women

today had a strange start- at night i'm dreaming like i'm revealing my soul to myself and there seems to be much to deal with in the shower in the morning. Then we awoke to discover the cleaning lady here has been stealing our food like potatoes & mangoes, she drinks the Sprite in the kitchen and then pours water in it to top it up. It's so funny (and sad) that she thinks she can get away with it seeing as she is the only suspect. Then we found a new born kitten at the front door - almost like an offering and for all the cat lovers out there... stop reading now... it died this afternoon being so frail and new.
The afternoon we went to give a seminar on HIV & Domestic Violence/ General Enpowerment to a group of women in a more rural area. They were very receptive and willing to learn and discuss and by the end of the session there was some great and revealing comments from the group about some women that they know who have been victims of domestic violence so extreme that they have died or committed suicide. The women then band together and arrange for someone to become the step mother of the children of that women. There was one woman in that group who was one of those children. It was quite rewarding to see them talk so openly about it as usually they are too shy or scared to discuss this in an open forum.
They said some amazing things as well.. I was explaining to them that it doesn't matter where you are from or what colour your skin is but that all women should be equal. One woman explained that they don't see skin colour as all women have the same mind. The group also identified that women have their own power that is different from the men. It's so great to hear women in India say these things as the male dominated society is so overwhelming here at times that you think that some women are just too repressed to even have an opinion. Which I am slowly realising is not the case. They bitch about their husbands and say they are hopeless always sleeping all the time.
India is a place of such juxtapose.. the dowry is still praticed even though it is illegal and women are repressed and expected to marry & have children as their only sense of purpose. But yet they have so many women politicians and leaders in the country who are extremely influential and also respected. Things are definetely changing here...
I was so moved to see the same women support network in the middle of a rural town in India as I have at home. Women everywhere really do have the same mind.