The women's working day here at the production unit begins at 9.30am, they come from both the hostel here on the farm at MAT, and from the scattered surrounding villages. They have mostly done a days work before beginning - washing, cooking & cleaning for their families, or doing duties on the farm & helping care for the children at the orphanage, also here at MAT.
They work leisurely but methodically throughout the day, laughing, giggling and teasing each other constantly! There is a really supportive atmosphere & they all seem to really enjoy coming to work alongside their friends (sisters, as they call us). They enjoy snacks and sweets that they bring to share with everybody. They work in bare feet (which has proved a little hazardous with shards of metal littering the floor!), mainly sitting on mats on the floor to sew.
They break for lunch sabre at 1.00, eating outside in amongst potted plants that they have placed around the front of the production unit. They bring rice & dahl or curry gravy in stainless steel tiffin boxes, wrapped in fabric or carried in baskets.
Immediately around the unit lie paddy fields, vines growing bitter gourds & thousands of peanut plants. Small thatched shacks house chickens and a couple of pretty vicious turkeys! There is no toilet in the unit so the ladies disappear in ones or twos in amongst all the greenery...their saris are perfect for them to be able to do this discretely, albeit the squats of delicious colours glowing from a distance in the complimentary vibrant green vegetation...our trousers, however, are not so designed and I am sure we flash a white bum to the surrounding farm workers whenever we need to go!
The ladies finish at 5.00, sweeping up all the off cuts and threads with pointy hand brooms, rolling up the mats & closing all the windows. Whilst working after they had finished one night this week, Lottie spotted a cheeky chipmonk sneaking into the building through a broken window and running (for his life, when he realise he wasn't alone) across the main room and into the small room that houses all the spare fabric. We surmised that it would make a very comfy nest for little chipmonk babies & so had to draw pictures of the creature to be able to explain to the ladies of the new inhabitant - we didn't know the Tamil for chipmonk!
Immediately around the unit lie paddy fields, vines growing bitter gourds & thousands of peanut plants. Small thatched shacks house chickens and a couple of pretty vicious turkeys! There is no toilet in the unit so the ladies disappear in ones or twos in amongst all the greenery...their saris are perfect for them to be able to do this discretely, albeit the squats of delicious colours glowing from a distance in the complimentary vibrant green vegetation...our trousers, however, are not so designed and I am sure we flash a white bum to the surrounding farm workers whenever we need to go!
The ladies finish at 5.00, sweeping up all the off cuts and threads with pointy hand brooms, rolling up the mats & closing all the windows. Whilst working after they had finished one night this week, Lottie spotted a cheeky chipmonk sneaking into the building through a broken window and running (for his life, when he realise he wasn't alone) across the main room and into the small room that houses all the spare fabric. We surmised that it would make a very comfy nest for little chipmonk babies & so had to draw pictures of the creature to be able to explain to the ladies of the new inhabitant - we didn't know the Tamil for chipmonk!
I love that the word for bead is money, the two things still related after all this time and history. lots of love to you x
ReplyDeleteGracie, Lottie,
ReplyDeleteIt is just great to read your blog since it brings to life the two components of a) transforming the lives of people much more disadvantaged than you and b)a sense of your absorbtion and enjoyment of the visual, the social and the cultural. Kee 'em comin'.
If time allows I would be very interested in the economic angle. It may take years to know what changes but do you have any sense of how the lives of the 'ladies' are changing in a material sense of food and shelter and preparedness to have some reserve for a 'rainy day'? I am sure that the social aspect of what they are experiencing is a major benefit, but are you seeing any other economic changes? And have any anthropologists looked at this work (I am sure that they have) and what did they find short term and long term? Interesting.
Meanwhile your photos and text make all the support from UK seem very worthwhile. Incidentally I have done some homework on Tamil for chipmonk and I think that it is ஆதாரங்கள்.
Lots of love,
Robin (and Pauline)