The women on the University campus, but not on campus..

"I did always want pursue lil higher studies, but time yuh know.. life.. " the taxi driver, a woman, said as she took me into the University compound. "Dis place always looks busy.. ".  

I ask her if she has access to the Internet and what phone she uses. I tell her about MOOCs and coursera and edx.
"Write dem down hey fuh meh nuh".. she takes a paper from the door . The car is not too tidy.
I wanted to ask her if she wanted to come into the lecture.. but time is money and as I pay her and jump out , I did not say.. come in come in if you got some time. I disconnected her from the theme of the lecture in that very easy to do way in which people - women, men , others are often ignored.

The lecture was about gender and health.

Near the door of the lecture theatre, a woman is standing. She is a cleaner. I tell her come in if she finish working. She looks at me and smiles. She says no. I say come man, tek a seat. She laughs and says 'another time'. I wonder if the notices of these events go out to every single person who works on the campus.

I think of the other women working on the campus outside of the faculty and admin services - security guards, cleaners. I wonder if they get to listen in to the lectures. 

I am in this strange space.. 'lecturing' rather than facilitating discussions. There is a difference - I do believe there is a role for academic rigour, and discipline to work on research, theories etc. I am also grateful to all of the mostly women who have translated all of this for me so I could use this as I talk about gender equality. I have never been assigned grades on any of the work.

I am looking at something written for me to mark, and to assign a score. The woman who wrote it is radical in her own way. I am not assigning scores though for personal radicalism and revolutionary ventures.. but for language, structure, etc.  I feel foolish assigning a less then 100% score.

I forgot to ask a woman guarding the women artists at Castellani House if she had viewed the exhibition. I had learned from other women about inviting bystanders and paying attention to those on the periphery, on the margins. In the university.. on the campus, but not on campus.