Nearing the end

It has been a long time since my last post! For that, I am sorry. There has been a lot going on, so there is lots to tell you about!

Although the order of things is likely to be wrong in this message, there are certain events which warrant talking about. First of all, the situation with Prof. Yunus: Since my last message, the Court has upheld his dismissal, although he has still maintained a certain level of engagement with the institutions he created. It is tough to say exactly what the long-term impacts of this episode will have, but thankfully so far Bank operations have not been very disturbed. As I mentioned, there was some speculation that borrowers would be encouraged to default on their loans with Grameen Bank. To my knowledge, that hasn't been the case although there are maybe good reasons why; when the Bank was established in 1984, the Government invested an initial amount, giving it 25% ownership of Grameen Bank. It has since this time maintained 25% votership on the Board of Directors, although its financial ownership dropped to 3.25% since the Government never re-invested in Grameen Bank. Recently, the Government invested enough to bring its shares back up to 25%, despite the Bank's financial self-sufficiency. It is curious to consider why, after nearly thirty years, the Government has suddenly taken such an acute interest in the affairs of the Bank.

Secondly, I got the chance to visit the Liberation War Museum about a month ago with some of the other Interns. This was maybe my favorite touristy-type activity in Bangladesh, because it gave me the chance to learn a lot more about the history of this country. Although I think I did know the Independence war was fought against Pakistan, not Indian, I learned a lot more about the reasons why. Urdu is the language of Pakistan, but in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) the language is Bengali, otherwise called Bangla (Bangladesh means something along the lines of "the country of Bangla"... I'm sure that's not the translation but you get the idea). Additionally, all the financial assets of East Pakistan were controlled by the West Pakistani government, meaning while West Pakistan flourished East Pakistan became even more destitute. What I didn't know before visiting the Museum was the scope of the conflict; lasting only about nine months, millions of Bengalis died in what should be recognized as a genocide. Men, women and children, regardless of their direct involvement in the rebellion, were tortured and lined up to be shot in killing fields across the country. One such killing field was located in Mirpur, the district where I live in Dhaka city. All of the skulls and bones displayed at the Museum were collected from this killing field; needless to say it wasn't easy coming back here, imagining people lined up to die along what might now be Mirpur Avenue. I have since read a great book called "A Golden Age" by Tamima Anam, which is a fictional story about a mother's love and the war.

I got to read that book on my trip to the Sundarbans, which is the very trip I missed due to equatorial unrest in February. It was wonderful, relaxing, and the noise of the boat aside very peaceful. I was actually kind of glad not to see any Bengal tigers, as they are very dangerous. In the next few months, somewhere around 100-150 people will die collecting leaves from the forest to make the roofs of houses, or world-famous honey; in places like India and Nepal, such gatherers wear protective head gear to prevent deathly attacks from behind by their tigers, but in Bangladesh they wear no protection. We did go see a kind of sanctuary, or reserve, in one area of the Sundarbans where they were breeding crocodiles and also had Sundarban deer and monkeys for visitors to feed and look at. Unfortunately, even in this beautiful natural park there is still a lot of garbage; on the hiking trails, in the reserve, and in the water itself. The Sundarbans are currently in the running as one of the world's new seven wonders. I worry that if it becomes a large tourist attraction, the problem will only get worse and it could be destroyed. The government regulates the number of people a single boat can bring into the Sundarbans, but it wasn't clear if the number of boats were regulated; we saw probably 30 large boats in our three days there, so I can't help but wonder if that regulation does much at all. One evening, 15-20 boats were all anchored in the same bay. It was a great trip though, and a much-needed respite from the craziness of Dhaka. Which I largely still haven't quite adjusted to, although traffic jams do seem slightly less insane.

I am heading back to Canada in just four and a half days. Although sometimes the trip has seemed to crawl, looking back it's hard to believe I've been here a quarter of a year! Despite being a very challenging cultural adjustment, I have learned a lot and I know I will look back on this time positively. For that, I am thankful. I am in the last phases of my report, and hope to get some feedback on it as early as tomorrow (although with a few fact-checking things to do, it may not be until Monday).

Anyways, that's it for now! Love you all =)

Minutes turn to Months

My new guilty pleasure is Ke$ha's acoustic song, Goodbye. I think I've added about half the hits on the play count in the last few days... kind of embarrassing, but it's amazing and actually shows her talent compared to the dirty girl act she's got going on in all her other stuff.. although it does make for a good show! That is, it WOULD make for a good show if the venue had liquor and the crowd wasn't 90% made up of preteens and their unhappy parent chaperones. BUT, it was still a great night out with my bestie Ayla last summer, and Drangonette opened for her which was awesome!

Iiiin other news, I thought I would update everyone on my situation. I have finally booked a flight home, and will (hopefully... fingers crossed and wood-knocking etc!!) get back to Ottawa on April 8th at 6:30 pm. I'm hoping my boyfriend won't be in an exam, because I really want him to be at the airport when I get there. I am excited to get back to my life, but I hope that doesn't get in the way of making the best of my last three and a half weeks in the Desh.

You might remember that about a month ago I was supposed to go to the Sundarbans, which is where all the Bengal tigers live. It's actually in the running for the new Seven Wonders of the World, so if it's awesome I will make sure to let you know so you can vote to put Bangladesh on the tourist map! I am going with two American girls and a German girl, so a little smaller group but still a fun gang so it should be a great, relaxing weekend on a boat ("I'm on a boat," anyone? Anyone?).

Aside from that I am still busily working on my Grameen Trust report, which to date is a whopping 30 pages and growing quickly. I'm learning more in writing it than I did collecting all the information for it, so it's kind of an exciting process. Today I applied for a job at Canada Post's call center (I know, I know, but it pays over $20 an hour!) and I sent Ayla my cover letter for her to look over, and she said, "Did I ever tell you that you have a very pleasant writing style?" A great complement, and I hope the same is true for my report! I was to make it engaging and interesting, so hopefully my writing style allows me to do that. I'm realizing that I'm running out of time, so my productivity has to take of exponentially in the next week and a bit so I can get a draft in, and make changes before I fly the heck outta here!

It's been a great experience, I don't want to downplay that I've learned a lot and that it's been a phenomenal learning opportunity, but three months in a small hotel room in an overcrowded developing country is a long time. I hope that I will look back on this semester with nostalgia and happiness, but right now I'm ready to be home, back in my apartment with my kitten and in the same city as my social life. Speaking of which, I have created a Facebook event for a big homecoming party on April 9th, and I am very excited about the number of people who have already responded! It's awesome to know that I have so much support back home and lots of people to share my adventures with. I love you all!

