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71 Chapter 4 “My Mind Is Different” Developing Confidence and Critical Perspectives through SAT “Whatever I learned I’ve already forgotten,” Margarita explained sheepishly when I asked about her participation in SAT. She was in the program for only about three months, and so she did not have much to tell me about her experience. Margarita dropped out of SAT for a good reason: an offer to work in San Pedro Sula. She was excited about this opportunity, as it was her ticket out of the village and into waged labor. For two years, Margarita worked as an assistant cook at Que Chicken!, a buffet restaurant attached to a gas station outside San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second-largest city. She prepared salads, meat, and other dishes to serve at the buffet. She enjoyed this work and was promoted to supervise other assistants. Although she liked her job, Margarita found city life dangerous. “I had to take more than one bus to work,” she explained, as she lived in a marginal neighborhood some distance from the restaurant. One night, she did not leave work until eight o’clock. As she waited to catch the second of three buses that brought her home, she was mugged at knifepoint. “He pulled off my bracelet and threatened me with a knife!” Margarita spoke disparagingly of all of the “thieves and delinquents” in the city, and explained that their presence was one reason why she decided to return to her village, although her boss at Que Chicken! wanted her to stay. He sent her off with a letter of recommendation for future jobs, which Margarita proudly retrieved from her house to show me. She read aloud: “To whom it may concern, Margarita Dolmo has worked here for several years, all with excellent conduct, honesty, and above all a desire to excel. For these reasons I recommend her for any future services you may need.” For a short time after Margarita returned to her village, she ran a shop in a small thatched-roof hut adjacent to her home. She showed me its remnants: beer bottles were arranged in a haphazard semicircle on the 72 Opening Minds, Improving Lives floor, and a pile of glass Coca-Cola empties mixed with some plastic guaro bottles sat in crates near the side wall. She explained: “I used to sell flour, sugar, candies, but now I only sell beer and guaro.” Her customers would seat themselves either inside or outside her home to drink and hang out. Margarita mentioned that she would like to continue her studies someday so that she could get a job, but she did not want to return to San Pedro Sula. Several of her classmates in SAT were enrolled in universities, and I wondered if Margarita would have enrolled had she turned down the job in San Pedro Sula and finished her studies in SAT. One SAT bachiller graduate, Juanita, had material circumstances similar to Margarita’s. During the course of her studies in SAT, she and her partner began operating a comedor that sold cold drinks, beer, and hot meals. While her business sold more than alcohol, she and Margarita earned their livelihoods through the operation of small businesses. Though Margarita seemed remorseful regarding her decision to discontinue her studies, it was difficult to pinpoint the tangible ways in which Juanita and Margarita’s circumstances differed because of their participation (or lack thereof) in SAT, at least from a material perspective. Does SAT Make a Difference? In questioning the impact of SAT on women’s empowerment, I often returned to Margarita and Juanita. The concrete ways in which women’s lives had changed as a result of their studies were difficult to define, particularly for the women who remained in the villages. After all, only a handful of SAT graduates were enrolled in universities. Exactly how, then, were women’s lives different as a result of their studies? The answer to this question emerged in subtle ways through my conversations with women. They spoke of “seeing the world differently.” Juanita said that SAT “opened [her] mind.” Teodora explained that her “mind opened more” through her studies. Like a potter molds clay, she explained, SAT had “formed” her into a different person. Participation in SAT sparked a process of recognition. It altered the way women viewed themselves and their communities. Learning, or acquiring knowledge, triggered self-reflection and discovery. Often linked to learning was an improvement in self-confidence, as women began to...

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