Week of the 21st of March

Last week the women took us to their market (they call it the "mall") which is like a large warehouse with various small rooms where the individual shops are. Most of the shops sell almost the exact same things, hijabs and perfumes. Some sold shoes, rugs, and spices but those were the exceptions. Only women worked in these shops. Men worked in shops dealing w/loans, visas, greencards, and passports. There were much fewer of these shops. The mall was so fragrant. It was interesting to see these shops and I could imagine how non-lucrative it would be to rely on the income coming from them. But I guess it's something, many of the women (and most of the older women) don't work at all. We went back again this week and visited some friends in the shops and hung up signs for the class because less women have been showing up, I expected this as the initial excitement wore off and they began to understand how difficult it was going to be to learn English (overwhelming and frustrating). Because women haven't been showing up as consistently, I helped a couple men today and they said they are going to keep coming back. I am hesitant to teach the men since they have had so much more access to education in their lives than the women have, many of the older women were not allowed to attend school in their home-countries of mostly Somalia and Ethiopia and so have never had any education.