There is no doubt in my mind that each of us slept briefly but soundly, as we all anticipated joining local Rotarians and other volunteers to participate in what is hoped will be one of the last NIDs necessary in India. Two other members of our Team had arrived a day before us, having other commitments requiring them to travel with another carrier. Dave and Magda Baggett were registered at the same hotel, and I rang their room, introduced myself and took them each a shirt, especially made for the NID, the cost for which was partially underwritten by the folks at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Wells-Fargo Home Mortgage division. We had our bags brought to the lobby, enjoyed breakfast and were again met by the High Points representative, as well as Ravi Dayal. Once finished with breakfast and check-out, we left the hotel, checked our luggage as it was loaded onto the van and proceeded to a central distribution center in one of the oldest and poorest sections of Old Delhi. This is the same area where I had immunized children the very first time I came to India for an NID, in January 2001. The streets and alleys began to look familiar to me, as we bumped and jostled over the torn up and puddled road. The city was beginning to stir, with a few children playing marbles, a few carried cricket bats (it seems EVERYONE in India plays cricket!) and vendors pushed carts or pedaled their cycle rickshaws, all trying to avoid being “nudged” by an car or auto-rickshaw, being navigated by sleepy or sometimes impatient drivers.
From the parking area, we were divided into smaller groups, each headed by a member of the Delhi-West Rotary Club. We then arrived at the distribution center and climbed the two flights of stairs and were then introduced to the physician who was overseeing that center. This gentleman had been participating in the Polio Plus Campaigns and NIDs for well over fifteen years! His dedication and attention to detail both contribute to the success of the program in this section of Delhi. Ravi Dayal also explained more about the program and the plans for the day. Literally hundreds of vials of the polio vaccine are brought to distribution centers, like this one, a few days before the NID. The cases of vaccine are kept in freezers, in order to maintain a temperature for viability. The night before the NID, the physician and other volunteers gather to divide the boxes of vaccine into smaller lots, which would be taken to the “booths” for distribution to the children.
Following our briefing, each smaller group went with one or two local Rotarians and took the “cold packs” containing vaccine, to the booths which had been set up in schools or training centers or even a small medical clinic. Sometimes the local volunteers who would be immunizing the children, even willing to pose for a photo opportunity with our Team members, met us. We worked our way through the back streets and neighborhood play areas, and eventually back to the paring area, where we had left the van. Each of us had the opportunity to administer those “TWO TINY DROPS OF LIFE-SAVING VACCINE” to the children who had arrived at the nearby booth.
Since we were on a very busy schedule, we left that area, to be driven to another section of Delhi, where the Delhi-West Rotary Club would be working on the NID.
A few years ago, then president of the Rotary Club of Delhi-West, Ashok Kantoor, 
through his prior meetings with three members of my own Rotary Club of South Berwick, Maine (our Club president, Helen Goransson, myself and Bonnie Richardson) had successfully written a Matching Grant proposal for the establishing of a vocational training center, to be funded partially by The Rotary Foundation and partially by Sarvarth Foundation (which would take care of funding the actually construction of the building addition). Our Team arrived, and each of us was “garlanded” by a young girl – a traditional greeting where garlands of colorful marigolds are placed around the neck of the visitors. Also on hand to welcome us were Ashok Kantoor, as well as several members of the Delhi-West Club, and a local politician or two.
When I had visited this site only one year ago, I had been pleased with the progress the project had enjoyed. Sewing machines had been purchased through a donation of Anne Russell of the Rotary Club of Hampton, New Hampshire (another member of the Team from 2004).
Computers had been donated and children were learning computer science, cosmetology and sewing skills. However, this year, a second story has been constructed through funding from the Sarvarth Foundation in cooperation with the local government’s district collector.
