Change the World: My Time at Sangam World Centre

I first learned the song “Change the World” on my eleventh birthday. I loved the song when I was a kid, but as I got older I was overtaken by cynicism and I grew to resent it. In my country there might be “sisters of every color”, but a lot of them couldn’t afford to be Girl Scouts. It might be that “In Girl Guiding we have so much to give/ To our sisters around the world who are struggling just to live,” but as far as I could see the best things we had to give to them were goofy songs and expensive cookies. Don’t get me wrong, I love Girl Scout cookies and I especially love Girl Scout songs, but I just didn’t see how we were changing the world with those things. Even so, Girl Scouting was a family to me, and I decided to expand that family by going to Sangam, the World Centre in India run by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). At Sangam, we sang “Change the World” all the time. More than that, we talked about changing the world all the time like it was a real thing! The idea that it is possible to change the world was my biggest source of culture shock when I came to Sangam. My co-workers were throwing around words like “Millennium Development Goals” and “advocacy”, and I was intimidated. I felt horribly pessimistic. “How will I ever be a proper Sangam Volunteer if I don’t even believe that I have the power to change things?” I asked myself. This is the story of how I came to love singing “Change the World” again.

Sangam is one of four (soon to be five) World Centres operated by WAGGGS. It is a place for Guides and Scouts from all over the world to come together, and its name means “coming together” in Sanskrit. Visiting Sangam is a way to meet and learn from Guides and Scouts from other countries and a way to discover India. As a four-month Sangam Volunteer, my role was to help run programmes that educate people about WAGGGS, Sangam, and India. To be a Sangam volunteer, you have to be 21 years of age, enthusiastic, and willing to work hard. We always joke that part of our contract is being willing to perform “other duties as required,” which could mean anything from taking creative photographs to sorting the books in the library to helping confused old ladies catch rickshaws. In every event we give our participants the chance to learn about WAGGGS and its themes and projects, discover the history and opportunities at Sangam, explore Indian culture, and visit one of our NGO Community Partners to find out how people are working to change things here in India.

While I was at Sangam, I had the opportunity to work on several different types of event. My first event, in November-December 2011 was a seminar about the HIV/AIDS epidemic around the world. Participants from eleven countries shared their experiences with each other, and on December 1st we joined a World AIDS Day march sponsored by Wake Up Pune, one of our Community Partners.

During the winter holidays, we ran an event called “Discover Your Potential”. Aimed at teenage girls, the programme tried to help participants find out about themselves and the change they want to be in the world. They worked on teaching and building improvement projects at various community partners, and the exposure to India obviously opened their minds a lot.

There were two “Essence of India” events during my time at Sangam. These were exactly what they sound like- trying to cram as much Indian culture, cuisine, and on-the-ground experience as possible into a few days. The first of these events we ran was for our future Tare, the international volunteers who stay at Sangam and work in the community. The second was for a group of ladies mostly from the United States, and we had fun comparing and contrasting India with home. At the second event, we celebrated Holi, the Indian festival of color.

I had the great fortune to visit Sangam during the WAGGGS centenary celebrations, and one of the events I helped with was even called “Celebrate Our Centenary”. It was during this event that we observed World Thinking Day, a Girl Scout/Guide holiday devoted to international understanding. The World Thinking Day 2012 theme is to promote environmental sustainability, and I contributed to this goal using my tested-and-true Girl Scout song knowledge from camp at home. I stood up in front of the 300 Indian Scouts and Guides who came to visit and sang to them “The alligator is my friend. He can be your friend too. I’d rather have him as my friend than cook him in a stew!” It was silly, but I like to think it got everyone thinking about the environment.

My last event at Sangam, like my first, was a seminar. This one was put on by the WAGGGS Leadership Development Programme, and was also about the environment. It was called “Young Women Leading for a Greener Future”, and as a volunteer I supported the planning team that put the event together.

