Milica and Nat have been working diligently (working their a**e* off!) for quite some time on developing the WITT web site with the customized design under SPIP.

The deadline for the launch is approaching mercilessly (November 1st), and the two of them are working more and more each day. Hell, they’ve become one entity – milNat is its name, as is their username on the spip mailing list in English. MilNat has been besieging this mailing list with small problems they are more and more frequently encountering as they are getting deeper into SPIP implementation.

The first half of milNat works in an NGO called Zene na delu (i.e. Women at Work), where she can rearrange her working hours according to how it best suits her – as long as she gets the work done, whereas the other half works in a state-owned company Telekom Srbija, where she has to stay put until 4 pm every day regardless of the circumstances. So, the entity merges again as soon as those jobs are done to work on the WITT web site. But, as the deadline is close, they decided to cheat a bit (for a greater good, of course): Nat could get two days of work if she donated blood – voluntarily. Milica decides she would go with Nat to support the action. They figured it best if Nat took Friday and Monday off work – so they would have the extended weekend off, and would lock themselves in to finish most there was regarding the WITT web site. They usually needed an initial two hour warm up, after which they rocked and there was no stopping them! So, this way, they would work day in - day out, would be constantly in shape and achieve maximum efficiency!

So, they met in front of the Transfusion Institute, inhaled a deep breath and said: Let’s get this done! People were very friendly inside. They gave them some forms to fill in, and then milNat spoke with the doctors and finally, they had their blood cross checked for the level of hemoglobin. How is this done? One gets pinched in a finger with a needle, and a few drops of blood are placed in a blue solution. Should the drops fall down toward the bottom of the glass containing the blue solution – one is eligible for donating blood. Milica’s drops of blood fell down, Nat’s stood in place for a short while and they started aiming for the top of the glass. So, Nat was not eligible… that explained the paleness of her face. She therefore decided to start eating meet again, in the attempt of increasing the level of hemoglobin and iron in her blood. Milica laid on a bed, a needle was placed in her right arm, and she was asked to pump her fist to stimulate the blood flow. Nat strolled around Milica searching for the best possible angle for the optimal shot to capture the moment and took two photos of the sight. Milica is a true hero! Those photos are stored on Nat’s mobile phone, and it would be lovely if she could extract them from there – for your viewing pleasure! So, if anyone of you has an IR (infra red) port on your laptops – please, let us know!

So, at the end, Milica donated blood which is what she wanted to do for a long time, but has only now gotten around to really do it, Nat took pictures – and got a note for one day off work as a gesture of good will for attempting to donate her blood, and decided to drop the vegetarian nutrition. Milica felt quite ok, except she got a bit dizzy while smoking a cigarette later on during the day. Right away after donating blood, they went to the nearby bakery – one of the most famous ones in Belgrade for having fantastic “burek” (which is a local specialty, an extremely greasy pie with several variations of content: cheese, spinach, mushrooms, meat, even pizza (pizza-burek: the absolute, unquestionable winner of junks among the junk food family!)). Make sure you do not miss trying it out when in Serbia! Milica took burek with cheese, Nat prefers it empty – so, they “treated” themselves with it, and went on to socialize with SPIP on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, eliminating huge amounts of chocolate!

Will the launch of the new version of WITT website happen on November 1st?

Stay tuned...