A reflection (mostly) about...you guessed it...gender...

A lot has happened since the last time I posted!

I spent the day following the wonderful welcome I received at CWES last Thursday reading and learning about the organization and doing some preliminary research on other organizations that have peacebuilding initiatives, since CWES wants to add peacebuilding to its list of activities/programs. As I read, I realized that most nonprofits/NGOs have some sort of peacebuilding initiatives, or at least it seemed this way, though they all do something different. I also read a paper about how so many organizations are simply ‘adding’ peacebuilding as an area of focus because that is what a lot of larger organizations and foundations want to fund. Hopefully, though, I will be able to help CWES come up with a plan and program that will be meaningful and make a difference.

I continually feel more blessed as I spend time here in Pokhara. One reason, is because I have essentially also been ‘adopted’ by Sabita and Upendra’s organization, MSBK...which is so cool, because I kind of have two internships now. On Saturday, Sabita took me with her and several field staff members to two rural communities about 30 minutes outside of Pokhara. MSBK went to conduct some assessments and gather information about school-aged children who are in some way ‘sponsored’ either by World Vision or another partner of MSBK’s (I’m still trying to figure out how all of it works). Children from many different schools all met at one designated school to have their height and weight recorded, their picture taken, and to answer questions about their favorite subject in school, what they eat for lunch, which Nepali festivals/ceremonies they like best, etc. The children were so sweet and many of them spoke very good English. They also taught me some Nepali! There were two boys, one from each site we went to, who were very eager to learn about the US They both asked similar questions: like what the name of the National Anthem is (the first time, I couldn’t remember, which was embarrassing!), who I thought was going to win in the US vs. England World Cup match, if we have mountains like Mt. Everest, etc. One little boy asked me the name of a mountain in the US because I said we didn’t have any big mountains like Mt. Everest, only smaller mountains, but I said we had a lot of them because the US is so big compared to Nepal. I said Mt. Bachelor, which is the mountain I grew up near in Oregon (again, because I was embarrassed I couldn’t think of any better response), and then one of his friends made fun of me because I didn’t know its height when he asked haha...Sabita tried to make me feel better by saying that in the 5th/6th grade, I probably knew a lot more about mountain heights and such things because that would have been what I was probably studying in science class. I still felt silly, though...it was like that show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader,” or whatever, and on Saturday, I apparently was not! Oh ya, and one of the boys asked me if the US was a republic, haha... the kids were so great!

On that note, though, I learned a good lesson about how gender plays out in the classroom and why girls receive less attention and praise in school. I spent a large amount of my time at both of the schools we visited talking to these two boys - not on purpose, they were just eager to talk to me, and weren’t afraid to show it and be outgoing (i.e., they were socialized to be this way). The girls on the other hand, were more quiet and often partially covered their mouths with their hands as they spoke (out of nervousness and self-esteem, I am thinking...and also a result of their socialization). They didn’t seek me out to ask me specific questions and they also moved away when boys came over to talk to me. The result was that I praised the two little boys for how good their English was...further reinforcing the idea that boys are ‘smarter’ than girls and do better in school. Well, there is a chance that the girls’ English was just as good, and they just didn’t have the courage/confidence to act the same as the boys and/or maybe it is culturally/socially unacceptable for them to act the same way as the boys...probably both. It is also probably true that their English wasn’t as good as the boys’ - and this goes back to the beginning of the story, that girls are paid less attention to and praised less in the classroom.

I didn’t realize all of this until I went home and journaled about my day...I was so disappointed that I had fallen into the ‘societal trap’ that is patriarchy and gender discrimination. It was a good/hard lesson learned, and my goal is to not fall into this pattern in the future.

Anyways, on Sunday I also got to go into a migrant community with CWES. They were conducting a review of a women’s embroidery training program they had been a part of, as well as of a school-related program they had conducted in the community (again, I’m still not quite sure what exactly the program was). I was expecting something very different than what actually happened there! My thought was that the participants themselves - the women who had gone through the training and the children - would be ‘reviewing’ the programs/assessing them. This, however, was not the case. There were teachers there, who gave feedback, but most of the feedback came from politicians representing multiple political parties and the government who were there. I think we got to the community around 12:00, the meeting started around 12:30, and we then sat there through speeches by these politicians (all men) until about 4:00 pm! It was obviously more difficult for me to concentrate than it was for others, since I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying (though my supervisor in CWES tried to translate some parts of the speeches afterwards); but wow, I have to say that Nepali people are so patient! Each speech was 20+ minutes long, with short introductions by CWES staff in between...not many people talked to one another during the speeches, nobody got up to use the bathroom, there was one communal water bottle going around, but it ran out quickly so after that, nobody had anything to drink (and although we were under cover in an open air meeting space, it was still 80+ degrees with high humidity). Even the children sat quietly and patiently through all 4 hours of the program! Some women gave speeches, like the woman who conducted the embroidery training and several CWES staff members, but their speeches were much shorter than the men’s/politicians...which might sound obvious, but it was just so interesting to observe, especially since that’s all I was observing since I didn’t understand what was being said. I also gave a short speech, haha, per invite from the CWES staff person who was the team leader for the day...mine was very short and my CWES supervisor translated. I was nervous, but it went okay :) Although I didn’t technically have a ‘weekend,’ I don’t really feel like what I’m doing is ‘work,’ so I guess that’s good...though I am looking forward to taking some time next Saturday to do some exploring I haven’t had a chance to do. As you can tell, I didn’t have time to take the boat ride to the temple at the lake or anything like that (though I did rent a bicycle yesterday for just 3 days to see if I want to rent one for the rest of the summer).

And today, I’m back in the CWES office reading and learning about more programs. I had a long conversation with my supervisor this morning about the HIV prevention and education program they conduct with female sex workers and their clients. It is very comprehensive and impressive; I hope I get to see some of it ‘in action’ at some point, in the sense that there are peer educators and community mobilizers that work for CWES who go out into hotels and restaurants here in Pokhara and surrounding areas in order to identify female sex workers and their clients, so that they can then teach them about HIV/AIDS and hopefully encourage them change their behavior in certain ways so they are less at risk for contracting the disease and/or other sexually transmitted infections. CWES also partners with another organization in Pokhara that conducts free testing for all of these things for women and men.

Lastly, and unrelated to work, Sabita and I are becoming great friends. I learned that her husband is doing his master’s in human ecology in Belgium, which sounds so interesting, and that he will be home for the first time in 3 years at the end of 2010. They have only talked via email except a couple of times!!!! I miss all of you so much, but cannot imagine being away from the people I love for that long! She is very strong, and is so supportive of his studies! I also learned from her that she is currently working on her own master’s thesis! She doesn’t have to take any more classes, so is in the writing process now. She is doing it on socioeconomic empowerment for women in a particular community that I, again, have now forgotten the name of (I need to be better at writing things down). I haven’t learned many details of her study, yet, but I hope to soon :)

Like I said, I miss and love you all. Will post again soon :)