IF IT IS SUNDAY AND THE 19th, IT MUST BE AN NID...

Waking up at 5:30 in the morning and then down for breakfast, with bags packed and outside our doors, we all were rather sleepy-eyed and quiet while we ate our breakfast. Others came from their hotel, telling us how wonderful their accommodations were, and they joined us for breakfast. Meanwhile, bags were brought down, either by each of us or by one of the porters when we could find one.  Before checking out of the hotel, we were told to take one of the packed lunches from the front desk in the lobby, because we would be eating on the buses, en route to our destination following the NID events later in the morning. We had to depart from the hotel at least two and a half hours ahead of time, due to impending traffic in the villages we would drive through. You see, not only is it an NID but it Sunday is also traditionally a market day so all of the stalls in the various villages would be packed with fresh fruits and vegetables, live hens in cages, awaiting their quick demise with the wielding of a sharp cleaver, the to be plucked by deft hands of a young "butcher-in-training" most likely working alongside is father or a uncle! Also, alongside the roads were skilled and unskilled mechanics, who had dismantled the engines of trucks and autos, and then attempting to reassemble them for their impatient owner/drivers. We arrived, actually ahead of time, which in India must surely be a record!  We left the buses and walked across the main street in Punhana from where we would disburse to go to the various booths throughout that town, as well as to Bisru, a neighboring town, where some of us had worked in past years. Finally, Drs. Rauh and Sanjeev arrived, and we were let into the schoolyard where we had gathered the previous afternoon prior to the rally.  We were assigned to different cars and vans where the drivers would take us to the various distribution points in the villages. We were divided into teams of four persons, and tried to have one seasoned Rotarian with three "newbies". I was pleased to have Mike Milner, Linda Bertuzzi and Devan Ramalingam (whom we call Devo). and what crew it was! We opted to be driven to Bisru, and to work in an area where about teams had worked in the past and where the most recent case of polio had been diagnosed back in 2010. We were dropped off at the bottom of a hill and walked up to the distribution point, a porch area of a private home of a Muslim family.  The open sewer ditch ran along one side of the alley we walked up.  All the way up the alley,  Mike was using his iPad to take pictures of the neighbor children and the wonderful architecture of this old village.  The smiles just got better and better as we got closer to the place where we would work for the next few hours. We arrived and were greeted by two women and one gentleman who were in charge of this booth.  Already, prior to our arrival, these three had administered polio drops to about seventy-five children, under the age of five years.  The rationale is that if every child, under the age of five, receives doses of the polio vaccine several times over the course of the first five years of their lives, the possibility of contracting polio is nil.  About two hours into our stay at the booth, Mr. Dargh asked if we would like to have some water, but since it would not be bottled water, I suggested that perhaps some chai tea would be great. He said he would go get some and returned about fifteen minutes later, with four china cups and saucers, and a pot of freshly brewed chai tea. It was asolutely delicious and we were pleased to have him bring us a second cup. He had also offered some biscuits, but those were to seeming to be forthcoming. Mike then ventured across the street, when two of the local village men invited him to step across and show them how he was taking pictures on his iPad. They seemed to be very excited to see the instant large photos, and especially since they were the subject of several of them. A few minutes later, Linda told us to look a into the doorway of the home and see the paper cut-out decorations surrounding the beautifully tiled wall in what served as the living room and the bedroom for this family. A little later on, we would be invited to enter the home and to tour through it. Now we are not talking what we would picture as a "normal" western home, but rather something that was very typical of a relatively well off family in Bisru. After all, most of us do not walk from our bedrooms into a yarded area, where our water buffalo is kept, along with the chickens! I would guess that perhaps five or six branches of the same family were all occupying this home and it was wonderful to see the twin daughters, about age two, sitting outside, totally naked and just playing together on one of the cot type beds, under a quilt, until they saw us and then one of them got off the bed and put on her shoes! Now, she was ready to face the world for the day! What a privilege and honor for us to be able to enter a home in a Muslim village, where white westerners are not the norm as those happening to drop by for a visit! We spent several minutes in the yard and then left by the side door. Once outside, I told the rest of the team I was going to take a walk further up the alley and just have a chance to chat with some of the locals. There were two boys, about sixteen years old, standing in the doorway of one of the houses and so I began talking with them. Both had gone to school and spoke some English. I asked them their names and they asked me mine. When I told them my name is Elias, he boy said his father was also named Elias, so I asked if he was close by so I could meet him. In a few minutes, I met the other Elias and believe it or not, through stumbling through few words of English and Hindi, he asked if Sarah was with me. I questioned him on this and he repeated his question if Sarah was with us. I told him no but that her father and mother were with me in another area of Bisru. Just imagine, two years ago, Sarah Miller was a part of our team and Elias remembered her! What ate the chances? We said out goodbyes to the team of locals at the booth and began to walk back to the area she we would be taken back in small vans to Punhana to meet the rest of the team members and take our buses to our camp site near she we would be helping to build the dam for the next few days.