SPOWAC

The monsoons have finally come, giving us a much needed break from the heat. There is nothing like monsoon rain. It just pours and pours and pours without any mercy and it's so wonderful because it seems like even the pavement is thirsty. I'm starting my second week working with SPOWAC (Society for the Promotion of Women and Children) and it's truly been one of the most eye-opening experiences. This NGO is absolutely incredible. In brief, SPOWAC works with girls around 17-22 years old and they take workshops to learn skills in areas such as beautician, weaving, computers, English, and others. After six months they receive a certificate which helps them be more competitive in the job market. I've been put in a beautician classroom from 11am until 2pm and then the computer classroom until 4pm. In the beautician classroom the girls learn how to do make-up, threading, give manicures and pedicures, waxing, hair styles, facials and while my official role is to weave in English throughout the morning, my unofficial role has been to act as their practice client. So everyday the girls do my hair, massage my arms and legs, and do my make-up. It's a tough day :) One of the photos posted is of me in Indian bridal make-up!!!! Pretty amazing. By the way, the girls were methodically counting the number of dots on my forehead and when I asked the significance, they explained that the number of dots depends on the size of the forehead. Apparently my forehead required a lot of dots! The teacher's name is Deepa and aside from teaching at SPOWAC she runs her own salon in Delhi. I've posted another picture of her giving a lecture to some of the girls on different facial nourishing creams. Of note is that moments after this picture was taken she started talking about creams to be used especially with oily skin and after her explanation she motioned to me and said, "Oily skin like Emerald's. You see?" All the girls looked at my face and nodded in agreement--pretty hilarious. They also complain about how my hair is too silky which makes it hard to do proper Indian hair styles--My apologies!!! I really enjoy being in this classroom a lot. The girls are so kind and playful and are always so concerned that I'm not eating enough because I consistently decline the food they offer me. During a short break at 1:30pm they also teach me yoga, as they have noticed I have a hard time sitting on the floor all day. Deepa is really wonderful too. I usually give her a one-on-one English lesson while the girls practice their beautician skills and the other day she grabbed my hand and started examining my palm gave me an impromptu palm-reading. All good things of course and when we started talking about love we got into a conversation about what it is like to be a woman in India. She speaks excellent English and was very blunt with me, saying "a woman's life in India is very difficult." Deepa grew up with a very conservative father who arranged a marriage for her when she was 17 (she is in her thirties now) to an equally conservative man ten years her senior. She explained that she must ask permission to go anywhere, is never allowed to travel by herself, and had to convince her husband to let her work at SPOWAC even though they needed the extra income. She isn't dramatic about her story, just genuine and honest. When I mentioned Rajiv's differing account of arranged marriage she explained that higher class Indian families tend to be more open to women's roles. Deepa also knows all of her student's personal stories as well (she has shared a few with me and asked me to keep them private) and there is a clear student-teacher relationship within the classroom that is very strong--they all really care about each other and it seems that their time in the SPOWAC classrooms may be where they maintain most of the control of their day. Deepa explained that if the girls weren't at SPOWAC they would be staying at home tending to their own house until they were married off. Of all the amazing accomplishments of SPOWAC the most important one seems to be just putting women in contact with each other for long periods of the day so they can build relationships and learn from one another. Madame Lakshmi (the President of SPOWAC) says that even after the program the girls tend to remain friends for a long time. Deepa explained that many of the girls come from lower middle class conservative families and had to convince their families to let them attend. The benefit of educating girls isn't really understood I guess. To recruit the girls SPOWAC employs Community Mobilizers (their literal job title!!) to go out into the community and do recruitment presentations. The CM's are these big, handsome, extremely cheerful, well-dressed men and they have offered to take me with them this week to watch some of their presentations--very exciting!!! Regarding the computer class, I was seriously anxious about being in charge of teaching computer skills as my own skills are marginal at best. But these girls are learning the absolute basics: Caps Lock, Tab, Enter, Delete. The other day I showed a this girl Priyti (pronounced like Pretty) how to use the Shift key instead of Caps Lock to make capitol letters and I swear she beamed with the new knowledge. I've attached a photo of the girls learning during a computer lesson on Page Breaks. The lesson took over an hour and even with the heat and the being uncomfortable from sitting for so long the girls visibly worked hard to stay focused. They really seem to value every moment they have at SPOWAC. Sriram, Madam Lakshmi's son who also works for SPOWAC, explained that SPOWAC is mostly trying to change minds. As much as they are trying to help the girls, they are trying to change the environment around the girls as well. It's hard though because much of the state of woman in India is based on embedded cultural traditions that can't just be thrown out. "It's a difficult balance. We must promote reform while still maintaining respect for culture." It's been an amazing week and I'm so glad I've given myself another month to learn more. Happy 4th everyone!!!