Just thought this picture was funny.
I know that as I went through the day today I thought of at least 10 insightful things that I wanted to post on here--but now that I am finally at an internet centre, nothing comes to mind...

We are busy this week trying to arrange a "palm craft training session" for the girls this coming weekend. It is stressful because I won't be here (going to a family wedding in Namakkal) and I don't have the faith that the remaining staff will be as intense as me :) about getting things done and making girls come. Let's see if they're up to the challenge.

I've decided to refocus my energies here. Most of our staff here at LEAD are adolescent girls themselves. AND, the ones that I live with in the office, I've realized, are a captive audience! I don't have to go chase them down in their villages, or bribe them to participate in my programs :). These girls are from very disadvantaged backgrounds. Many have not ventured far from their home-villages before coming to work here for LEAD post-tsunami. And many leave suddenly when their parents arrange marriages for them. So I want to try my best in the time I have left with these girls to get them to think about how to utilize the skills and concepts they have learned here, in Cuddalore, when they go back to their "real lives."

What I've learned from them so far is discouraging. While they are empowered and feel empowered while they are here doing their work in Cuddalore, as soon as they go back to their home communities, they become the same girls they were before--the girls no one listens to, the girls that don't believe things can change. They tell me about the next door neighbor-woman who has been beaten by her drunkard husband from the day they were married, and they tell me about the fear they have of marrying a potentially bad man. And then they explain to me that there is nothing you can do about these things, nothing that can stop the inevitable. This is what I want my project to be, and these are the topics I spend most of my evenings talking about. The problem is, I don't know what the answers are for these girls, either. What ARE you supposed to do if you are married to a bad man? What DO you do if your next door neighbor is beating his wife to the extent that she becomes crippled?