One of the big projects I worked on as a volunteer was the WAGGGS consultation called “The World We Want for our Future.” To prepare for its delegation at Rio+ 20, WAGGGS asked young people what kind of world they would like to live in when they grow up and what positive changes we should be making to ensure that such a world is possible. In the consultation we asked young people to think about their future selves and how they would interact with the world. We educated about the MDGs and asked what else is important for our future that isn’t covered in the UN’s current goals. We asked if young people can see the climate changing and what they think we need to protect the most. I was able to run the consultation with Sangam residents and with the Nivedita Guides, the Indian Guiding unit that meets at Sangam. I also promoted the campaign both online and in person to various event guests in hopes that they would take the consultation home with them and run it with their own groups. It was exciting to work on a project that is definitely going to affect something BIG in the world. Not only was I contributing to something that will affect a UN conference, I was also educating people about environmental issues along the way.

At Sangam I was able to meet and befriend people from over fifty countries. It was a truly life-changing experience, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work there for four and a half months. If you want to visit Sangam, you can do so as an Event Participant, an Intern or Sangam Volunteer (like me), a Tare (volunteer in the community), or an Independent Guest. No matter how long or short your visit, I feel sure that you will love the trip and perhaps even feel as changed by it as I have. I am taking away from my experience a closer connection to WAGGGS and Girl Scouting, international friendships, job experience in the “real” world, and a less cynical outlook on life.

Before I came to Sangam my main experience of Girl Scouting was at summer camp. Sure, I might have been teaching people about important things in my own little corner of the world, but I didn’t really see how that fit into the big picture. Helping young women to develop leadership skills and teaching girls about their natural surroundings are definitely important, but I didn’t feel like I was changing the WORLD. It’s overwhelming to think about trying to change things at all, and even more overwhelming to think about changing things everywhere. Reading about the Millennium Development Goals and trying to imagine how to “promote gender equality and empower women” or “ensure environmental sustainability” everywhere is enough to intimidate anyone. What I didn’t realize is that when I train girls to become leaders or give people a greater understanding of and appreciation for the environment, I am changing the world. No one is asking that I create “The World We Want for our Future” by myself, just that I do my part and spread the word to others. Sangam has helped me realize what the song is really about- “In the Girl Scouts together, we change the world.”

Be A Sister to Every Girl Scout

I’ll admit it- I was a little hurt when I recently wrote a blog post for Global Conversations, a new collaborative project put together by Girl Guiding UK and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, only to have it edited without my knowledge or consent. It turned out okay in the final version, but it’s not the same post I originally wrote. So, in the spirit of having my say, here is the post I intended to write. I hope you like it!

Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout
On learning respect in WAGGGS

When I was twelve years old, my mixed age Girl Scout troop went winter camping. We slept in the lodge at Timbercrest, our council’s camp in Western New York, but we spent most of our time outside playing in the snow. One morning, I had the opportunity to help teach cross country skiing to the younger members of my troop. I wasn’t the most confident instructor at the beginning, but by the end of the trail I felt proud not only of my abilities as a skier, but of my abilities as a teacher as well. I was surprised by how easy it was for me to figure out what the younger girls were doing wrong and how to tell them to fix it.

 

After a long morning of teaching, I was ready for something different. My fellow Cadette Girl Scouts and I decided to go sledding. As we started getting ready, the Brownies and Juniors noticed that we were going out and wanted to come along. This was not what we had envisioned. Being twelve, we wanted to hang out with our friends without having to include the “little” kids, and we weren’t afraid to say so. Our troop leader could have let us fight it out or simply ordered us to include everyone, but instead she drew us aside and talked to us about the Girl Scout Law. Two of the tenets of the Girl Scout Law, she reminded us, are to “respect myself and others” and to “be a sister to every Girl Scout.” We were appropriately ashamed, and we let the younger girls join our sledding. When all was said and done, though, we were forced to truly think about Girl Scouts that day and what the Law meant to us.

