#1 Take a Make-Up class
Me (second from right) with my make-up class on graduation day. And yes, for a final project we dressed one classmate up as a bride.
That’s right. Every week for the last month or so, I’ve spent three hours a week learning how to curl my eyelashes, apply lipstick, and pick the right eye shadow colors for any given outfit. This may sound like a huge waste of time and I’ll admit at times I had trouble sitting through it, but in the end I’m glad I did.
Fundación Mujer’s Executive Director originally insisted that I take the class along with 6-8 Fundación clients because she thought it would be fun, that I would learn a lot, and that as a volunteer I deserved break from the daily grind. I resisted, not wanting to give up three working hours every week, but she won in the end. I’ll be the first to admit that my very limited makeup skills have improved each week, but more importantly being part of the class let me get to know a group of Fundación Mujer clients in a way that wouldn’t have been possible in many other contexts.
Unlike many volunteer experiences, I don’t spend extended periods of time with the same clients. It’s just not the nature of being a Kiva Fellow. I make visits to the field to collect information about clients and their loans for Kiva and I do follow-up visits to see how loans are being used, but most of my time is in the office working with and training MFI staff, so they can use Kiva effectively long after I am gone. My borrower visits are fairly infrequent and I rarely see the same client more than once or for more than 30-40 minutes. This often makes it hard to truly get past the cultural gap between me and the clients.
Lack of time to build a relationship means that during most client visits, I’m viewed as the “powerful” stranger. But in make-up class, I was just another student. This shift in the perceived power structure was a vital change for really having clients open up to me about their aspirations, family life, and crush-of-the-day. As two classmates did my makeup (fake eyelashes and all) this morning, the power dynamic was blissfully absent. They teased me, we laughed together, and I got to threaten to make them look like clowns if they messed up my eyeliner.
Thus, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the topic, I’m glad I carved the time out each week to get to know these women. And I would encourage anyone to take a similar chance without hesitating, even if it is the form of a make-up class.
Meg Gray is currently a Kiva Fellow working at Fundación Mujer in San José, Costa Rica. Follow Meg or La Vida Idealist on Twitter to get more frequent glimpses into her experience in Costa Rica. Learn more about Fundación Mujer and the other trainings it offers for clients here. Or make a loan to a Fundación Mujer client or another small business owner here on Kiva.org.
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It was a bit of both. The class supposedly focused on doing your own makeup, but the teacher encouraged people to start doing other people’s makeup for free to build up their reputations with the idea that eventually they could start charging.
Sounds surprisingly fun! Just curious: is the idea that your classmates will use this as a professional skill (e.g. are they becoming makeup artists)?