Tasty challenge

By Raquel Saavedra*

“We started in a crazy washing and peeling and chopping frenzy…”

Sunday is a free day for the women working at the Bamboo Research Center, so we decided that was a good day to spend it together.

This day the women decided to teach Alena and Felix, two volunteers from Germany and myself, how to cook traditional South Indian food.

The meeting was at Manju´s place, she lives in Sanjeevinagar village, there we met Santhi who came with her daughter and her son. We went together to pick up Leema and her sister.

We squished on the bikes, Indian style, and went for the very first step in any cooking class: Buying the ingredients!

Everybody took their part in selecting the vegetables and spices, almost all of them of local production, this is not only healthy and tasty bute also sustainable! We got a very colorful selection that included beets, carrots, potatoes, ockra, onions, tomatoes, peas, and rice… Lots of rice!

We headed to my place and started in a crazy washing and peeling and chopping frenzy. There were enough things to do to keep all of us involved and busy. Everyone was very enthusiastic.

Santhi was the head of the team,  and as usual she was laughing and enjoying herself. We followed her instructions and kept constantly asking… Indian food can be a little complex containing so many ingredients.

She showed us the proper way and order to fry the condiments like mustard seed, onions and garlic, followed by the curry leaves, chili,  coriander, ginger… She showed us when to add the vegetables and how to know when the food was ready.

While the whole house was being filled by the smell of so many spices and the sound of conversation and laughing, Alena tried to keep notes on everything, it was an overwhelming process with so many people and so many things going on at the same time!

We prepared many dishes and finally we got to enjoy them together, a good, tasty, vegetarian and of course very spicy meal that included idlis, sambar, carrot rice, poriyal, tomato chutney and potatoes.

The next step is to try and prepare them on my own, (quite a challenge for me). And once again I was amazed by the Indian generosity and kindness, thank you Manju, Santhi and Leema for a wonderful day!

*Raquel Saavedra is a volunteer working for Pathway to Potential in Auroville, South-East India. To contact Raquel or learn more about Pathway to Potential email info@pathwaytopotential.org or check out our facebook page.

– Pathway to Potential is a registered charity supporting underpriveledged women in developing countries to reach their full potential through cooperative enterprise. Currently working in Tamil Nadu, south east India and now beginning to work in Thailand and other parts of Asia, Pathway to Potential sincerely hopes and dreams that this work and model can be shared and replicated around the world.

What is our potential?

Photo credit: Alexandre Stolbstov

Have you ever thought what am I here for? What is the purpose of this life?

This has been my search for a long time..

A sense of purpose I believe starts from a niggling sense of something missing or not quite right in what you see around you. Like hold on is this all there is? Surely there must be more to it than this?

We are brought up in societies that set out clear ‘normal’ paths for us, tell us what is a ‘correct’ life and many people choose to follow these well trodden routes.

Now don’t get me wrong I am totally respectful of these traditional ways and seeing the value in them for our lives where we see fit.  In some ways they are more secure and stable and a lot of people value that great! But I also meet a lot of people that I see a yearning in, a thirst for something new and for something greater. Like there is a gap inside that is asking to be filled.

I believe that we all have a desire to contribute, to make our lives mean something, to give and receive love on a bigger scale than just our immediate family. I believe this yearning is a wake up call to our potential. That we have so much more to experience, give and receive in this life and that we can make a meaningful difference on this planet.

Let me tell you that I have spent many years of my life completely lost and feeling a great sense of emptiness inside. I have had a lot of amazing opportunities but have also experienced more than my fair share of pain and suffering and this is still something I struggle with today dealing with the affects of past trauma and many years spent disconnected from myself and those around me. It has taken me an enormous amount of courage and strength to keep going, to choose love and connection over fear, anger and shut down and to open myself more fully to the love and support that is around me.

But you know the thing that has kept me going through all the tough times (and the good) was that there was a higher purpose to this, that there is a beauty that emerges and cannot be touched by any amount of hardship.  I realised that we all have this incredible inner capacity and ability to shine and this became the thing that drove me more and more.

What would it look like to live in a world where people were encouraged and supported, reminded of their true potential?

