Ewart College

It's late but the internet connection is on and I don't know the next time it will be so I should write something. I could write 20 posts a day with all that I am taking in so I'm finding it hard to summarize. There are so many delicious details.

Speaking of delicious details, hooray for poop!
In short, as an unforeseen yet satisfying small victory, my tummy has finally adjusted to rice as the basis of every meal.
"Whew, I did not want to know that much about her India trip" all the good readers are now thinking. It's all part of the India adventure, folks.

Ewart Women's Christian College is where I have been spending the majority of my time here. I don't know how to begin except that I don't know if I've ever met a group of more genuine, caring, welcoming women my age in my entire life. I am genuinely going to miss so many of them. There are 70 "hostel girls" as they are called in this college of about 250 or so, which was founded 4 years ago as a branch of the much larger Madras Christian College. Their focus is on educating women, particularly rural village women that normally would never have the chance to get an education. They're funded through full or partial scholarships to gain the mobility to have a more prosperous life. Many of the women here are first-generation learners and many times the first woman, or person from their village to go to college. My host, Anne, a Kalamazoo college graduate (there's my connection), is the Dean of Development here. Officially she's a Presbyterian missionary, or at least that's who pays her salary. So her job is not the hard stuff, like being a professor and teaching the classes, but all the fun stuff. She's gotten a lot going-like tabla classes many of the women are involved in. Traditionally tabla is a "man's instrument" too complicated for women to learn which was a primary reason why she wanted them to learn, and they love it, also for that reason. (Tabla are Indian drums.) She's also introduced karate as a sports class to help them gain confidence as well as self defense skills which they've also loved and really excelled at. I get to be a part of their Orange Belt ceremony on Thursday which is going to be a really big thing with all kinds of bishops and important people. I've also become really interested in more karate after doing a few classes with them. My main project with them the past few weeks I've been here is teaching them how to write a speech with the topic "Karate and Me."-in English. This might sound like an elementary topic, but it's pretty complex considering many of these women have hardly given speeches, let alone in English, with a topic about themselves in relationship to something. I've learned a great deal about the Indian education system, which is so different from American education system. These women have never been asked about themselves before, the way the individual feels has never been an emphasis in Indian culture where the basic unit is the family rather than the individual. Family and not yourself is what is important in Indian culture, and that reflects in the educational system which emphasizes memorization of facts and figures rather than composing personal statements about oneself. So this was a revolutionary assignment for these women. Especially since it's in English is a bigger step, because for many of the first years-who just started a few weeks ago when the semester started in June, this is the first time they've really spoken English because they studied in Tamil Medium schools. (classes are in English here, because English is the way for better jobs. Everyone wants to learn English because it's the way to get ahead. Nevermind the connotations that it's the white European conqueror's language. It's too fargone at this point so it has to be the language to use to get ahead)

Anyhow, Anne and I put together a big workshop for them a few Saturdays ago taking them through the steps of writing this speech. I made made presentations on brainstorming and writing a draft and walked them through models of each. Anne seemed really impressed with how I did, and I was really impressed with what they came out with. We spent the week after revising the speeches and getting a draft prepared for a workshop the following week on public speaking......

etc. etc. etc....it's so late now. I have to go.
But I will write more on the actual people I'm hanging out with, my absolute favorite part about India, just hanging out at that college.

For now, check this out, where were going to explore tomorrow: Cholamandal Artist's Village.
Exciting!
http://www.chennaionline.com/toursntravel/placesofinterest/cholamandal.asp

As soon as the new hostel building with a new dining hall is finished, there will be more space for people to move