NID - National Inoculation Day

Today we helped administer polio drops to the children of two new villages. Polio is very prevalent in India. You see victims in the street everywhere. They can be recognized by their useless legs. Some are lucky enough to have only one leg affected and can get thru life using crutches or canes, dragging the limb behind them. Others have both legs affected and pull themselves around using their hands. Remember, there are no social programs here to help the disabled. You help yourself or you die. I wish I could take a photo of one of these victims to publish on this blog, but it is just too up close and personal.

This disease is easily preventable with vaccines. Many parents will not allow their children to receive them because they think it is an attempt for us to sterilize their race. I guess when you are uneducated it is an easy enough thing to assume.

At lunch we went back to the local hospital where our meal was prepared for us. Now, ladies and gents, there was an experience. It was more like a dilapidated warehouse in downtown Toronto. It terrifies me to think that I may get sick here and end up using one of these facilities. Hopefully the black market (thanx, Bonny) antibiotics that Sean crammed down my throat on the airplane are still in my system. To paint a picture, as Sean and I were wandering thru the corridor in search of a washroom, a healthy sized rat leaped from a nearby closet, ran to the other side and then back again. I had already spent the morning in a rat infested alley with some women doing the NID so I was immune. Poor Seanie. He must have been in a cleaner part of town and had not built up his immunity.