Wednesday, July 21st - Tarika Women's Centre, Day 1

(Note: read the previous posts, below, if you want to hear about the trip in chronological order.)

On Wednesday we visited the Tarika Women's Centre, which is in Bangalore, maybe a half-hour drive from the OM campus. There were many women gathered in the main rooms, sitting in groups on the floor and talking excitedly amongst each other when we came in. It was instantly a spirit of joy in that place.

When we gathered with the centre staff for devotions and to learn more about the program, we learned that normally they would have class sessions throughout the day, but that today was a special day. Instead of their normal classes, all of the women had come in the morning and had divided up into groups, which were coming up with things to perform in a show before lunch. (We were later told that the women had all worn their best outfits, and that the lunch they all later ate was probably the best meal most of them had ever eaten-- although it appeared quite simple to us, and we had the same thing plus more dishes. And yes, I did feel really quite weird about eating a different meal from the women, seated in chairs in the next room. But we did first get to serve the women, bringing each a paper plate full of the food to where they sat in crowded rows on the floor.)

We also heard from the woman who runs the program a bit about some of the women's stories. In addition to the computer, spoken English, and tailoring/embroidery classes, the centre also has a room where up to 4 women can stay. Two women were currently living there, in addition to one of the teachers. (I'm not going to share the details of their stories here, but let's just say, they would make you cry. No, really.) It was amazing to hear what these women had been through-- and these were not the only examples, or some sort of rare extreme scenario, they just happened to be the two cases currently at hand.

We then moved into the main room, where the women put on all sorts of acts-- dancing, singing, skits. Even without translation at some times, the messages and spirit of their performances were clear. (And the skit that the staff put on, besides being popular with the students, was about the funniest thing I can imagine being put together in a morning-- if they followed the same timeframe that the students had put together their acts, anyway. I about died laughing.) We contributed a rousing rendition of "Father Abraham," and got them to stand up and participate, a second time through-- though I think they were more entertained by the initial experience of just watching all of us dance around.

After lunch, we spent some more time with the centre staff, and then two of them took several of us to a store to shop for saris. Angela, Kaitlyn and I picked some out, and the women at the centre are going to make the tops (they call them blouses) for the saris for us, based on our measurements (which they took the next morning, in inches, interestingly enough). The sari-shopping outing also ended in our first (and, it turned out, only on this trip) ride in "autos" (the 3-wheeled rickshaws that are all over)! Four of us packed into each one. Sheba told the driver to go slow, but as I was not on the outside half hanging out, I wouldn't have minded if he kept up his normal speed and maneuvering-- it was fun!

By the time we got back to campus at dinner time, we were all looking forward to the opportunity to return to the women's centre the following day.