Day 9

Time to play catch up! We’ve been in and out of hotels for a few days so I haven’t been getting good internet to update my blog. Day 9 we visited Kudumbashree which an organization dedicated to eradicating poverty in Kerala by empowering women in the community. It was a really inspiring organization that reminded me a lot of the Crisis Center I volunteer at but on a much larger scale. They have a lot of programs to benefit the communities in Kerala and most are aimed towards women and children. A few of the programs they have are all female collective farming, schools for mentally disabled children, collective community loans, and gender self-learning for women empowerment.

Later that day we visited the slums in the area which Costford has redesigned so that they are better living conditions. Part of the slums have not been redone so it was interesting to see the before and after at the same time. The lay out was really creative and visually pleasing but the homes were very small which is to be expected in slum dwellings. Seeing these small spaces where an entire family would be living made me think about how much more I have than I really need to survive. 

While at the slums the community leader of the slums offered me some coconut meat she had cut herself and I was the only person to not think before I ate it. We were concerned as to what kind of serious gastrointestinal problems I was going to come down but I made it through the next couple days without getting sick so that was awesome.

 

That night after I made spectacle of our room by hanging my hand washed underwear all over ever surface (my roommate is a saint for putting up with me) we did something amazing… we ordered Domino’s Pizza! It wasn’t the best quality but it tasted pretty American so we were quite happy with it. Definitely the highlight of the night.