Freeset part one

Friday: we have plans to visit Freeset at 10, so no little people today. 

Note: I know I switch between present and past tense. Sorry. I may fix it in Canada.

ALSO: all photos used on this blog are from typing "Freeset" into the Google

We continue to enjoy our boiled eggs and toast. As with every morning, we comment on either the magnificence or pathetic-ness of our state when our routine breakfast commentary is circled around the quality of toast. Mornings with camping toast are my favourite.

We take the metro to Girish Park station again. Somehow, regardless of the time of day, this metro is always packed. Again, thankfully I'm tall and few armpits are within direct range of my nose, but diffusion is an interesting thing so even my height doesn't save me. 

We walk past the street we took to get to Star Fish. We're again on the road that is a main edge to Sonagachi. We make a turn and after a bit of walking through alleys of old buildings we see a small, simple sign on the wall: Freetrust. We are quite early, which we were told to be, so we could get a seat.

We enter a relatively large room and sit on the floor. Soon after, three other foreigners enter and the man looks at Teresa saying he recognizes her. He doesn't seem familiar to either of us so we are intrigued. Remember this for a future post.

At 10:00 the room is full. Apparently Freeset employs 250 women but to me it didn't feel like there are that many in the room. In addition there are a handful each of men, foreigners and women who have different roles in the company (as judged by their dress and overall appearance). 

Liz, a young New Zealander, steps up to the front, grabs the microphone and addresses the micro-crowd in Bengali. 

Not Liz. Stock photo.

Similarly to Joel and Sarah yesterday, I find it fascinating to hear them speak Bengali. In the first month in India and the four weeks four years ago, we only heard locals speaking the language. Soon after we stand up and begin singing. I assumed at the time and confirmed later that these were praise songs. A local lady spoke for a bit, a short message, and there were a few more announcements and we were off to the races.

This gathering, especially the singing, was a pretty neat experience: a near tear-jerker. It was viscerally powerful to look around the room at singing women and let myself ponder what their non-existent home movies would show or what their autobiographies would say; what stories would their unwritten journals tell? How often and in what ways was their strength, resilience, persistence, survival, determination, worthlessness, rejection, worry, doubt, self-loathing and/or invisibility manifested? Likely unfathomable. But they have found something in their depths that allows them to sing in community.

Liz came over and introduced herself and we did the same to each other. There was a retired couple from India. When I pushed them a bit later: "where did you live before you moved to India this past January?", I found out they were from Chicago. They have 5 or 6 children (can't remember), mostly daughters so this place is meaningful to them. They plan to live out their retirement in India. Why? It's cheap. They can have meaningful work. They can serve. They can travel. India fascinates him. We chatted while walking and he described how the homeless in Kolkata have it better than the homeless in Chicago. There is water for all (true: taps etc...on the streets), bathrooms (I only saw pay and use toilets but I'll trust him) and Kolkata is very cheap food-wise (if you've read previous blogs you know that). Yes, many people live on less than a dollar a day here, but a dollar goes a long way in rupees so it isn't as dire as it first sounds. He is impressed with the infrastructure and culture. He (they, likely, I just didn't talk to his wife) seem settled here, hence the statement: "we're from India". His perspective was good and necessary for me to hear. He explained new things and shone a new light on things I had noticed but dismissed.

The third lady grew up in London, England but has lived in India for ten years. Her story is similar to Dave's who was in our tour group yesterday: she was in her 30s when her job fell through, she had always had an inkling to move overseas, had visited India when she was 18, and decided that was the time and India was the place. She runs a business here now where she teaches Bengali to foreigners. We were pretty impressed with her long sleeves and Indian pants and no sweating. She said she still sweats but we don't believe her. We decided that it would take us a minimum of ten years of living here to get to that state, but we're not interested in that experiment.

Liz, our guide, has been in India for two and a half years, I believe. I think she also did the live-in-Bangladesh-for-6-months-to-learn-Bengali thing. She seems in love with the culture, Freeset, her work and India. As she stated, she is here "indefinitely". Liz was accompanied by Chokla (I have no idea if this is how to spell it, in writing it phonetically). Chokla is from Kolkata. Freeset runs an intern/training program of sorts (this description is not doing it justice but I can't come up with the appropriate word) for locals. It works with local churches and informs people on what they do over a 3 month (??) program. Chokla heard about the program through her pastor at an evangelical church and is now being trained to run tours.

