After only about two hours of sleep at Hotel, we got up at 5 o'clock in the morning, with a wake up call, showered and dressed for the day. We went down to the lobby and meet all of the other team members who had arrived into Delhi at various times on the 28th. JT and I sorted through the sizes of the team shirts and gathered them together and passed them out, along with the team badges. We then ate a very hearty breakfast and got ready to board the bus for a two hour ride to the Mewat district for working to distribute polio vaccine to children in the village of Punhana. Along the way, we met up with a number of Rotarians from the Delhi-Megapolis Club, who were joining us for the day.
Once we had finally arrived, and disembarked from our bus, we walked through the streets to the schoolyard where we would gather and then meet up with the drummers, who would lead us through the streets to the various distribution sites. With drums beating and hands clapping, we snaked or way through streets and alleys and met some drivers who would try to get us to our appointed locations. PDG Magda Baggett and her husband PDG David Baggett from North Carolina were going to be working with J.T. and me. We crammed into a vehicle with JT sitting in the back seat on their laps as our driver tried following directions to the site. Along the way, we came face to face with a Land Rover coming toward us in a very narrow (does car mirrors scraping the walls or the merchandise displayed in the front of tiny shops create the picture?), because our vehicle was smaller and older than the one facing us, it was we who had to back down the alley to a point where we could turn around. At one point, or driver got out of the car and a young man jumped in and once he found reverse, he proceeded to back up, without another scratch!!!
We went round the other way and finally got out of the car and began to walk to our distribution site, near the entrance to a school. Three women from the village were already there, giving out the polio vaccine drops to the neighborhood children.
At first, I believe these women misunderstood why we were there, but after a few words and gestures, we made it clear that all four of us were there to immunize the children. Although most of the kids had arrived and been immunized prior to our arrival, we were pleased to be able to be reassured that the children we DID immunize, would never suffer the paralysis, and possible death from polio. Each of us was able to give the life saving drops, as well as to mark each child's left pinky finger with a permanent purple ink marker, to indicate they had been immunized. We had also been given some temporary tattoos of butterflies by another team member, Drexel Smith, from California. These were a big hit with the children, once JT instructed us as to how to apply them... He actually read the directions!!!
The biggest thrill of the day for me was to hear JT, nonchalantly evaluate his day to Rotary Foundation Trustee, Sushil Gupta, that he had made some new friends with the boys in the village, after SAVING A FEW LIVES!!!
After finishing with the NID, we crammed back into one of the vehicles and eventually returned to the bus to head back to lunch in Sohna at the Suryanch Hotel. Most of us were actually pretty jet-lagged and really wanted to return to our hotel for sleep and maybe dinner and an early evening.
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