Last days at SUEB

Even though its my last day in general, I would like to keep you up to date with what happened after Kodaikanal. The hiking trip down to the valley was crazy by the way, especially because I entered the town and directly took the overnight bus back to Chennai.

Anyway, my last days at SUEB were wonderful. I realised how much they learnt, how they started to communicate with me and I didn't need a Tamil translator in the class at all. If there was a problematic word, we just looked it up or somehow described it. And my self-defense class was great as well, I couldn't teach much (well, I don't really have the qualification to really teach a lot), but they learnt basic things, be it just to show self-confidence and how to deal with a man that harasses them. Oh, and the boss of this SUEB branch gra, he made me (and other people) so angry by saying that the Tamil culture of respecting a woman makes sure that there are no rape cases, especially not within the families. That just doesn't exist. Also, its girls own fault if something happens, they just shouldn't be in dangerous situations. Nice, hu? In Bangalore, I met another woman, the wife of an uncle of a friend, she did the first study (1994) on rape and molestation in India and she has other numbers than 0%, basically the same we have in Europe, I would say. I will therefore make sure he has this study. As soon as I have it I will certainly link it.

The goodbye was hard. I made very dear friends among my collegues. One of them said, "I will remember you because you talked to everyone and had lunch with the stuff and not with [the boss]." Well, would you say no if your collegues would stuff you with homemade Indian vegetarian food? And one of my students, so cute, ran after me and pressed her earrings in my hand, she wanted me to have something to remember her.

Friday I left for Bangalore!