A disgusting time to be in Bangladesh

I don't know how many of you have heard of the recent events at Grameen Bank, but regardless I will spell them out here.

In November 2010 a Norwegian documentary accused Yunus of redirecting aid funds to a few other Grameen companies.  Since then, the government of Bangladesh has been giving 100% effort to continue the defamation campaign started by this documentary, which has since been disproved.  Since my time here, Yunus has appeared in court for a defamation case filed against him in 2007 which accused him of adversely impacting minority opposition politicians from his comment that politics in Bangladesh are about the power to make money. The case hasn't progressed since 2007, but he was summoned in early 2011. 

The government has also taken up a case of adulteration of Grameen Danone through a food inspector, charging Yunus and the director of Danone among others. There is also a case against a business Yunus' family owns saying they benefited from their contracts with Grameen Bank, but in fact they are a provider of printed materials and none of Yunus' family have received dividends or profits. 

The most recent events are the most deplorable.  On March 2nd, Prof. Yunus received a letter from the Bangladesh Bank (which owns 3.7% of Grameen Bank) that he had been relieved of his position as Managing Director of Grameen Bank. They say that since he is over the retirement age of 60, he has to go.  He is 70... why ten years late? They also say that the central bank never approved his election as MD... in 1983 and again in 1990. According to a statement by the Finance Minister, the Board of Directors approved waiving the retirement age for Yunus; the BOD includes three members of the government, one who acts as Chairperson.

At this point, his lawyers are arguing that the ordinance contradicts at least three articles outlining his rights in the Constitution of Bangladesh. Prof. Yunus published a letter saying that he will go, but just wants time to set the affairs of the Bank in order and avoid the highly likely chaos his sudden departure would cause.  He wants an interim position for a specified period of time and then he will leave. 

The government has gone too far on this one. Obama and other American politicians, as well as the majority of the international community, stand behind Yunus. He has done amazing things for Bangladesh- which is said to be one of the reasons the Prime Minister hates him so.  He can get meetings with people she cannot; she lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he won. He is critical of Bangladeshi politics, and shuns the Bangladesh elite whereas the politicians cater to them.  Regardless of the personal politics involved in what has become known as Hasina vs. Yunus, he has made incredible steps in the alleviation of poverty the world over, and his ideas will have a lasting legacy in Bangladesh and around the globe.  Being so unceremoniously removed from the company he built is a slap in the face to the honorable Prof. Yunus, but also to the Grameen Bank and the microfinance industry. Many much more valid critiques of his work should be recognized, considered, and utilized to improve the pursuit of poverty alleviation, but he himself has dedicated his life to microfinance.  He is a deserving Nobel Laureate, a contributing scholar to fields as diverse as economics, development, and human rights, and he deserves better than the reproach he is receiving in being kicked out of Grameen Bank. His request is not to operate indefinitely as Managing Director, it is now to be accorded a small shred of dignity in organizing an honorable departure from his life's work.

The verdict should come soon, I will amend this post accordingly when it is delivered.  What a sad time to be here, witnessing the disembowelment of such an amazing family of organizations. Not above reproach, but surely deserving of some level of respect.

EDIT------

So, it's happened. The court upheld the termination of Muhammad Yunus, supporting its grounds that the Central Bank never approved his 1999 unanimous appointment as Managing Director and that he is ten years over the retirement age. In a complete breach of judge neutrality the justice made comments supporting the position of the government, clearly confirming the obviousness of the political motivations of the attack.

Yesterday (Tuesday, March 8th) when the decision came I was working from the hotel, but I learned this morning that Grameen staff formed a human chain in front of Grameen Bank on Mirpur Ave in protest. I participated in the second human chain today. We all stood on the edge of the sidewalk, holding signs and banners in support of Yunus and opposing the actions against him. We stood quietly and peacefully for a half hour beginning at 1 pm, with armed soldiers facing us in the middle of the street. Apparently the government fears violent protests, but against whom in the street in the middle of the afternoon I am not quite sure.

The fear is that the government will now encourage borrowers not to pay back their loans. This, combined with the likelihood that non-borrowing depositors will withdraw their savings, has created fear of major economic crisis for the Bank which could eventually lead to its destruction. There is also the possibility that staff will quit in protest, but I hope that doesn't happen as it will harm no one but the Grameen institutions.

This is a country with a socially and politically conscious population; I have seen it firsthand in protests against the government such as the hartal a previous blog post described, and I am now experiencing it through Grameen activism and support of their leader.

It is going to be a very complex and challenging transition for Grameen, and I will keep you posted on major events and issues as they arise.

Accessibility in Dhaka

I decided to write about some of the health issues I am seeing here in the city. Apart from the fact that all residents hack and hork loogies like it's a religion, there are many things here that are very challenging to see.

Wheelchairs are nonexistent on the streets, I assume largely because the sidewalks are awful and people in wheelchairs wouldn't be able to get anywhere.  It's quite surprising the number of amputees in the city, all using crutches of varying quality- most of the time people rely on bamboo sticks which is actually quite impressive to see.  They put them behind their armpits and hold on to them quite far down.  This is especially interesting to see in the case of double leg amputees.  Old people use walking sticks and tend to walk on the roads. 

That said, in Mirpur where I live the sidewalks have greatly improved since my time here.  In the two weeks leading up to the Cricket World Cup, sidewalks on both sides of Mirpur Avenue were redone manually with layers of bricks covered in hand--mixed cement; having mixed cement with shovels in Mexico in 2009, I am amazed at the speed in which sidewalks materialized over the course of those two weeks.  Women and men laid the bricks, then women filled in the spaces with sand, dirt and garbage before the cement was laid down, patterned lengthwise in bars with long pieces of plywood.  It does stand to prove that this city has the capacity to improve its infrastructure, although without the Cricket World Cup it appears the motivation is nonexistent.  They also repainted all the black and white bars on the edges of the high sidewalks between Mirpur and Gulshan.  The city spent no one knows how much on decorations for the World Cup, in the form of Christmas lights draped over sidewalk fences and road lights, new "gardens" where the potted plants sit in formations around wooden cricketers, and lanterns. 

Back to health things, I have recently discovered what arsenic poisoning actually does.  While I assumed it would degrade internal systems, which I think it still might do, it disfigures the face and causes the skin to change color. In a country of varying shades of brown, the WHITE splotches are actually a very important social issue.  Young girls with arsenic poisoning are unmarryable, and old women tend to wander the streets alone, bringing a whole new dimension to the fashion of dreadlocks.  Beggars thus result not just from economic issues, but from social stigmas and gender issues.  Divorce is also an important precursor to economic instability.