 

Ten years later, I am still learning valuable lessons from Girl Scouting. I am currently working a four-month volunteer term at Sangam, the WAGGGS World Centre in India. Here, I see the Guiding Law in practice every day. To think that the original Law stipulated that “a Guide is a friend to all and a sister to every other Guide” is sometimes a bit overwhelming! Do I really have to be a friend to all? Even the rickshaw driver who tried to rip me off yesterday? Even the little girl I watched pull up her skirts and poop right in public on the side of a city road? The Guiding law says I do. Do I have to be a sister to every Girl Scout? Even my roommate who kept me awake the other night because she was chatting online with some friends in Brazil? Yes. Being a Girl Scout means respecting each other enough to put away our gripes and celebrate our differences.

 

What I respect most, though, is this organization to which I belong. I am proud that WAGGGS aims “to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world”. I am proud that GSUSA “builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.” Responsible citizens who make the world a better place, in my estimation, are people who respect one another.

On the Gender War

I wrote this recently for my sociology class.  My professor says I should be careful not to turn myself into “a preacher and a moralist, trying to impose as absolute truth a simple personal opinion”.  He’s right, of course, so let me say this before I record my postulations here:  The following is my personal opinon.  I understand and celebrate the idea that there are different versions of truth for different people.  This is mine at my current stage of life.

There are a few things that I don’t believe a person should ever want to say to another.

“I need you in my life.”
“I can’t live without you.”
“You complete me.”

These statements and variations of them are in my opinion unhealthy and contrary to the concept of equality and respect that should be present in human relations.  Unfortunately, people in romantic relationships, both men and women, say these very words to one another every day.  Why do people feel the need to rely on others this way?  To say any one of the aforementioned phrases is to imply that one other person is the sole reason you have to live, and that is unacceptable in terms of achieving personal liberty. 

One should never enter a relationship of any kind, particularly a romantic relationship, under the impression that the power of that connection alone will turn his or her life around.  Entering a relationship should not be an act of defiance, of fleeing someone or something, or the sole means of creating a life for oneself.  It should be the work of each of us to create a life for ourselves first and to find romance, if desired, afterword.  That is not to say that a person can be completely self-reliant.  I do believe that it is important to have a network of family, friends, and people we can rely on in our lives.  But to be in a romantic relationship is to give a large part of oneself to another person, and that is not a contract we should enter into lightly.  Romance should not be a union of two halves to create one whole person, but rather a connection of two complete people who complement each other.  It should be a love between two separate people leading separate but sometimes intertwined lives.

In a broader sense, the same thing applies to gender.  Men and women are simply not the same and shouldn’t try to think of themselves as one community (when it comes to gender issues).  They do obviously need each other, just as we need love and connection in our lives.  There must be balance.  But similarly to a romantic relationship, each can function in its own sphere without the other.  Gender is certainly an important part of our makeup, and we should each celebrate our own gender, but that does not mean that we should celebrate (or condemn) only gender.  When meeting a new person, gender is and should be one of the first things that crosses our minds, but it should not be the only thing we think of, and we definitely should not let it affect the way we think about a person’s other qualities.

All of this sounds very cold and hostile, but let me stress this point:  Men and Women are not enemies.  Though they may live separate lives and survive independently of each other, men and women should be above all friends, partners, allies.  They should work together not because they need to but because they want to.  Unfortunately, both men and women easily lost sight of this.  They begin to see each other as opposing forces, armies of suppression based on misunderstanding.  But society doesn’t have to be this way.  For our own futures and the futures of our children, we must now begin the rebuilding of relationships between men and women.  Each person, knowing that men and women are equal partners in life and love, can begin by changing relationships in his or her life to reflect this equality.  And we can start with our romantic relationships, affirming that though we love each other and want to be together, we are all separate people with separate goals, aspirations, and souls.

Reflections on Oppression

I realized the other day that I don’t remember ever NOT knowing about slavery in the United States.  I was horrified.  Not because I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know about it, but because I don’t remember first learning about it.  I would have thought that finding out about such a horrible practice that happened in my country would have been horrifying, shocking, confusing, SOMETHING.  The fact that I can’t even remember it proves to me that it wasn’t that eye-opening of an event in my life.  What kind of world do we live in when a white girl isn’t impacted enough by slavery to the point where she takes it in stride like that?