While there at Sarvarth, each of us had the opportunity to immunize a number of other children, as well as to distribute two dozen pair of reading glasses, which had been donated by the Delhi-West Rotary Club, as a part of the many Eye Camps they sponsor throughout the year. These Eye Camps are conducted in order to screen people with cataracts, as well as other disorders. Once identified, some of the people receive corrective surgeries, while others receive glasses to help correct the problem. Looking into the faces of these folks reminded each one of us just how very fortunate, even blessed, we are.
We departed the Sarvarth project and then rode two hours to Sohna, to meet with still more of the members of the Delhi-West Rotary Club, as well as leaders from Rotary District 3010. Sanjiv Saran, incoming president of the Delhi-West Rotary Club was hosting a luncheon at his farm and weekend retreat. When we arrived, District Governor Damanjit Singh, whom I had met six years ago, as well as the District Governor from Sri Lanka, and others greeted us. They had come not only to enjoy a luncheon, but also to help launch the work project we would call “home” for the coming week.
Following lunch, our driver took us to the village of Chahalka, a few kilometers from Sanjiv’s farm, where we met some of the elders of the village, as well as many, many children. For some, I am sure we were the first Americans they had ever seen, so we were quite the attraction. At the site, Sanjiv explained the basics of the project. We would be constructing a washing stand, so that once completed, the ladies and girls of Chahalka would be able to wash their eating utensils and their laundry items, away from the reservoir of drinking water, with the waste water being drained properly, to avoid polluting the water supply..jpg)
Currently, these women and girls climb atop the cover for the reservoir, and scrub their pots and pans, as well as their clothing and towels and tablecloths, right on top of the concrete cover, dumping the soiled water over the side. In addition, some of the children bring their water buffalos to the same site to wash them. 
All of this wastewater then seeps into the ground and back into the reservoir, thereby polluting the drinking water, as well as trickling into a stream directing stinking polluted water into the playground for the local school.
Once the project was explained, we took a few moments to observe an initiation of the project. I was invited forward to the corner of where some bricks had been laid, marking the outline of the platform we would be constructing. I would learn later that this corner is the one which would face Mecca – the holiest site for Muslims. I was handed a coconut that one of the men in the town had just picked from a nearby tree, and was directed to smash open the coconut at this corner. In so doing, we were all offering prayers that this construction project would be auspicious. On the first try, I cracked open the coconut, the milk inside drizzled down onto the bricks, and all of the people in the village applauded. Work began!
We all joined together to carry broken rocks into the enclosed area, which would form the base for the new washing platform. Some of us were in “rock lines”, while others carried hods or basins of rocks, which we dumped into the enclosure. Ravi, Sanjiv and others had laid the beginnings of the brick wall the previous week. When we had the entire area covered with the broken rocks, we then had to remove some along the perimeter, in order to establish the area for proper draining.
The size of the rock pile had been seriously diminished, and we eventually left to return to the farm. Members of the Team would be staying at the Sohna Motel, just a short distance from Sanjiv’s farm. We were driven there, offloaded the luggage and rooms were assigned.
A short while later, the Team returned for dinner at Sanjiv’s farm – this would serve as the base for all of our meals over the coming week. It had been quite a first day and recalling Robert Frost’s poem – we had miles to go before we sleep, and promises to keep! Knowing that with some strenuous labor, funding, as well as some moments for entertaining the locals with our songs and antics, we could actually permanently affect the lives of these five hundred families, all began to sink in and encourage us to return on Monday morning.
through his prior meetings with three members of my own Rotary Club of South Berwick, Maine (our Club president, Helen Goransson, myself and Bonnie Richardson) had successfully written a Matching Grant proposal for the establishing of a vocational training center, to be funded partially by The Rotary Foundation and partially by Sarvarth Foundation (which would take care of funding the actually construction of the building addition). Our Team arrived, and each of us was “garlanded” by a young girl – a traditional greeting where garlands of colorful marigolds are placed around the neck of the visitors. Also on hand to welcome us were Ashok Kantoor, as well as several members of the Delhi-West Club, and a local politician or two.When I had visited this site only one year ago, I had been pleased with the progress the project had enjoyed. Sewing machines had been purchased through a donation of Anne Russell of the Rotary Club of Hampton, New Hampshire (another member of the Team from 2004).