We began with the story of Freeset. Kerry and Annie Hilton moved their family of 6 (4 children between 4 and 12) to Kolkata in 1999. They somewhat unknowingly moved into the heart of Sonagachi (if you don't know what this is, check out the post entitled STAYING TRUE). They built relationships with their neighbours and two years later Freeset was born.

Freeset, similarly to Loyal, seeks to give freedom to ladies in the sex trade. It wants to give ladies "voice and choice" (to borrow and entry school mantra). It wants to provide an alternative way of living by giving ladies the choice they never had.

Ladies here learn to sew bags, t-shirts or do screen printing. Similarly to Loyal, one can not assume that these ladies have the necessary fine motor skills. There must be patience and time. They receive regular wages, health insurance, pension and small loans if necessary. There is also day care, a necessary service since, to quote another guide, "children are a by-product of this industry".

Again as we toured the facility the erudite in me was stirred and stimulated. We saw sewing rooms where ladies worked commercial sewing machines: about 17 times faster than any sewing machine I've seen before (yes, I have sewn before; I was a star Calvinette). They all had their fingers intact so I thought that was a good sign. There were 10 or so ladies in each sewing room. We weren't there long but it seemed like each room had its own community; it would be an almost guaranteed by-product of spending 9 hours a day, 5 days a week together. We saw the t-shirt and bag sewing ladies. We were encouraged to introduce ourselves in Bengali, so I did and they didn't even laugh at me.

Freeset takes a different approach to their products then Loyal. At Freeset each product is worked on by multiple people whereas Loyals's products are individually crafted. Freeset's model makes sense given their magnitude and products. It does not make sense for ladies to learn how to sew and also screen print. Logistically that would be a nightmare and I would think that would be an overwhelming skill set for some of the ladies. Freeset's model also contributes to comraderie (SP?), community and fellowship. To quote High School Musical: "they're all in this together". I understand and respect both company's philosophies.

Watching the ladies work in sewing, ironing, sorting, labelling and printing was exciting for multiple reasons. First, it is a world I am not familiar with so the intricacies of each of the steps was interesting. Second, it was neat to see ladies in their niches. An elderly lady had a place affixing the tags to t-shirts. Although this may not be intellectually stimulating, it is a way for her to have a role, a place and to contribute to the project. Third, I sensed freedom. In each room I sensed freedom. Choice. Option. Contribution. Meaning. Purpose. They likely do not love every minute of their workday, but they're human so I think that makes sense. But this is a role they chose and choice is freedom.

Liz, our guide, has a Bengali tattoo on her arm: "freedom road". Fitting.

The sewing intrigued me, especially the lady who sewed tags/size labels on each shirt. The time she took to ensure they were aligned properly was interesting. The tags on these shirts are incorporated with such care. Tags. Every single shirt that leaves this place has a tag sewn on with care.

I was also intrigued by the screen printing process. The material to be imprinted is affixed to a square board on a rotating wooden wheel of sorts. There were 5 or 6 arms to this wheel. The cover, with the screen, is moved down and snugly fit on the bottom. A lady then takes the appropriate colour paint (one colour at a time) and spreads it over the screen (which has "holes" for where only that colour should go). It then goes to the next stage and is put under strong light. This process is repeated for each colour and then the new colour/screen is changed. A simple but interesting process. It makes me appreciate so many more products at home.

A part of the tour I found interesting was when I asked about the market. Where do Freeset's products go? Some to New Zealand but the majority go to America. Both Lush and Whole Foods have used Freeset (yeah! so buy scones from Whole Foods: they're great!...and take the scones home in one of their reusable bags). When referring to Freeset's business distribution, Liz the New Zealander commented, in all seriousness: "America has this interesting culture where for every event they make t-shirts, wear it for a day, never seem to wear it again, and then have a new t-shirt for the new event two weeks later". Yikes. Yes. You're right. It seems as though this doesn't happen in New Zealand. There may be a consumption problem but on the other hand, it keeps these ladies employed. Hmmm.

After this we chatted some more and finished this leg of the tour in the small shop. Clearly I bought stuff: shorts, a t-shirt and a scarf. Remember the first and third item for the next blog.