? What was your experience?
2. Never donated? I want to know if you would consider giving blood.

~Daixy~

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Earth Child: Naptural Woman

A few months months ago, I made the decision to transition from relaxed hair to natural hair. I began my transition with braids; I sat for hours (with lots of breaks in between) while a frustrated hair dresser twisted my hair with extensions and turned me into an earth goddess. A couple of months after my first braid, I sat in my bathroom with a pair of scissors, contemplating whether or not I was really going to go through with it. To help things along, I grabbed my hair into a ponytail and snipped it off at the base. The photo is of me after the initial snip. You don't want to see what my face looked like after the reality of my actions hit me. Tears do not look good on Mz Daixy.
 

A week of recovery later, and I took the snippers to my hair once more and found a lace scarf to use as a headband.

 Mz Daixy's a school girl again!

I eventually went to the barber and got the last bits of permed wisp taken off.

Ignore the ginormous smile on my face.  

Luther Vandrosss and Teddy Pendergrass were whispering sweet nothings in my ear that morning.

My natural hair is a pain to take care of.  I've been relaxing my hair since the 4th grade, after my mom got tired of breaking combs in the tangled mess of kinky curls. My foray into napturality has brought back best forgotten memories of hot combs burning my scalp and combs and brushes snapping like twigs. It's impossible to comb this hair when it's dry, it won't lie down no matter what you do to it and I've had to say goodbye to afternoon naps (cuz I can't tidy it up afterwards without getting it wet).

I've considered locks and passed. Locks are gorgeous, I'll admit but knowing that the only way to get rid of them is to hack off my hair has me balking. I'm going to let it grow out and bring back the afro for a bit while I work out natural ways of making the hair soft and easier to manage. Still, I'm enjoying the fresh look and am sticking to switching up between the natural fro and braids. I even posed for this gorgeous pic.

Transitioning may very well be the best thing I've ever done for myself. Becoming an earth child is wonderful. I've begun cutting out chemicals from my diet and have also been removing checmical lotions and such from my beauty regime. In future, I will be sharing some of my homemade recipes for skin care (trying to find the best one for treating my acne prone and scarred skin) for those of you who are looking for natural alternatives also.

I apologise for my absence on here (I've no real excuse other than that life's been pretty demanding the past couple of months). It will not happen again. Thanks to all who moved with me from my old blog and are still here despite my truancy.

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