One of the most obvious accessibility issues is the fact that no building here is one storey.  If you cannot get up the stairs, many restaurants and shops are inaccesible.  A few have intermittent access to escalators, while some others have elevators, but unless you are in a mega mall you generally have to hoof it.  Interestingly, I have yet to see a disabled employee at the Grameen building despite the elevators. Speaking of which, the other day I was in an elevator when the power went out and thankfully it didn't plummit from the 17th floor where we were, but it was still a relatively scary experience.  There was also a political murder last week, so life in the third world continues its excitement.

That's it for now, back to my research!

Love, Lesley (aka Lasli)

Listening to Ke$ha as I post... cultural immersion for the win...

I am feeling a lot better than I was a few days ago, probably because of my very quiet weekend in the hotel.  On Friday when I was supposed to be on a boat in the Sundarbans I went for a pedicure and a massage, so that wasn't the end of the world.  I found a great parlor in Gulshan when I was preparing for the wedding and I said I would go back, and I am very glad I did- the manager said she had missed me because of my smile and she is very sweet, she gave me the best masseuse at the salon who was a guy and was amaaazing.  I will for sure be going back, although probably not next week as they seem to think lol! My heels were very grateful for their treatment and I now have pretty neon pink toesies. 

Other than my sympathy day-at-the-spa, it's been very laid back with lots of sleep, some movies, and some time on my research project for Global Politics.  I got through most of my articles as identified for my proposal but I have found some other ones I will need, which I will be going through later.  Soon I hope to start getting organized to write! For Grameen Trust, I only have one more Build-Operate-Transfer project to research in detail, then I will fill the holes in a few other projects and get down to the writing business for that as well! I don't know if I will have much opportunity to research in detail some of the other stuff going on at GT but I would like to.  It all depends on how quickly I can get access to documents and people- especially Prof Latifee.  Tomorrow I will be busy finalizing my proposal to Carleton for the Students for Development program, and then that is one thing done, off my list, and out of my hands. I do hope that goes through, because I think Grameen is a great organization and has a lot to offer students who will work hard and get things done.  All in all, things are trucking (or rickshawing) along and soon it will be back to classes and work (if I can find a job...) in the Great White North. I am halfway through my placement; six weeks down, six to go.  Exciting times!

Big Disappointment

I have been sick to varying degrees for the past couple of weeks, and I was unable to go on my trip to the Sundarbans tonight. I'm quite upset about it as I have been looking forward to it for weeks.  But, I will go for a massage tomorrow, spend some serious time on my research projects, and get in touch with my Canadian contact about where I should go see a doctor.

That's it for now, early bedtime for me. 

xox

Holud and Wedding!!!!

Alright, I have postponed long enough in writing about my Bengali wedding experience! So here it is. 

Wednesday was Marco and Daniela's last day in Dhaka as they decided to go back to Italy a week early.  We went for lunch and spent a bit of time together, and then I had to hurry to get my hair and makeup done so I could go to the parlor near Sana's house to get my Sari put on. But, miracle of miracles, I will still there on time! To put on a Sari, you have to wear a long skirt and a little belly shirt blouse, and then the sarilady (lol) does her foldy-uppy thing and turns you around a few times, a few tucks here a few pins there and poof! You are Sari'd. Ten to fifteen minutes later. When I got to Sana's house all the family was running around with last-minute things, and the other bridesmaid equivalents all showed up looking lovely.  We all sat around with the bride, who said she felt like a color palette all done up in her outfit, makeup and bells and whistles.  She looked amazing, although not like herself! She really is so lovely, and is very kind.  The first day we met she hugged me, and the first thing we talked about was her asking me to participate in the holud.  All of the Bengalis I have met are really nice, and friendships form really quickly which is great. 

We went up to the rooftop (which looked incredible! Such a huge difference from the plain cement just a few days before) and took some pictures, practiced some of the dances on the stage, and mulled around.  Many of the guests had already arrived, but nothing gets started until the groom's family gets there.  The groom himself doesn't actually officially attend the holud, just as Sana didn't go to his, but Jamil did crash the party later on in the evening. All his family arrived together, done up beautifully although I didn't get any good pictures of them.  All the "bridesmaids" line up to greet them with candies, and I was responsible for the white beads which you give to all the men while the women get red ones.  They all come with gifts for the bride and their family, so after pictures had been taken of them at the stage we took them all downstairs. So we went to Sana's house with the gifts and got the bride, who comes in under a long scarf-type thing carried by her family and friends.  We brought her upstairs and then the festivities started!

Sana had made videos of her family, herself, the happy couple, and her friends.  We watched all the videos, and then the dancing started! After over a month of rehearsing, we finally took to the stage for the enjoyment of the large crowd. The girls are beautiful dancers.  Some songs were more serious, but some were really fun and goofy, like the one where the girls pulled up the groom's brother and danced around him and another where one of Sana's male friends was pretending to be Jamil, with his name written across his Punjabi as he danced.  It was so much fun! Everyone loved the dances, and at the end asked for more! Of course no encores were prepared, so the formalities started. 

I don't know all the details, but the groom's family all feeds the bride sweets and puts tumeric on her face for good luck.  It was a shame to see her beautiful makeup messed up with the bright yellow, but everyone had a blast smearing it all over her face!  I watched for a few minutes, but she was up there for probably close to an hour and a half so after a few minutes we all went to eat.  The meal was traditional Bengali food, a rice and chicken dish you eat with your hands and some sweet rice and other goodies.  There was also fresh coffee.  People started to leave at this point, maybe around 11:30 or midnight.  Everything was done by about 1 am, and Sana emerged from her bathroom all cleaned off, a totally different person! As a lot of her family was staying at their house, she and I and four other girls all slept in the parlor on a mat on the floor, with two on the couches.  The girls talked late into the night. Sana wasn't planning to sleep as she still had to prepare a lot of the gifts for Jamil's holud the next day, but she fell asleep.  Not that I can blame her! She was exhausted, and said she could sympathize with the brides on shows like Bridezilla.  When I woke up around 5 am, one of her best friends was up decorating candles with jewels.  The other girls went home in their PJs probably between 9 an 10, and Sana and I snoozed a bit longer.  Her family came into the parlor to look at all the gifts, so I got up and we all chatted about the differences between theirs and Western weddings and lifestyles, which was a great discussion but I think one I will keep private. She and I ate breakfast as she was decorating some gifts, and then she went into her room when her in-laws arrived with her beautiful wedding jewelery as they aren't supposed to see her until the wedding after the holud.  I kept trying to leave, to no avail! Her family loves company, and loves to feed their guests, so I had breakfast, goodies and lunch all before finally leaving at almost 1:30 pm. 