We are fed so much garbage that tells us we are small, not worthy, that our dreams are stupid, not doable, ‘get real’ etc.  Well I say f**k that! What are we if we cannot dream? We were born to make a unique impression on this world. You and I, all of us can make a difference in whatever way we choose.

Sure the path may not be easy, we may have to face up to a lot of stuff in ourselves and each other but as a quote I like says “We bring our world alive when we shine our brilliance” [link]

Let us all step forward and not be afraid to shine our brilliance and remember our true potential. For is life worth living otherwise?

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Pathway to Potential is a registered charity supporting underpriveledged women in developing countries to reach their full potential through cooperative enterprise. Currently working in Tamil Nadu, south east India and now beginning to work in Thailand and other parts of Asia, Pathway to Potential sincerely hopes and dreams that this work and model can be shared and replicated around the world.

If you want to know more you can reach Katherine at info@pathwaytopotential.org

I´m optimistic

By Raquel Saavedra*

“I have so much to learn from them…”

Before coming here I was already very interested in Indian culture and women empowerment projects, but since I arrived it has being a fascinating and enriching opportunity far beyond my expectations. Spending time with the women at the Bamboo Center has been an adventure, it´s being an eye opener and definitely has changed my perception of life.

Raquel and Priya at the Bamboo Center

India is a country full of beauty. I have been amazed by the love and care of the women in the village, they put their heart into every gesture of their lifes and enjoy the most simple things, even when they face a lot of challenges and have so many complications in their daily lifes – one of my first thoughts when I came here was “I have so much to learn from them…”

I was expecting to find a lot of grief and sadness, what I found instead is a lot of courage, generosity and hard working women looking forward to improve their lifes and support their families. I have been impressed by their beautiful clothing, their language, their songs, their food… and they are eager to show and share it.

In the jewelery workshop the women get the opportunity to experiment in their own designs, show their creativity, and get self confidence, they always work cheerfully and laugh, telling jokes between them, chatting and singing while working and are never shy to sing a song or two.

Now the world is changing and the barriers are falling, I´m optimistic, and I think that through sharing information people are getting more aware and closer, and are willing to share their culture, their knowelege, open their minds to difference and start to support each other.

I belive that every human being has something to give and sometimes it takes only an opportunity for that talent to emerge.
Joining Pathway to Potential has been a wonderfull experience for me and I´m honored to share a little bit of this with you.

*Raquel Saavedra is a volunteer working for Pathway to Potential in Auroville, South-East India. To contact Raquel or learn more about Pathway to Potential email info@pathwaytopotential.org or check out our facebook page .

–
Pathway to Potential is a registered charity supporting underpriveledged women in developing countries to reach their full potential through cooperative enterprise. Currently working in Tamil Nadu, south east India and now beginning to work in Thailand and other parts of Asia, Pathway to Potential sincerely hopes and dreams that this work and model can be shared and replicated around the world.

To live a life courageous

“Courage  is not at all

about being fearless…”

In my line of work I come across a lot of courageous and inspiring women. These are ordinary women from all walks of life, women from poor backgrounds and women with wealth and opportunity. Some might say only certain people have the courage to lead, to say and do what they believe in and to do something extraordinary, but I would like to disagree. I believe courage is a core capacity in all of us, an energy waiting to be tapped, a creative force ready to emerge.

This week, I would like to celebrate courage and share what it means to me.

The first thing I would like to share with you about courage is that it is not at all about being fearless.

Sometimes courage comes from being so sick of fear and insecurity limiting your life, telling you that you can’t, that you are not good enough, that you will do whatever it takes to prove it wrong. Getting to the point of enough – enough of being small, enough of not seeing what I want happening in my life- is the point at which courage is born.

For me the biggest challenge has been to have the courage to be myself. The courage to share what I feel and believe to be true, to live life with integrity.

The other thing I must tell you about courage is its not a heroic one time affair. It is a day-by-day, each step of the way effort, it is determination and hard work, it requires patience and consistent action but mainly I would say it is a choice. A choice and a commitment to yourself, to your own value, love and self-worth.

Sometimes courage can be as fundamental as the choice to keep living, sometimes it is the choice to die with compassion and presence. For me it has been the choice to stop hiding from life and from my true greatness. To do and be what I never thought possible.

