Actor and humanitarian Ashley Judd, board member of Population Services International (PSI) and the Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, will be writing posts for the ONE Blog during her March 2007 travels through India. During the trip, Ashley will address women’s issues, and have the opportunity to discover how families can be empowered to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancies.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Except for feeling lethargic today, I have felt so very well and balanced. The positive self talk, boy, I can’t say enough about it. Here in India, “I can stay present” has been a key one, as the mind has a mind of its own. Yesterday I was catching my mind fleeing toward this giant slum I visited this week. It is shockingly densely populated, a million suffering souls. We had a bit of a melee yesterday with the press at one of our activities; it was quite out of hand – and I was allowing myself to become really scared about what it would be like in the slum if the press found out I was there.

Yesterday I had a lovely time visiting our Saadhan Call In Line program. It is a free, anonymous, and confidential service available to all Indians, a number they may call with any and all questions about their reproductive health, which will be answered by trained, non-judgmental staff that also have at their fingertips an entire data base of medically accurate information. The shame surrounding sex education is a worldwide phenomenon, and people can be so woefully uninformed, to their own and others’ severe detriment and even death. The Saadhan line and its caring workers help individuals make informed decisions, increase risk perception, and choose safe behaviors. It’s a fabulous program. I sat in the little call room and did interviews. I was very proud to be there. They’ve taken 66,000 calls to date.

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I also visited the Mumbai home of the Great Soul, Gandhi. I read every word, studied every picture, and spent quiet time in front of the plain palette where he slept. I imagined his hand on his walking staff, and was amazed at the crude mug from which he drank. It was wonderful beyond description. Of his many, many inspired teachings, perhaps I love best that he said, “I am a Jew! I am a Christian! I am a Hindu! I am a Muslim!” I have no timidity whatsoever in declaring I am a devout follower of his teachings and believe without reservation that nonviolence is the only way toward peace.

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Seane Corn, profound yoga teacher dedicated to service, arrives tonight! She taught me how to make my physical practice, and by extension my life, a prayer. One day we will practice yoga with sex workers, an idea for which Seane feels deep tenderness. Helping them to bring something healing to their own bodies, an antidote to the abuse heaped on them for years, is her dream.

In the meantime, it is a quiet day. It seems some jet lag has hit; everyone else says their days 3 and 4 were really rough. Oh well, it’s a Sunday. A nap, self care is all that is on the docket. I feel some loneliness; I wanted to go visit my friends in Faulkland Road, but Sundays are hard work for sex workers. They don’t have time to hang out with me. I guess I’ll check basketball scores (how glad am I that I didn’t organize this trip around the SEC tournament?), and reflect on how totally weird it was to be pinned in a porn theatre lobby, trapped on one side by men watching exploitation films, a throng and press on the other?

I hope soon to have the cord required to send snap shots. I have some doozies. My mind is full of one: A tall, narrow, 3-faced building, 10 stories high, each little walkway, window, cracked opening, and stairwell, crammed full of the bodies, minds, and souls of sex workers. They were waving at me. I loved them right back. Of that, I have only a memory; I hadn’t asked each and every single one if I could take a picture. I always ask. They have so much shame; it’s abusive not to ask.

Busy week ahead; I hope you’ll join me.

Love,

Ashley