At first I thought it might be because I’m an average white girl in the twenty-first century, and a history of slavery doesn’t affect my life that much.  (I am not saying slavery doesn’t affect my life, because Of Course it Does.  For the sake of argument, though, I am saying that I do not have that much in common with a typical slave.)  But when I started to think about it, I realized that I don’t remember ever NOT knowing about the Women’s Rights movement either.  That one sounds better on the surface- it means that I’ve always known about feminism.  But look deeper- if I’ve always known about feminism then I’ve always known about the subordination of women.  I consider myself a feminist; how can I have, at some point in the distant past, merely accepted the subordination of women as fact and not allowed the discovery to impact me?

It embarrasses and shocks me to think that when I made these important discoveries, whenever that may have been, I was not surprized enough to remember it.  What does this say about our society?  How can we as a culture allow this to happen?  What about subordination is so socialized that it doesn’t make an impact on our youth?  What other things am I taking foregranted every day?

Just some things to think about.

Essay on Women’s Issues

“It’s people like her that make me embarrassed to be a feminist.”
“You’re a feminist?  Wow, I never would have known.  See, you’re good about it.”          

This is a conversation that I had just the other day.  It brings up a few important topics having to do with women’s issues.  The first is the very nature of feminism.  I do not believe that feminism is about raising women in status above men.  I don’t think most feminists would define the movement that way, either.  Unfortunately, many people view feminism with this negative stigma attached to it.  Some women have become so involved with the advancement of their gender that they lose sight of the way they are treating the men in their lives.  They begin to view men as the enemy, even while they still claim to crave equality.  That is what has happened to the universal her of the above conversation.  That is what has happened to feminism.           

I knew a girl in high school who was strong with wanting women’s rights, but she refused to label herself a feminist for those very reasons.  To her, feminists were “Femi-Nazis”, women who doggedly pursue every wrong done to them with a fascist-like determination.  She associated feminists with a desire to put-down men and elevate women.  I cannot believe there are many women in this world who really want to turn the tables on the gender power-struggle.  The work to create balance should be enough.           

On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder what the young man I was speaking to meant when he said I was “good about” feminism.  My passion for women’s rights was new to him, so he can’t have meant that he observed some quality in my feminist work that he deemed “good”.  I am forced to conclude that he was referring to the fact that I have not been outspoken about my views.  His idea of “good” feminism is a movement that cannot be detected at all.  I sincerely hope and believe that he did not mean it to sound this way, but it’s what I took out of the conversation nonetheless.  Heed the voice of man.  We do not want women to complain about their status.  We do not want to hear the strains of the feminist movement.  It makes us uncomfortable; it makes us angry.           

I still remember the day I realized I was a feminist.  It was a bit of a shocker to me, I can tell you.  I was in seventh grade, and a teacher singled me out to the rest of the class as a proponent of women’s rights.  He meant it as a compliment.  He was trying to show the class that I had found something I was passionate about and they might think of doing the same.  Even so, I was embarrassed to be acknowledged in this way.  Why is he pointing me out?  There are lots of girls in this classroom.  That’s when it hit me.  Not that I was a feminist, but that other girls weren’t.  Before, I thought that all women would want the same things I did, that they would willingly work toward feminist goals.  I thought women who didn’t support the feminist movement had somehow converted or died out after we got the right to vote.  It was that day that I realized how wrong I’d been.           

Even now, I am always surprised when someone has to ask
“Really, you’re a feminist?”  I want to shout
“Of course I am!  I am a girl!  All girls are feminists!”  And then I have to remember they aren’t.  I am constantly surprised and disappointed to remember this:  there is a becoming process to feminism.  Women are not born considering themselves feminists.  I hope it isn’t because they don’t want gender equality that women don’t become feminists.  Rather, they are afraid of the label in the same way glasses-wearers are afraid of being called “four-eyes” and people with red hair are afraid of being called “hot-headed”.           

