Polio Mop-Up and Community Diagnosis

Drying laundry in the front yard.
Altar. These red alters were in the front of nearly every home in the village. Sometimes significant plants are placed atop the altars to celebrate a holiday.
The chalk marks used by the health workers to indicate whether children dwell in the home, and whether they have been vaccinated.
This is how the kitchen fire is fed outside of the home. As a result of this method of cooking many women and children (because children might be held while a woman prepares a meal in the kitchen) experience respiratory problems. You can often tell where the kitchen is located in a home by looking for concentrated areas of blackness on the roof.
This man was out sweeping his porch this morning.
Transporting firewood.
Huxley and Mr. Poot's Indian cousin.
A very happy doggie who relaxes on a chair. His owner is the man I photographed pulling the wood.
One of the village women. She was kind enough to let me photograph her even though she was in her nightclothes. I think that she is very beautiful.
Grazing calf.
This child was vaccinated this morning. The child is wearing eyeliner, which is a cultural tradition, as well as the "beauty marks" you see on the cheeks of many Indian infants (of which she has one).
This is to ward off evil spirits.
Signs like these are a Christian tradition in India.

This morning we went to a village with local health workers. The purpose of the visit was to go house to house to determine whether the eligible children from that home had received the polio vaccination yesterday. The health workers marked each home to indicate whether there were children, and if they had been vaccinated. For a handful of children the vaccine was administered today on their front porches. This particular village had a lot of animals hence the photos.

This afternoon we did our first Community Diagnosis. We went with university faculty who work in the community to meet with a local family to discuss their health, any issues with their health, and their family planning. The family we met with makes about 3K rs/month, or 100 rs/day (about $2 per day). They were a little unusual in that they have more resources than many other rural Indian families might like land that they farm, a well, animals, and a solid structure home. They are Christians, and have only two children, which is also unusual. Both of their children are in private school, and the parents do not intend for their children to be farmers when they grow up. Among their cadre of animals were chicken, chicks, dogs, puppies (6 days old), cats, and cows. They were very kind to host our group and speak to us about their family.