Our important meeting with the woman of the village

1/30/09Started our day at 8AM. We walked from the farm to the job site again. Today was Linda’s day to play queen as she came down with something and had to spend the day at the farm recovering. Saw the monkeys but they were not amenable to getting their picture taken. We finished the front wall today. After lunch the senior women of the village asked us (the women)to come and meet with them. Upon arriving we sat with them while Sanjiv translated. There are 1,250 women and girls in the village of which 400-500 will be using this facility. They would like at least 2 more facilities built at other locations in the village. The women currently are walking several miles to bath in the river (with their clothes on) and several miles in the opposite directions to go to the bathroom in a field. They are very anxious for us to finish the building so they can start using it. Those who use it will have to pay something to do so, although that has yet to be determined. The money that they pay will be used for the up keep of the building as well as to hire a guard for the building. The head of the village is a women but is not seen by many. In all of the dealings with the Delhi West Rotary club they never were able to meet with her, they had to go through the husband. I don't have a feeling one way or the other as to weather she is just a figure head or weather she does have some authority within the village. It would be quite a feat if she did have authority seeings how women seem to be so oppressed in the village. We talked about what foods we grew in our respective parts of our countries as well as education. Upon leaving we found out the men had gone to play a game of cricket so we headed to the field. Crissie gave her hand at hitting & pitching. On the way to the farm it struck me as to how funny it was how all of the large commercial trucks are decorated to the hilt with stickers, garland, colored lights and flags. They seem to take great pride in the vehicle they are driving. The sunsets and sunrises are absolutely spectacular. None of the pictures I took did them justice. We can also see the Mere Space Station with binoculars from the farm. The nights have been cool I’m guessing around 50 with a slight breeze. Tomorrow we are headed to Delhi to see a school project that was completed in the slums with a matching grant. In the afternoon we will go to a temple.