As I mentioned, the bride doesn't go to the groom's holud and vice versa, so I didn't end up going to Jamil's holud as I didn't really know anyone who was going.  The Friday of the wedding, I went to a spa near Sana's house, just down the street from the Australian Rosie's flat where I was planning to sleep that night. She hired a car for the evening, so I ended up just coming back to Mirpur but I got ready at her place.  I had an awesome massage and a facial, and also got my hair done which all cost me less than 30 bucks... with great service! Wouldn't it be nice if that kind of deal existed in Canada?

The wedding hall was done beautifully, and waiters served each table as guests sat down to eat so you didn't have to wait for the food at all.  There were hundreds of people and I only got to see Sana for a minute or two, and we didn't end up staying that long. I got to wear another Sari though, and it was nice to see all my new friends again. 

That's about it I think, I will add pictures to this post later on but my internet is being very slow. Love you all!

Lesley

Things I forgot to mention

I have discovered the name of that lake which brought me so much comfort when I was homesick- it is called Banani Lake. Banani is a district in Dhaka city which is very close to where my friend lives, and it is the only body of water between Mirpur and Gulshan. 

My newspapers only came for two days in a row, but I did get one while I was away so we'll see about tomorrow morning.

I am currently planning a trip to the Sundarban, which is a region in southwestern Bangladesh where the Bengal Tigers live and is also the world's largest mangrove forest.  My Italian friend Marzia has gone on her village trip this week so I am taking it over for her so we can get good deals in advance hopefully.  I am waiting for a call tomorrow morning from a tour guide man who is going to help me organize it, and whose name Marzia got from another group of interns who has worked with him.  It looks really incredible, and one of the Muslim men who helped me on my first day in Bangladesh has kept in touch and he says it is the treasure of Bangladesh, and he is sad to not be there. He is going to send me information tonight about the things we should make sure to do. Woohoo! It feels really nice to finally be motivated to get out and do things, so I am confident I will get a good look at all Bangladesh has to offer in my time here.

I got emails back from my colleague's Mom here in Dhaka as well as the High Commission.  Sharmini has invited me to the Canadian Club and since the wedding is only wednesday-friday I would love to go on Saturday night.  I have to call her on Tuesday when she is back from Chittagong to see what we can arrange.  She will also try to get me a short-term membership at the Canadian Club, and I will thus be connected to the Canadian expat community! The High Commission has also invited me to their International Women's Day celebration on March 3rd; I will get the invitation by courier next week which will be a great souvenir.  I am happy to be invited, because I keep getting emails about all the millions of events taking place in Ottawa and at Carleton through the Women's and Gender Studies department over the course of a few weeks, so at least I will get to celebrate with some Canadians if not with my peers.  That will also be at the Club- I definitely did not bring appropriate Western clothes for such a venue so I will wear my fancy Salwar Kamis the first time I go and assess the situation, and then maybe invest in something from Gulshan, which is where most of the Western stores are. 

Tomorrow is the dress rehearsal for the wedding and I am picking up my blouse and petticoat which were custom-made for me to wear under my Sari; thankfully, I have coordinated the two I am borrowing from Sana and don't have to get another set made- what would I do with a formal belly shirt in Canada!?! I am also going to buy some small heels as that appears to be the formal standard here, yet another addition to my massive shoe collection. I am getting VERY excited for the wedding, probably paralleling Sana's current stress level.  It's almost too bad for me that the wedding is this week, as there are only three working days so we would have been able to plan a larger trip were I not very happily previously engaged. 

Is anyone actually reading all my posts?  The blog was too big after two posts for me to open it so I'm sure it's a lot for you. Do keep in touch!

Love, Lesley

Srimangal Trip

I'm baaaack!

The tea estates trip was great.  We left here at about 6:30 am and picked up two new German interns (a very nice couple named Cecil and Anneciata) in another area of Dhaka before leaving the city.  We were nine in total, two Austrians, three Germans, an Italian, two Chinese and myself.  The roads, as I have commented before, are pretty awful but I found they were better in the North than in the South of Bangladesh, and definitely better than those in Dhaka.  We arrived at our guest house in Srimangal (pronounced something like Shrimangol) around 2:30 pm, and I must say it was a very pleasant surprise! There are pictures at the end of the post because I find it very hard to manage the post when I am writing around the pictures I include.  As you can see, it was very beautiful and in a nice little compound.  We were five girls in the one house, and the three boys were in a room in the main house which also had a tv room, about 6 other bedrooms, a cafeteria-type room where we played cards, and the dining room with the kitchen alongside.  We ate lunch (me with my hands, everyone else with spoons) which was amaaazing, the fresh village food can't even be compared to what I eat in the city.  It was pretty much what I ate in the other village; lots of rice, dal with every meal, a meat dish and vegetables.  For lunch the veggie was fresh pumpkin (we saw a cook carrying it in beforehand) and it was fantastic, cut up in chunks and boiled, with a nice sauce.  The others all had a hard time with the spices, and that's how I know I am in fact adjusting to the ubiquitous spice.  I still won't touch the chillies themselves, but I can eat a meal without a litre and a half of water- progress!

The guest house has a coordinator named Peter, one of those from the minority Christian community here in Bangladesh.  Peter organized a mini-bus for us; this one was truly mini, with only seven seats so each time we were in the car two had to sit backwards on top of the motor behind the drivers' seat.  We went to this little shop which is famous for their seven-layer tea; don't ask me how they manage to get it in seven layers, but the picture below shows that there really are distinct layers! We ordered one tea each of 2 to 10 layers and each sampled some of every one. Certain layers weren't all that good, but a fun experience nonetheless! After we returned to the guest house, where one of the assistant boys walked us about a half a km to a pineapple plantation.  Apparently pineapples grow on bushes... I kept my mouth shut on my lack of knowledge on pineapple horticulture, as I would have guessed they grew on trees! We made it just in time for the sunset which was absolutely incredible from the top of a hill over the pineapple rows and the tiny lake at the bottom.  About 3 km of pineapples are grown by this one family, which leases the land from the local government.  You have to be quite well-off to begin with to be able to rent even a tiny bit of land, so I was quite surprised.  That was about it for our first day; dinner was fresh fish with the standard Bangla rice, dal and veggies, and I don't know what they do to the potatoes here but they are great. Maybe, again, it's just the freshness.  We played some games before dinner, and went to bed pretty quickly after we ate as we were all tired, but dinner wasn't served till after 9 so, really, it wasn't all that early.  I unfortunately couldn't sleep at all, despite the mosquito net and the fact that I have adjusted to the hard beds. I was quite slow getting out of bed in the morning, but was still ready before the bus arrived to take us out for the day.