The biggest problem facing women today is not the opinion of man, it is the opinion of woman.  When women can harbor anger, resentment, or jealousy for those who call themselves feminists, we have failed.  When women who consider themselves feminists begin to look down on men as inferior or undeserving, we have failed.  When women can make each other feel unfeminine or wrong for being strong and successful, we have failed.  We as women have caused stagnation in our own society by being apathetic and uninformed.           

Women’s issues cover all aspects of what it means to be a woman.  It means examining the subjugation women have endured and attempting to understand it.  We must learn to celebrate our womanhood, our bodies, our beliefs, and our power.  It is important for each woman to find a safe place to talk about her femininity and her connection to the larger world of women.  Finding sisterhood and embracing it are a big part of women’s issues.           

What is feminism?  Feminism is the goal of gender equality.  It is working toward respect for women on all counts- from men, from each other, and from ourselves.  It is not a reason to hurt men, a complaint about the way things are, or a stand against the feminine.  Feminism is the corporate leader who wears stilettos.  Feminism is the mom who drives her daughters to football practice.  Feminism is the author who reads over the first pages of her book while breast-feeding her newborn.  It is both the unexpected and the ordinary, and it begins with taking pride in the title.  It is standing up and saying
“I am a feminist, and I am proud.”

Aunt Edna

Here is the final draft of an essay I wrote on my Great Aunt Edna.  The photos referred to are at the end, except for the one of Louise Brooks.  You’ll have to look her up yourself, because I could not figure out how to get that picture in here for the life of me.

Edna Mae Town was born on March 10^th, 1908 in Dunkirk, New York.  At the recognized beginning of the flapper era in 1920, she was eleven years old (1920 Federal Census).  Thus she was the perfect age to experience the twenties as a flapper.  Though her hometown of Forestville was not a typical metropolitan center where flappers would have been found, Edna was influenced greatly by the flapper movement.

Many modern American young women in the 1920s were rebellious.  These women exhibited crass behavior such as smoking and drinking in public; wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, and went out dancing.  They broke free of social norms and redefined women’s roles.  This social group was known as the flappers, a general term for the socially indecent women of the jazz age, also known as the “roaring twenties”.  Flappers were characterized by their straight dresses that hid curves and contributed to the boyish look already shown in their short hairstyles.  Their short skirts exposed their knees as they danced the Shimmy, the Bunny Hug, and the Charleston.  Shocking and abrasive to the parent generation, the flappers changed American society (Pittsburg State University).  Edna was such a woman.           

Flapper influence was evident in Edna’s hair and clothing styles.  Photographs of Edna show her wearing styles consistent with those of young women in cities during the twenties.  Following is a photo of actress Louise Brooks and four photos of Edna.  Ms. Brooks exemplifies flapper styles through her clothing and hair.  The short skirt, low-cut dress, and thick-collared coat she wears are all typical of the flapper era.  Her bobbed hair and short, round hat are also styles that were popular in the nineteen-twenties.   Edna’s style, as shown in photos of her, is consistent with flapper styles.  In the second picture, Edna wears a straight, short dress that is characteristic of the roaring twenties.  The dress comes down only past her knees and exposes skin on her arms, both fairly radical fashions for the time period.  The photo was taken in 1930 at the close of the flapper era.  Edna was twenty-two years old and already married at the time.  Figure three is an undated photo of Edna, probably taken while she was still at school.  This means it would have been anywhere from 1918 to 1926.  This picture particularly emphasizes the bob hairstyle.  Her hair is short enough that it grazes the cheekbones, barely covering her ears.  Until the nineteen-twenties, women traditionally wore their hair much longer than this.  The flappers popularized a bob hairstyle.  Next is a family photo, which was taken around 1925.  Edna is in the center of the photo, and she would have been about sixteen years old.  The shapeless, stylized dress is consistent with twenties fashion because of the short sleeves which exposed the arms.  This was considered scandalous to many women of the former generation.  The thick stripe down the center of the dress is a pattern that flappers would have worn.  Edna also sports the thick beads that were popular in the time period.  The final photo was taken on Edna’s twenty-sixth birthday in 1934 (she is on the right).  Even though the flapper era had ended, its influence is still seen in the thick, boyish coats the women are wearing.

