If you can donate blood, you should. It’s pretty much the easiest way you can participate in actually saving someone’s life. I used to donate blood regularly, even though it — my blood — is mostly unusable. I’ve had malaria many times in my life, so there’s a small but non-zero chance that there could still be Plasmodiums encysted somewhere in my body or bloodstream. So they could only use the plasma.
But since I started to have atrial fibrillation now and again, I’m not allowed to give blood. This makes me disappointed, because now I should get out and do something for society that requires more of a committment than a ten-minute needle in the arm.
(Note the second-to-last noun in the Esperanto version. A possible Esperanto translation of “syringe” is “enÅprucigilo” (in-squirt-causing-instrument). The word “forÅprucigilo” means out-squirt-causing-instrument, something very hard to render in English, but beautifully indicative of the use in question! This ease of compound formation in Esperanto can make it beautiful and evocative, as well as useful and precise.)
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Se vi povas doni sangon, vi devas Äin doni. Estas almenaÅ la plej facila maniero helpi savi ies vivon. Mi ofte estis donanta sangon, kvankam Äi — mia sangon — plejparte ne uzeblis. Mi havis malarion multfoje dum mia vivo, do estas malgranda sed nenula Åanco, ke estas Plasmodioj ie en mia korpo aÅ sangon. Do nur la plasmo uzeblis.
Sed post mi ekhavis atrian fibrilon kelkfoje, mi ne permesiÄis doni sangon. Tiu min malÄojigas, ĉar nuntempe mi devos foriri kaj fari ion, kiu bezoniÄas plej gravan penon ol dek-minuta forÅprucigilo en mia brako.