Our first stop was at a lake, which was quite lovely and had tea plants all around it, with paths cutting vertically and horizontally along the surrounding tea-planted hills.  There was apparently a monkey but I didn't see it.  After walking around the lake for about an hour, we had cha (tea) at a stand about a minutes walk in front of the lake.  We were going to visit the national park, but we all wanted to learn more about the multitude of brick-making factories all over the countryside of Bangladesh so we asked Peter if we could stop at one.  So we stopped and wandered around taking pictures and getting stared at as always, but I think this time it was more from sheer surprise that anyone would want to stop there.  It is a really incredible operation; there are many different crews who work, some pulling out the necessary wet soil from the ground, others actually making the bricks by hand.  Someone dumps piles of wet soil, another rolls out a chunk on the ground and another plunks it in the mould and carefully pulls the mould off in time to plunk in the next rolled chunk, always amazingly exactly the right size for the mould, which has the company's letters imprinted on the bottom (top once they flip it over and pull it off).  There are lines and lines of bricks drying on the ground, which are stacked after probably a couple of weeks into huge lined-up piles.  There are then women who carry the dried bricks to where another crew lines them up in a crevasse to be fired.  The fire runs all the time, blowing plumes of black smoke up into the air.  The heat comes out the bottom of the pillar into the crevasse, where it fires the bricks.  I couldn't figure out how long they stay in the line of fire (litterally!), but it is HOT in that crevasse! Other teams move the fired bricks to another section of the field where they are again lined up, waiting to be loaded onto trucks after an order comes in.  Everyone works eight hours a day, seven days a week.  They make 700 taka a week, or 100 taka a day.  We spent 100 taka on tea for all of us earlier that morning.  Each brick weighs 5 kg; the women who carry the bricks do so on their heads, and pile up ten of them (aka 50 kg) and then walk quite a distance to the fire, all day, every day.  They are the only women employed there, about 50 women to the 150 men doing the other work although we only saw maybe 6 of them; I assume we arrived around lunchtime.  We had to ask several times to get anywhere near the fire as it is very dangerous, but of course it's only dangerous for tourists and maybe 15 men work directly on top of it all day long.  I stepped just one step in the wrong place and was pulled back by a lovely old man who probably saved me from a burnt foot, as where I had stepped crumbled into the very bright orange of the fire beneath it.  I got a picture of him maybe 5 minutes earlier, which I have added at the bottom. The old men here are very photogenic, and I am quite proud of this shot. 

We were getting ready to leave to carry on to the forest, but the owner of the factory (an ancient and very tall man in Muslim dress with a walking stick) wanted to serve us something so we waited with him in the overseer's quarters while two men drove to get snacks and another two went for tea.  It is here that I discovered my new favorite Bangla snack, their version of trail mix.  I can't really describe it, but it has soy nuts and a few different-sized savory bits which are, of course, slightly spicy.  I bought some in the bazaar today, and am enjoying them as I write.  The tea was great, not the usual condensed milk-tea but a delicious clear cinnamon tea.  After a few group photos with the factory owner, we sardined ourselves back into the bus and went to the national park forest. There is a fare for Bengalis and a fare for foreigners, which is US$ 5 compared to probably less than US$ 0.50 for the locals. There were signs everywhere about not littering which, in Bangla style, are obstinately ignored.  The further in you go the less garbage you see, so we were glad to get on the less-beaten path.  Some people actually live in the national park, and cultivate lemons around their houses.  Not much to see other than trees, so we took a few photos and moved on.  We read in the Lonely Planet book the Italian had procured that there are traditional tribes still living in the region so we wanted to see that, but we ended up at a fenced-in Christian community.  I could have spent maybe two minutes there but we were there almost a half hour.  Nothing all that exciting, but Bangladesh is the land of hurry up and wait so everything takes longer.  The Church is only open on Sundays so we couldn't go in to see it but we did go find it, and the very Christian structure (not as impressive as a Cathedral) was somehow comforting. Everyone dresses the same apart from the Christian women not covering their heads with a scarf; they do wear Salwa Kamis so it didn't really feel any different other than the Church itself. 

We then went to a tea estate, which was the last thing on our schedule for the day.  It was, of course, closed until March so we went to the tea estate region and didn't even visit a tea estate! It was still a fantastic weekend away.  We went back to the guest house and ate lunch at around 4pm.  I finally convinced the girls to try eating with their hands, a. because it's fun and b. because Sana rightfully proved to me that it actually tastes better when mixed by hand.  They wouldn't ever believe me until they ate with their hand (right only, as it's very rude to eat with the left since it's the hand used in the bathroom) and ALL agreed that it tasted better! The mini-bus from Dhaka was supposed to arrive at 5 pm, and by 6 pm we were getting quite worried.  We couldn't get ahold of the man at Grand Prince hotel who had organized the transport for us, and I won't go into the details of the ensuing drama but finally at 7 we found out that there had been some mechanical troubles and he was on his way.  3 or 4 of our group were supposed to be leaving Dhaka at 7:30 this morning (Sunday) for their village trip, so we were very concerned about getting back Saturday night.  He did eventually show up and we made it back to Dhaka at 12:30 am, dropping off the German couple and getting back to the hotel by 1 am.  I was very happy to shower and collapse into bed.  I went into work a little late today, which I would normally never do intentionally but here is the norm.  So I was there at 11 instead of 10:30 and it was a non-issue.

Regardless, I am still quite tired so I think it will be a very early night for me after a Chicken Steak and Naan dinner.  Today I just couldn't handle Chinese food again so I ordered a chicken pizza which was very good; any dish with vegetables mandatorily comes with chillies so I just wanted a cheese pizza, and got talked into chicken as well which I was fine with.  I think it will be added to my standard fare because chinese food twice a day is tough to manage a month in.  I don't know what I am going to do two months in when I can't stand to even look at beef chowmein! Maybe venture into the Indian menu now that I can stomach the spice, although nothing comes with descriptions on the menus so I will have to prepare for disaster a few times.    

The last picture I will include is one for my Dad, so Mom please make sure he sees it.  This is the building next to the Grameen building here in Dhaka; as you can see, their bamboo "protection" structure starts in one place and ends about three rows of bamboo over at the top, a testament to Bangladeshi security standards for their construction workers.

