Drying out and giving blood

So here's an update on the latest in my life. The flooding situation in Trinidad is better, with the water levels having dropped a little bit in the last week. There was a 25 mile long by 20 mile wide by 30 feet deep swell of water that passed through the Beni over the last week and is causing problems all over the region. The worst of it hit us last Tuesday and now it has moved on. We don't expect any more such swells, probably in 2-3 weeks the water level will drop significantly.

Friday I had an interesting experience as I went to give blood for a lady that cleans for Lucho and Lorna and also does laundry for us volunteers (Justa, for those of you who have been here). She is getting ready to have an operation and needed blood donations. I was a bit nervous having never given blood before, much less in Bolivia. I had visions of walking into the blood bank, and there being a Bolivian guy sitting there with a needle and putting blood into Coke bottles. But, to be honest, I was very impressed with the conditions, it was very clean and might even pass health code in the US! And they did use clean needles too. However, I am A- in blood type, so they didn't end up taking my blood because they already have enough negative blood. Because the negative blood types are rarer they don't give them out except for special needs. Right now I guess there isn't much demand, so they just took a small 10ml sample to their lab for testing. Another volunteer who went with me did give blood though, so at least one of us could help Justa.

There have also been some developments politically and the opposition to Evo has now formally given themselves the name CONALDE, which is an acronym for National Democratic Council. It seems like we're in for another year of blockades and civil strikes especially in the next few months until the referendum elections are held.