In rural India, a lot of women make a choice to give up on life. To end their lives due to lack of hope or not seeing a way out of the difficult circumstances they are in. And there are other women who make a commitment to themselves to never give up. That their life and that of their children are too important. That they are willing to do whatever it takes to take responsibility, for creating change or just simply living with more self-acceptance and compassion.

It is not just in the developing world that people get to this level of desperation. We have all at times faced the darkness in ourselves, been hurt, abused, believed that life was too hard and not worth living and sometimes it is only by getting to rock bottom that we can muster the strength and determination to keep living, to begin to make slow and steady progress in our lives, to remember again why we are here and what we long for. For it is in the longing and the dreaming that we take the steps to transformation, in taking full responsibility for ourselves and our lives that we can begin to live a life of purpose.

This is the message I have always wanted to share with the women (and men) who believe they have nothing to offer to this world, that who they are and what they choose can have a tremendous impact. I want to tell them: know that I believe in you and that you are here for a reason, that this life is precious and worth living no matter what difficulty you face.

You have my greatest respect and I trust that you will continue to find the courage within.

Love,

Katherine

For Meena, beloved friend and mother of two beautiful daughters, who chose to end her life age 28 I write this for you. Thank you for sharing your beauty, love and joy with me for a short time. You will always be in my heart.

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Pathway to Potential is a registered charity supporting underpriveledged women in developing countries to reach their full potential through cooperative enterprise. Currently working in Tamil Nadu, south east India and now beginning to work in Thailand and other parts of Asia, Pathway to Potential sincerely hopes and dreams that this work and model can be shared and replicated around the world.

If you want to know more you can reach Katherine at info@pathwaytopotential.org

People have often thought me crazy or at least reckless when I started raving about my dream of helping women around the world. In fact there have been many times along the way that I have questioned my own sanity and wanted to give up and get a ‘normal job’. But something has just kept me going… in fact I’m not really sure what. Maybe that it just had to be done.

I’ve had to dream and then dream bigger, fall down a hundred times and keep picking myself up, scrutinise my actions and intentions and learn constantly from those around me.

Starting your own organisation or dream project is no easy undertaking let me tell you! But man what a ride!

So anyway I wanted to share with you why I do what I do… in the hope it will inspire others to have courage and believe they can really make a difference in their lives and in the world.

Originally from the UK I completed my studies in England completing an MPsy in Psychology before emigrating to NZ with my family which I now call home. Following my degree I spent time working on community projects in Zambia and India spending 8 months in Jaipur, Rajasthan working on women’s rights and community empowerment initiatives. It was during this time that I got to experience life for people at the so-called bottom-of-the-pyramid (although i dislike this jargon and labelling) and found out about the realities of hardship and struggles of women in the traditional environment of rural India. I was also extremely moved by their resilience, strength and love which gave me hope that all people have tremendous capacity and something valuable to offer to the world no matter what their circumstance.

From this time on I have felt a strong calling or sense of obligation to work with these women and offer opportunities for them to reveal their true potential and tell their unique stories hoping that it would touch the world as it has touched me.

I have spent the last two years mainly based in India developing Pathway to Potential and have immense gratitude for all the people that have helped me along the way and been a part of this amazing journey. The people that have shared my tears and joys and been with me through the tough times I wouldn’t still be standing if it wasn’t for you.

I can’t begin to describe to you the amount of challenge I have faced along the way but ultimately I realise now that they were pretty much all of my own creation! That something in me was not aware enough, aligned or connected and needed to be adjusted or just plain thrown out. Our greatest dreams are also the path to our healing and reconnection to the source of all things.

I hope that you have found the thing or things that call you, that you take the road less travelled, to pursue what you believe in and begin the path of self-discovery and coming home to yourself.

All my love

Katherine

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Pathway to Potential is a registered charity supporting underpriveledged women in developing countries to reach their full potential through cooperative enterprise. Currently working in Tamil Nadu, south east India and now beginning to work in Thailand and other parts of Asia, Pathway to Potential sincerely hopes and dreams that this work and model can be shared and replicated around the world.

If you want to know more you can reach Katherine at info@pathwaytopotential.org.