Heed Bangladesh Guest House- so nice!





Pineapple Sunset



Beside the arm in the bottom left corner you can see a pile of mud

 

My saviour and bff



Eating by hand- you push it into your mouth with your thumb






Women carrying bricks



Newly made bricks drying- endless!





Marzia (Italian friend) and Pineapple plants



Rickety Bamboo





Pineapple valley



Awesome day at work!

Today was grrrreat! I was given the annual reports for the Kosovo project from 2005-2009, and I was able to find data for 2010 later in the day when I was working on some GT stuff.  I am producing a database of all the things I need to include in my report (which is a LOT!) and have also been able to compile a bunch of spreadsheets for my Carleton research paper.  I spent most of the day going through the annual reports, and had about 2 hours to work on the GT database I was starting before I had a meeting with Prof. Latifee at 5pm.  He is really supportive and has high hopes for my GT report, and I am really hoping my work meets his expectations.  We talked for just under an hour, and most of that time was spent talking about his experiences in Afghanistan in 1996 when Grameen Trust was invited by UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) to start a project there to help those affected by the war.  Unfortunately this project didn't succeed due to the tight reign and demands of the Taliban, and in June 1996 the Taliban forced them to shut down.  My project for Carleton is comparing and contrasting the successful project in war-torn Kosovo against the failed one in Afghanistan just three years earlier.  I won't bore you with the details of my proposal but I will let anyone who is interested know when it's done in April so you can read it if you want. 

I am meeting a few other interns for dinner in about half an hour, and then I will be in my room working on my proposal and getting ready for our trip to the Tea estates tomorrow morning... we are leaving at 6 am :S I have foregone my afternoon nap, mostly since I was at work until 6, and also so I can get to bed early tonight and be on time for our departure.  I don't know much about the plans so I will let you all know the details when I get back on Saturday night... or maybe Sunday after work depending how tired I am! Regardless, things are rapidly getting under way here and I will have to stay on top of all my research and report development so I can get everything done. 

I was originally planning to come back to Canada around April 10th, but there is a big conference going on at GT starting April 2nd or 3rd, and then the participants will go to the villages and come back to do more discussions. It will be a great place to network with actual microfinance practitioners and entrepreneurs, so if I have to stay a week or two more it probably wouldn't be a bad thing all around.  But, once I know the exact dates of those meetings, I will have to book my flight home as I tend to be more productive with deadlines... I would like to have a draft of my report done in a little over a month so that I can make any changes they want.  In my meeting today we only talked about half of the elements, so once those are well underway I will get another meeting to show Prof. Latifee where I am at and figure out where I am going.  AAAAH! Somehow two months doesn't seem long enough now that I am actually working.  Saturday will be exactly a month since I left Ottawa, and Wednesday will be a month since I arrived.  This city is still crazy, but I am looking forward to all the exciting things coming soon. 

I did finally make contact with my friend's mom at the Canadian High Commission, as well as another general email to the High Commission, both to which I received replies.  I have been invited to the International Women's Day reception at the Canadian Club on March 3rd, so that will be an awesome tie-in.  Hopefully it won't be my first time at the Club, as my colleague's mother will try to get me a membership for my time here and if that works out I will definitely want to go there the last weekend in February, after the wedding the weekend before.  Which is only 6 days away! There is a big dress rehearsal on Valentine's Day (I'm glad I will be busy) and then events get started on Wednesday, lasting until Friday.  Such fun! And only good comments on my Bollywood dancing, please and thanks!

xox Lesley

Hartal excitement

Dear loved ones,

I am still fine, no problems since the Hartal (strike) started on Monday. I didn't go to work on Monday as we were advised the violence would make us targets.  I have finally figured out what is going on, after hearing many mixed reports before the hartal started. 

Apparently the Dhaka Stock Exchange has been plummeting, and they (the opposition party and their supporters across Bangladesh) are also protesting hikes in the prices of necessities, and shortages of water and electricity.  There is also a lot of beef about a new airport the government wants to build which is apparently against national interests, although I'm not sure why- they have backed down from that plan so they were quite ticked that the opposition went ahead with their hartal. It has actually been fairly violent, I think one report said about 100 people have been injured in clashes with the police.  Lots have been arrested, and there was a lot of vandalism at the march sites- mini-busses torched, windows broken, etc.  It pretty much shut down the public transportation system, although the rickshaws were supposedly out in droves as always. Apparently a passenger bus was essentially destroyed in Mirpur, which is where I am, so I was quite happy to not be in the middle of it. 

The government says it is a defamation campaign leading up the the Cricket World Cup starting on the 17th.  As lots of people have already started coming to Dhaka for the matches (although their numbers hardly make a difference), they say it could seriously harm Bangladesh's image with so much international media coming to the area.  I imagine there will be about zero domestic impact since cricket is to Bangladesh as hockey is to Canada, only multiply the population by a zillion. 

I was looking at the Grand Prince hotel's website again a few days ago, and noticed that I was supposed to be getting the daily newspaper.  Although I didn't raise it with the reception desk or even say anything about it in the hotel, I have been getting newspapers to my door for the last two days. Bizarre! I am happy about it because for some reason I really can't be bothered to go to the lobby to read their copy, but it does seem a very strange coincidence that the day after I noticed I wasn't getting what I was paying for it magically arrived. After a month of living here! It even has my room number on it.  We'll see how long it lasts.

I have double-checked my registration on the Canadians Abroad website, just in case.  I have also emailed the High Commission here in Bangladesh to see if there is anything I can get involved with over the next couple months.  It just so happens that another Global Politics student's parents work for the High Commission in Dhaka, so I have emailed her mom as well. I will let you know what the fallout is!

In other news, I have finally successfully read the restaurant menu! I have been craving something Western, and I discovered that to get grilled chicken breast I need to ask for Chicken Steak. Not a chicken cutlet, which is deep fried and has green chillies and onion POUNDED into it.  The chicken steak is delicious, juicy, and has a really nice (not spicy!) BBQ sauce on it.  I had it twice yesterday, but I am going to hold off for awhile until I really need it again so I don't get sick of that, too.  Chicken fried rice and beef chowmein are getting quite old, although I will never tire of the delicious butter naan.  I typically only eat two meals a day, between 1 and 4 pm and again between 9 and 11.  I usually have a Carnation Instant Breakfast with milk in my room in the mornings, although today I discovered that my milk had gone sour :( I am off to the bazaar downstairs now to stock up on water and milk, and maybe a small tin of sour cream and onion Pringles. We'll see if the mood strikes me.
That's it for now, just wanted you all to know the lowdown and that I'm alright.  Onto my research proposal!

