Polio vaccination

This all came together very quickly and we have received approval from the Ministry of Health to provide polio vaccinations to the KII community already this Friday!

We needed to do a brief training on giving the vaccinations first. The training should take place at a government building just 10 minutes drive from home but it was only after half an hour when we arrived at the Administração Municipal. But the official sent us across the street to another building covered with posters announcing the vaccination campaign for this weekend.

That looked promising but also here no one was expecting us. After making many calls and waiting for another hour we found out that we were sent to a wrong Município. To sum up the conquering the bureaucracy took us almost 3 hours and at last we could start with the actual vaccination.

It’s always fun to see how the kids quickly spread the news that “the Americans” arrived. As usual we received a warm welcome from the people at KII. We didn’t really have to discuss how to fall on the vaccination itself.

We got immediately surrounded by curious kids watching us preparing the vaccines. So we just started with the youngsters around us.

It wasn’t without tears at moments and I can understand that some were scared.

Luckily, there was more laughter than tears! I remember what Maarten did when a strange nurse put him on his back only to measure him.

It was good to have our drivers with us. I have to say I was proud of our Bernardo. He was so sweet with the children comforting them with his “ A estrelinha que cuia como sambapito”.

It was not easy to tell the kids’ age. Not because of our broken Portuguese but some kids were trying to lie about their age. Maybe they were jealous at their younger friends and also wanted some attention from us or rather they simply enjoyed teasing us.

I also learned that the local children are crazy about taking pictures, especially when pictures were taken of them. When we took out the camera they were really eager to be in the shot!

That’s why it’s hard to find a picture without their poking smiling faces. It was hot and more demanding than I could imagine but enjoyable at the same moment.

Just look at the pictures!