Yesterday, my life changed for the better.

First of all, let me talk about the staff here at IDEX. They are all locals and love their jobs. They are the kindest people I have ever met. Priya does the cleaning and laundry. Yesterday the power was out almost all day and so her and I sat and chatted about her life here. Her family lives 8 hours away on bus and she only sees them once every 6 months. However, she is engaged and will be married next year so she will be back there with 'a husband and a house.' She did say to me that she wouldn't have children for 5-6 years (she's 20). I said there is lots of time! Get to know your husband and get some schooling and she thought that was very clever. Vikrant is the Coordinator here, and is training ---- who has remembered my first and last name since I arrived. I was the first volunteer he helped get settled so everytime I walk into a room he says, "Ahh yes, Tamara McLeeeelllan" Haha. Sohan is the Camp Manager, he is the nicest man I've ever met. Yesterday, he came with me to my first day just to ensure I would be okay -- even though I was going with the two women that teach at my camp. Sohan is always on the phone - even when he was sharing a seat with our tuk-tuk driver yesterday on the way to the camp. So, to move on, on the way to work we got pulled over and our driver was fined 100 Rs and had his lisence taken away. I'm not sure why, but it wasn't the greatest start to a work day.

However, when we arrived I knew this was a very special day in my life. The Katputali camp is a major slum area in Jaipur. We pulled up in the tuk tuk and they said - ahh, can't you see our school room. It was a tiny yellow cement shack among all of the other grey shacks. I said, "That's it?!" and sure enough when we got there, it is about 5 feet x 5 feet. Gitadevi, our first (and star pupil) was there waiting for us. She is a 45 year old Indian woman who lives in the slums and has taken this schooling upon her as something to do. She is a star. She laughs all the time and thinks that math is hilarious, counting is a song and life is something to celebrate. She is beautiful and I will upload pictures as soon as I have one moment to bring my camera over from my flat. I then met the other ladies - our translator Neha had to go and get them out of their homes -- there was Mamta, Nirma, Manna, Seema and Keladevi. They range from 17 - 50 and are all married. Twice, two small children ran into the room while we were teaching and latched on for milk. The room is so small that with three of us teachers and all of the women, we are all touching knees. All of the women introduced themselves to me by writing their name on our whiteboard and did it quite well. They thought it was WONDERFUL that I was from Canada and had such pretty hair. They know basic English - such as body parts, boy, girl, mother daughter.

A special moment was when Maria Theresa (the Brazilian woman that I'm taking over for) taught them to say, "I am a woman." They all roll their w's and it sounded so beautiful coming out of their mouths. Woman. Woman. We continued to repeat. At 12:30 we switch to math class and they are quite good at that. We first counted to 100 and it was like a special chant or song, with us cheering when we got to 100. They were so proud and laughing and clapping at that. We started doing some math that applied to their lives, so we did discounts - as if you were getting a discount at the market. They can add and subtract from 1 - 100 quite well and so I already have ideas for next week to start going though some basics like profit and margins. Gitadevi sews well so I will use her as an example - if you purchase material for x and then you sell for y, you make money!!!

It is really quite lucky that we have Neha there to translate. She is 18 years old and lives here in Jaipur, although she looks only 15 at most. I talked to her about her schooling and where she got it - because she understands English so well and can translate so well for the women. She told me she's in her 2nd year of University and is taking Economics -- yet she works all day in the slums for IDEX and so she studies on her own and only writes exams at school. She's very inspirational. She got sad when I said I was here for only 4 weeks. It must be hard for all of the girls, women and her as volunteers come and go. But in India, they say you always, always stay in their hearts. They are already in mine.

After we were done with the women, we walked to a slightly larger shack that is the Adolescent Girls school. We had a quick lunch and Seema's daughter (Seema is one of our women who kept feeding during our lesson) kept coming in to sit with us. Her daughter is maybe 1 year old and is adorable. Their 'house' is right beside the girls school and it's bare floors, bare walls and a small cooking stove. The sewer runs right through the houses.

After lunch, 11 girls from around the slum area showed up for lessons. They were amazingly well dressed, with braids and ribbons in their hair. They go to school in the morning and are much more advanced than the woman. We started the lesson with "Use the verb "to be" in an affirmative form with an adjective." They had no problem with this! Later, they were engaged in a long discussion over the Universe, how Earth came to be and even asked questions relating to how their Hindu Gods came to be and what matter was - who created matter, etc etc. They are very smart and inquisitive. Maria Theresa told me later that she often has discussions with them about what it means to be a woman, that we can hold our heads high (even when sweeping - Maria Theresa's example). That to hold our heads low signifies submission, but to never give up, and that we can choose our own destiny and decide what we want for ourselves - no one else has to decide.  I am anxious to have some shaping power with these girls. There is so much I want to tell them, but as in Half the Sky - it's dangerous for a Westerner to push them beyond the limitations of their life. I want to empower them, but to know they'll act with respect for their own religions.

There are also two old dusty computers in the room, so Katja takes two of them each lesson over to the computer and teaches them skills with Word, Excel and even how to navigate using the mouse. I will teach them to type!!! Kay gave me that skill!

The girls told me (or told Neha, who told me) that I look like a woman from the Punjabi - which apparently is an Indian woman who is 'pretty and very cool.' They also wind their hair around their head and I had a braid around the side of my hair into a ponytail yesterday so that was 'cool.' They were fascinated to hear how many brothers and sisters I have, did I have a boyfriend, was Canada snowing all the time. Already I feel protective of them and after the lesson I wanted to take them home with me!

I feel like every women I met represents someone I already know. It's bizarre. I see in them so many traits of the women I know from Canada. They are beautiful, smart and just want to enjoy life. They are mothers, friends, daughters, wives and sisters. And they are our sisters too. I know I cannot change their worlds. I only hope I can bring the joy to them in the next month that they've already brought to me upon one meeting.

Maria Theresa and I went for pizza last night and she told me about the Hindu gods. It's not very often you get to sit in an Indian restaurant in India, listening to a lady from Brazil who speaks beautiful, broken English tell you about the Hindu Gods and religion.

I was SO. TIRED by the end of the day. Exhausted. I was up at 4 a.m. and the heat and emotional energy of being there for 6 hours drains me. Most volunteers here are only do two hour projects, some four hours. So it is a lot for me and next week I will be alone until the next volunteer comes. But I am up to it. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be here. I am just about to go shower and head to work, day #2. Sorry if this is long winded and has spelling errors, I'm pounding this out as chaos awaits upstairs with our cooks here and one of the volunteers is in Pushkar and needs her passport faxed to her asap and so I must go. Love you all so much!! I imagined each of you in the room with me and knew your joy would be the same as mine. I promise to upload pictures so very soon..

Chalo! Hindi, meaning Let's go!

PS - there is also a South African woman I am rooming with - Sara - she is sitting beside me now and is kind of hectic! She said the word 'hectic' yesterday and it reminded me that that's where I got it from. Haha.