Love love.

This will be a short one, I promise!

My new desk!

I don't think I have mentioned that everything in my room is very close to the ground- bed, bedside table, "sofa" and little table- they are all tiny.  Needless to say it makes writing blog posts, emails, and weekly log updates for my internship coordinator a bit of a challenge.  Knowing that the amount of writing I am going to be doing will shortly be increasing exponentially, I finally took the initiative to ask reception if there was any way to get a desk in my room.  They told me to call housekeeping, which I was trying to avoid because they don't often understand what it is I need. Case in point: I called for a roll of toilet paper and a box of kleenex, and I got two bath towels, two rolls of toilet paper, and a handful of soaps and shampoos! I did finally get my kleenex though.  Back to the story: I called housekeeping, and as I expected I shortly had a manager at my door trying to figure out what it was I wanted.  I explained by putting my hand against the wall, saying "I need a desk that's taller than the table"  he said "but your room is so small" (thanks, I hadn't noticed!) and I said yes but I have to do a lot of writing and it is very difficult to do on my lap.  So, off he went again, and came back with two guys carrying a desk! Yaaay! So I got my desk, and the accompanying chair is the nicest piece of furniture in my room. 

Tiny bed and tiny furniture

 I did save all these pictures so they would be straight-on, but for some reason they have all come out sideways again.  So I hope you can get the gyst of my layout. So here is my abode for three months, and although small it has become quite comfortable.  The bed is hard as a rock, litterally; I sleep with earplugs in because of the street noise, so I just keep my phone alarm on noise plus vibrate and the vibration wakes me up no problemo. Mom and Leanne had a good laugh at me hitting my bed so they could hear how hard it was! Thankfully I have adjusted to the hardness, and although I very much miss my giant, soft, queen-sized bed I am getting along just fine. As I have mentioned, one of the things that is helping keep me grounded is my job searching and summer class planning for once I return.  I had a pretty bad day today, wasn't feeling well thanks to my chicken cutlet dinner- aka GREEN CHILLIES POUNDED INTO MEAT AND FRIED, so although I tried to pick around them I had a pretty long night. I didn't go to work today so my meetings will be rescheduled either for tomorrow or the next day, but I had a nice long sleep and have done some things around my room and have also finalized my preliminary essay proposal to hopefully go over with James tonight so I can get the for realz one in on Thursday night or Friday before we take off to the Tea estates! More info to come.  XOX 



Shower-head beside toilet



Population Density and Road Rules Culture Shock in a Photo




I don't think I need to say much more... cars, trucks, motorbikes, CNGs, rickshaws, and foot traffic. Yup. 

 

All kinds of excitement!

Today was my first day of work at Grameen Trust, which was actually quite slow to start but I'm confident that once I've had the meetings I need to have I can just get down to business and get er done! I also have to write a small report for Grameen Bank in order to get my certificate, which is likely to be the most challenging paper I write this "semester" as we didn't do anything at GB so it's going to be a stretch. But I want that piece of paper, I earned it just by surviving here for a month doing nothing!

Tomorrow I will be doing research and enjoying some time in the hotel with the very dynamic group of new interns whom I've befriended quite quickly.  There is another girl from Italy named Marzia, a German guy named Ingmar, a Chinese guy who is very hilarious and I have yet to figure out who he remids me of, another South Korean girl, and a pair of quite exciting Austrian girls named Ellie and Lisa. You may be wondering why I will be in the hotel tomorrow; there is some kind of political showdown happening tomorrow (unrelated to the demonstrations in Egypt and other places) in the form of a strike, of which I have no credible information.  So I will be reading the papers tomorrow and Tuesday to be able to report back on the situation, very Journalist of me! (Kathryn, aren't you proud?) Anyways, I'm hoping for a weekend-like sleep-in followed by insane amounts of productivity.

I am going with five of the new interns to the Tea district whose name I cannot remember, and we will be visiting some tea plantations and enjoying the general splendour of Northern Bangladesh.  I am also excited for the train ride, as I will now essentially have used all modes of transportation in the country! Small feat, I know, but count your victories right?

Okay it's 1:10 am, and now I will NEED a sleep-in instead of just wanting one! More details about work once I've met with someone important and someone else important. One of them is the Managing Director of Grameen Trust, Prof. H I Latifee, who has actually written some very good pieces about the Grameen Model and GT.  You can find them here if you are at all interested: http://www.grameentrust.org/short_biodata.html

OK BED! NIGHT LOVED ONES!

The one with the language barriers

I will be very excited to know who caught the Friends reference in the title =P

As I write, I am installing my "Learn Bengali" CD so hopefully I will be able to include some of my (mis)adventures in the next few posts! I must say the packaging is quite amusing- they offer training CDs for "American," "English," AND "British!"  I find that hilarious, and if they weren't about $30 each I would be most interested to know how great the differences are that they require three different programs. 

I have only had one serious mishap in communication so far, which is quite incredible considering I've been here almost a month and can barely communicate with the locals.  I've had to call Sana twice for her to tell the CNG driver where to go! I was trying to ask a rickshaw driver how much it would cost for a ride from Dhaka University where our CNG dropped us, and the National Museum where he was supposed to drop us.  In an attempt at body language, I was running my thumb along two fingers while saying "how much?"  The rickshaw driver smiled and didn't respond.  Marco told me after that that gesture actually means "I want to sleep with you"- I guess since he was ancient the rickshaw driver knew that wasn't what I meant! Needless to say I've only done it the once!

I also forgot to mention my two favorite food things.  A few days ago (maybe a week by now, I've kind of lost track of time), I was meandering through the bazaar on the ground-level of my hotel and said "hello" to one of the shop attendants.  As I was leaving his aisle, he stopped me to pick up this giant package of a "new treat we just got from India!" I said I would maybe pick it up next time, and he disappointedly put the package down.  He then grabbed the smaller version next to it and said, "I want to know if you like it!" So of course I took it and said, "I will let you know!" He has very good taste; the treat, Soan Papdi, is uuber delicious and flaky, although very sweet as is the style so I can only eat about half a crumbly square at a time.  The other thing I have discovered is Caraway seeds, which Bengali restaurants serve in a cute little dish after a meal to help with digestion.  They come in many different versions, including the sweet version I bought by mistake which has sugar crystals mixed in with the seeds. If you can find roasted Caraway seeds, I highly reccommend them.  They are delicious! Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I cram mouthfuls of them in after meals, and have been known to steal a tissue-full when I can =P

Ok that's it for now, time to get my Bangla on!

