A member of the SEARCH community

This is Vilmaltai, and like with most of the SEARCH employees, we couldn't communicate. She worked in the cafeteria and prepared all my food. She was very sweet, loved to sing and say random English phrases she learned in school ages ago. She often hid my shawl or played other funny tricks on me, like tying an eggplant to me when I was not looking. She's also a very strong woman who ran away from a forced marriage at age 14 because she didn't want to leave school. In rural India, that scenario is not at all uncommon.