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Spontaneous field trip out to the farms with the ladies
I'm sitting here in my village, in a room of 18 grown women with most of them still nursing their newborn babies.  The age of women range from 16-40 years old.  They are being taught Bambara in addition to basic literacy. To put it simply, these people amaze me.  They are in the middle of Africa taking care of at least 7 children, working from well before sunrise to long affter sunset, yet they have the desire to learn.  And for what?  They will most likely not leave Namposella.  They will rarely, if ever, have to read anything.  The entire village speaks Mianiankan so they will get very little practice yet, here I am, sitting with now 19 grown women watching them try and read.  It's beyond motivating.

I come from a culture where if there isn't a good reward at the end of the line, you rarely ever commit.  You don't dedicate yourself to a cause generally "just because".  But these women, they don't seem to care about the end goal.  To be honest, literacy at this point in their lives, will not directly make their life better or any easier.  They will still care for their children, still have to do more manual labor than what their bodies can handle and still live without electricity or running water.  Yes, there is the hope that with education these women will feel more empowered and in turn make better personal life decisions such as sending their young girls to school.  However there is no school to teach that.

So we start here.  See where it goes.  Watch where this one room school with 19 grown women will take us...
Katie
3/30/2012 04:49:53 am

Love your posts lacker--they give me shivers reading them. Though you feel like you've done "nothing" you've made an impact just by being you.

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evan
3/31/2012 04:29:56 am

so out of curiosity, can the men read in general? or is illiteracy affecting men and women equally?

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