Edna possessed many of the mannerisms of a flapper too.  Family members recount that she played cards, drank, and smoked quite heavily, all habits that many flappers indulged in (Robert and David Schlick).  Those who knew her also say that Edna and her sisters enjoyed shopping and generally having a good time together.  This trend toward materialism is very characteristic of the 1920s.  Edna’s family also recalls that she loved to dance, and that she would teach the younger generation flapper-style dances.  One relative said:

Edna probably was a flapper.  Once when we were showing her the dance of the 60′s called the [Mashed Potato], she said “Why that’s the Charleston.”  We begged her to dance for us and she did.  She could really do the Charleston well.  She would have been a teenager during the Roaring 20′s (David Schlick).           

Edna was set apart from the older generation by her liberal tendencies for a woman of her time period.  She gained a flair for reading by attending school as a girl (1920 Federal Census).  Whereas more conservative women were not interested in books, Edna continued to read (and do crossword puzzles) enthusiastically for the remainder of her life.   This ensured that she was a well-educated woman (Robert Schlick).  Her literary finesse also extended to writing, and she was the author of a few poems.  Her poems were of a personal nature, and she never had them published.  In fact they were not of any true literary merit; it is more important that she wrote them.  There were few women writers at the time, at least few that gained any following.  The fact that Edna was writing during this time period proves her views on women’s achievements to be quite open-minded.         

Edna also exhibited liberal trends by divorcing her first husband, Porter Ruttenbur.  Divorce was not common during the twenties and thirties, because it was a difficult legal process.  The fact that Edna was willing to obtain a divorce and remarry in a time when such an act was pushing the social boundaries shows her forward-thinking mindset and also her disregard for what the public would think of her.  Both are traits that a true flapper would have.  Women often had to prove adultery, abuse, or abandonment in order to secure a divorce.  While “No-Fault” divorces were becoming available in the 1930s, couples often had to move to places like Reno, Nevada to obtain them (Online Nevada Encyclopedia).  Edna and Porter were married in 1928, and they had three children together (1930 Federal Census).  By 1939, Edna had divorced Porter and remarried, to a man called Homer Johnston (Don Town).  Family rumor dictates that Porter abused Edna, and that he and Homer fought over her (Margaret Jensen and David Schlick). 

It is certain that the divorce was a long, messy process for all involved.  Edna and Porter had three teenage children at the time, Daphne, Marilynn, and Terry Ruttenbur.  The children appear to have been sent away while the divorce was taking place.  Daphne lived with Marian Town, Edna’s sister, and her husband Phillip Schlick during that time (David Schlick).  Presumably Marilynn and Terry were away from home as well.  Edna and Porter most likely did not want their children to see them fighting.  This sentiment is shown in a poem Edna wrote during that time in her life.  Edna’s poetry is important to her character because it shows her spirit as a writer, but also because it explains how hard the divorce was for her.  Only a woman of true social spunk could withstand such trials.  The poem is as follows:

Dear God, please watch my babies
While I am far away;
I worry so and wonder how
They get along each day.
It is my fault they are alone
And oh, I miss them so!
Don’t let them grow to hate me
I beg you, God, oh no!
 
There are three of them, dear Lord,
Two girls and a little boy;
If I could only have them again
My heart would fill with joy -
But I grew tired of staying there
Half-living from year to year -
(Excuse me, God, one second
While I brush away this tear.)
 
So I just up and left them, God.
What can I say or do?
I’ve come to You for judgement [sic], Lord,
I rest my case with You.

Edna Town was my great aunt, sister to my grandmother.  Many family members have told me that I resemble her.  I have long been fascinated with the world of the roaring twenties, and it intrigues me that she may have fit into it, even in some small way.  By examining Edna’s clothing and hair styles, mannerisms, and social actions, I have given myself a glimpse into her life, a life that I believe was centered around the flapper movement.