So, one of the volunteers here is an Irish Australian man who is probably in his 50's and I believe that he is an underlying mysogonist. Of course, this would be big news to him and of course something he would argue against, but I think I can safely say that he is a mysogonist with the kinds of comments and "jokes" that come out of his mouth. Not only that, but he is the kind of person who when he found out I was Jewish responded with "they say that Jews are thrown out of school because they weren't 'paying' attention". It's only these kind of people who say these "jokes" that have an underlying anti semitism. He is not my friend so it is innappropriate that he say these kind of things - and of course he is just the kind of man that would respond with - "You have to be able to laugh at yourself!" Rrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
So, these are things that make him a mysogonist:
1. If I have helped to make the salad he comments sarcastically, "Ohhhhhh, thank you so much for slaving over the hot stove to make this salad"
2. He always "jokes" sarcastically with Mamta (the woman in this house) thanking her for her cooking in a way which reeks of mysogony
3. He has never helped out in the kitchen or offered to
4. I have never seen him clean up his dirty floor in the bathroom
5. He takes charge of the classroom in a patriarchal kind of way and then calls us women "girls"
6. He likes to direct rather than consult
7. He always serves himself food and never once serves anyone else
And, um, thats all I can think of at the moment! But really, everthing he does reeks of the patriarchy and mysogony and I feel he is actually quite a nasty man on the inside... rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So I will be spending another day and a half with him and hopefully I will be getting on the train to Jaipur on Saturday (however I am currently on the waiting list of 17 people...)
And to top it off, the 23 year old american girl is totally oblivious to his mysogony and she puffs up his ego with comments on how great he is!! rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
* * *
I just went out to have lunch - awkward! It was just me, the girl and the mysogonist and I think the mysogonist is ignoring me now! Well I guess I'm not intersted in engaging with him anyway so I suppose this is no problem. Only thing is I wish I could think of something smart to say to him to put him in his place. I already told him when he came out of the bathroom that he is welcome to change the bin and he responded with, "Why?" and I said, "Because it's full!" and he says, "I've already changed it before!" and I said, "So have I!".
Hmmm, so I think we do not like each other! For this reason I cannot wait to get away... I hope I get on that train to Jaipur!! The other life saver though has been 4 new volunteers that have arrived (though unfortunately they have gone to Delhi this afternoon but will be back tonight). They are from South Africa and they are 2 adults who are taking two high school kids to do the week of volunteering in India as part of an adventure coaching excersise. I'm sooooooooo relieved to have other people here!!
So, for now, I am biding my time I guess until I leave here... Only this afternoon and tomorrow with the kids from the slum school...
xxx Orna
