Day 1: First day in Mumbai
I wake up to the sound of at least ten basketballs dribbling, creating a cacophony that pulls me out of bed to see the class of children on the court below our room, now practicing foul shots. We are at the YMCA International House, about to begin our first day in Mumbai, India. Among our many destinations for the day is the Haji Ali Mosque, located on an islet off the coast of southern Mumbai. When we arrive, the mosque is a vision, sitting at the end of a long concrete pier that juts into the Arabian Sea, which is sprinkled with vendors selling brightly colored flowers and trinkets.
journey down the pier is bright, hot, and at times even wet with the tide coming in, but reaching the mosque was well worth it. The white archway draped with strings of flowers marks the entrance, ornate columns and intricate relief sculptures towering over me.
The men and women pray in separate quarters, and we cover our heads with scarves as we enter the women’s space, a small but exquisite room, ornamented even more lavishly than the exterior marble.
Most memorable, however, was our traverse back from the Mosque. The tide is now fully flowing, crashing and spilling over the edges of pier. We try leap around the encroaching water, but after a minute, embrace the water sloshing in our shoes, and continue our walk, ankle-deep in the warm Arabian Sea water.
Day 6: Young Women’s Leadership Workshop
Today is our day, as Global Symposium Fellows to put months of hard work into action. For the past four months, the six of us, with the help of the Barnard Athena Center leader, Kitty Kolbert, developed a leadership workshop for local students from various high schools in Mumbai.
Each of us will facilitate a workshop for a group of about twelve students, composed of several activities and exercises, which will allow them to develop their own unique leadership skills and understand their potential as future leaders. The bulk of the workshop is a simulation, where the students address and negotiate a hypothetical slum renewal project. Broken up into four groups, the residents, the government, NGO’s and the developers, the students will approach the renewal project from different perspectives and work with one another to develop solutions that the members of each of the four groups can agree upon.
Watching the workshop unfold was truly unbelievable. The young women jumped head-first into the simulation, giving well thought out, expressive, and passionate presentations throughout the duration of the workshop. The five other fellows and I were taken aback by the insightful and creative solutions that the students proposed for the renewal project, in just the hour that they had to work. These young women are undoubtedly the leaders of tomorrow.