My first day at the program!

Monday was my first day at the women's empowerment program and I love it. It is not women but girls, ages 7-14. They come after school and Rani and I (Rani is working with me.) get to teach them whatever we want and whatever they want to learn. We go from 2:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. The first hour and a half are the younger girls, ages 7-11. It's a fairly large group, about 9 girls. They are still working on their English, although they are incredibly bright. On Monday we taught them the seven continents and about countries. The next hour and a half is spent with older girls, 12-14. There were 4 of them on Monday, and there are also extremely intelligent. We taught them about our countries (USA and Brazil) and then Rani started teaching them about BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and what it means to be a developed or not developed country. ADVANCED stuff. 

My project has really re-inspired me. I have become somewhat jaded since I've been here. It's hard to trust people because they are constantly trying to rip you off for money. And I am always aware that I am usually one of very few women around. (I have had no problems other than staring but the staring is incessant and blatant). There are so many people living in such a variety of conditions. You become used to seeing it, even after only 3 days. But working with the girls is really wonderful. It's a bit daunting, having to come up with literally every single thing you teach them, but it's fun. And they are so precious. They are so eager to learn and so bright -- like I said, I love it. Watching them learn and seeing how excited they are -- THAT'S why I am here. Soon I will have pictures of them and updates on our lesson plans.