Computers had been donated and children were learning computer science, cosmetology and sewing skills. However, this year, a second story has been constructed through funding from the Sarvarth Foundation in cooperation with the local government’s district collector.While there at Sarvarth, each of us had the opportunity to immunize a number of other children, as well as to distribute two dozen pair of reading glasses, which had been donated by the Delhi-West Rotary Club, as a part of the many Eye Camps they sponsor throughout the year. These Eye Camps are conducted in order to screen people with cataracts, as well as other disorders. Once identified, some of the people receive corrective surgeries, while others receive glasses to help correct the problem. Looking into the faces of these folks reminded each one of us just how very fortunate, even blessed, we are.
We departed the Sarvarth project and then rode two hours to Sohna, to meet with still more of the members of the Delhi-West Rotary Club, as well as leaders from Rotary District 3010. Sanjiv Saran, incoming president of the Delhi-West Rotary Club was hosting a luncheon at his farm and weekend retreat. When we arrived, District Governor Damanjit Singh, whom I had met six years ago, as well as the District Governor from Sri Lanka, and others greeted us. They had come not only to enjoy a luncheon, but also to help launch the work project we would call “home” for the coming week.
Following lunch, our driver took us to the village of Chahalka, a few kilometers from Sanjiv’s farm, where we met some of the elders of the village, as well as many, many children. For some, I am sure we were the first Americans they had ever seen, so we were quite the attraction. At the site, Sanjiv explained the basics of the project. We would be constructing a washing stand, so that once completed, the ladies and girls of Chahalka would be able to wash their eating utensils and their laundry items, away from the reservoir of drinking water, with the waste water being drained properly, to avoid polluting the water supply.
.jpg)
Currently, these women and girls climb atop the cover for the reservoir, and scrub their pots and pans, as well as their clothing and towels and tablecloths, right on top of the concrete cover, dumping the soiled water over the side. In addition, some of the children bring their water buffalos to the same site to wash them. 
All of this wastewater then seeps into the ground and back into the reservoir, thereby polluting the drinking water, as well as trickling into a stream directing stinking polluted water into the playground for the local school.Once the project was explained, we took a few moments to observe an initiation of the project. I was invited forward to the corner of where some bricks had been laid, marking the outline of the platform we would be constructing. I would learn later that this corner is the one which would face Mecca – the holiest site for Muslims. I was handed a coconut that one of the men in the town had just picked from a nearby tree, and was directed to smash open the coconut at this corner. In so doing, we were all offering prayers that this construction project would be auspicious. On the first try, I cracked open the coconut, the milk inside drizzled down onto the bricks, and all of the people in the village applauded. Work began!
We all joined together to carry broken rocks into the enclosed area, which would form the base for the new washing platform. Some of us were in “rock lines”, while others carried hods or basins of rocks, which we dumped into the enclosure. Ravi, Sanjiv and others had laid the beginnings of the brick wall the previous week. When we had the entire area covered with the broken rocks, we then had to remove some along the perimeter, in order to establish the area for proper draining.
The size of the rock pile had been seriously diminished, and we eventually left to return to the farm. Members of the Team would be staying at the Sohna Motel, just a short distance from Sanjiv’s farm. We were driven there, offloaded the luggage and rooms were assigned.A short while later, the Team returned for dinner at Sanjiv’s farm – this would serve as the base for all of our meals over the coming week. It had been quite a first day and recalling Robert Frost’s poem – we had miles to go before we sleep, and promises to keep! Knowing that with some strenuous labor, funding, as well as some moments for entertaining the locals with our songs and antics, we could actually permanently affect the lives of these five hundred families, all began to sink in and encourage us to return on Monday morning.
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