The wedding is actually in February...

But yes, I have invented a time machine and no, you can't use it.

Iiiin other news, I had promised some info about food etc.  So here goes.

Mostly in the hotel I eat Chinese food and Indian Naan, for two reasons. 1, they put green chillies on everything, even the Chinese! 2, after eating real Bangla food in the village, the stuff at the hotel tastes a bit like sludge.  Same with the tea; here it is called cha and it is amazing in the village, where we frequented the cha stand about eight times a day.  I'm not sure what they do to make it so good, but holy man is it ever good.  They use condensed milk, so maybe that's it. In the city I am too scared to stop for cha in the streets as you never see women just out for no reason, so I have to cope with the pseudo-cha at the hotel.  Also, my delightful roommate gave me a tin of red tea called "be happy" which I have been greatly enjoying the last few days.  It's hard to believe I am surviving without coffee, but somehow I am.  Same with liquor... I dearly miss wine nights with Kathryn (or, who are we kidding, by myself doing homework on a Thursday night) and I am greatly looking forward to a return to Western social life when I get back.  As Bangladesh is like 80% Muslim it is impossible to find liquor anywhere except on the black market, and I clearly do not have those connections.  I very much regret not raiding the duty-free shops in Doha on my way here! I do have a mini-fridge which is about a meter squared, so I just store milk, juice and water, and the occasional foodstuffs such as last weekend's PIZZA HUT leftovers!! It's nowhere near my hotel but I sure do know where I will be going when I need an escape into the Western world, since it somehow tastes EXACTLY the same as back home.  There is even sometimes Western music!

Today while I was eating dinner I met two interns who just came from Austria and another American who is using some of her vacation time from her job teaching English in China to take the Basic Training (different from the internship) at Grameen Bank.  I am hoping that we will all go to the Tea plantations later this month, although I have a feeling their free weekend will overlap with the wedding (FEBRUARY 18th), so I will have to make that happen another time.  I will also make a strong effort to see the mangrove forests and visit the Bengal tigers up North! Time to take advantage of my weekends, I think. 

During the week, I am very excited to say that I will now be up at Grameen Trust on the 20th floor.  Although I was trying to keep a positive attitude about my time at the Bank, they unfortunately don't hold their interns as a very high priority and the last week has been meetings with other areas of the Grameen family, about two and a half hours out of the full day.  My internship supervisor was quite surprised when I told him Grameen had about 80 interns when I started, so he is also glad that I am able to move over earlier. 

That said, my experience at the Trust will be quite different from that of their few other interns, who are mostly doing self-guided research.  I have been asked to produce quite an extensive report on all Grameen Trust's operations, which includes partnerships with 150+ organizations worldwide and other direct implementation projects, as well as training and dialogues on microfinance and the Grameen Bank Approach.  I should mention that Grameen Trust is involved in assisting/advising other microcredit practitioners around the world who want to implement the Grameen Model, while the direct implementation projects involve Grameen staff going in, with funding, to start up and run a new project while usually training locals to take it over.  This is called Build-Operate-Transfer, BOT.  I will get back to you about the other direct implementation models as I don't know much about them at this point.  This project will definitely keep me busy for the next two months, and the best part? It will be PUBLISHED!! What has started out rather slowly is rapidly picking up, and on top of being able to create something genuinely useful for Grameen I will have a publication on my resume before completing my Undergrad. Woohoo! Although they name all the projects in their annual reports, I will get to look at them all in a lot more detail.  I'm very much looking forward to the interesting, educational and productive experience starting in just a couple of days. 

I also have a meeting with Prof. Latifee on Sunday, which I am really excited about because I have been reading his publications about Grameen for about a year now! He is the executive director of Grameen Trust, so we did meet with him as a cohort from Grameen Bank. But I will have him all to myself, to prod his brain and ask questions, on Sunday and in the months to come! Lucky me =)

Next on my to-do list is getting in touch with my contact at the Canadian Embassy here in Dhaka, to hopefully get involved with them a little. Now that I am over my culture fatigue hump I am quite bored with sitting around this hotel! Speaking of which, for those who remember Mr and Mrs Bug, they were actually Mr and Mrs Cockroach, and they didn't survive the weekend.  But their offspring have happily filled their tiny bug shoes, and one jumped out at me from my dental floss container as I went to floss my teeth tonight, so it is now thoroughly closed and my nerves are (almost) back to normal.  This bug net is a very worthwhile investment for knowing that my body is not their wonderland when I am sleeping! (John Mayer reference, anyone?)

I can't think of anything else for now, other than please leave comments so I know it's getting read! I love hearing from you all back in Canada.  Also, I have become very aware of my Canadian accent, and thanks to "How I Met Your Mother" every time I say about (aboot) somebody laughs.  There are other things too, like to/too is actually "tuh" and "gonna" and not pronouncing "t"s in the middle of words. It is very strange tuh be on the receiving end of accent commentary! Yet another humbling experience. 

Anyway it is now 1:45 AM and much past my bedtime! Not sure what the plan is tuhmorrow but I think I am going to pick myself up a Team Bangladesh t-shirt for the Cricket World Cup before they all disappear off the shelves! I also have tuh get in touch with my friend Samir who I met at the Bangladesh High Commission back in Ottawa, I think he is here now and I would love it if I could arrange some cricket lessons before trying to get last-minute tickets for a match! We'll see.

I'm also very fed up with not being able to communicate, so I WILL at least attempt to learn Bangla/Bengali THIS WEEK, DARNIT! I have the DVD, so the excuses are all moot. 

Wish me luck!

xox Lesley

5-day village trip and shenanigans in Dhaka

Hello all my lovely friends and family. First off, sorry for the long delay between posts.  The culture fatigue finally caught up with me and my motivation level had been quite low for about a week.  Don't worry though, I am feeling much better and I will tell you what triggered it:

You know how in Canada, when a driver is annoyed with another they will honk or whatever and then speed up to glare at them as they pass? In Bangladesh, everyone honks and chatters annoyedly in Bengali (which, for the record, IS actually the same language as Bangla! Let the language dvd-watching commence!) but nobody looks at each other as they drive.  When I was coming back to Mirpur from Gulshan where my friend Sana lives, I was in a CNG (mini green taxi... sort of lol! More an auto rickshaw) and the driver was SO CANADIAN! He would drive right behind the car in front of him even when there was space to pass on either side, and then when he finally tried to pass if the car in front moved or slowed down or something, he would yell in Bangla and GLAAAARE at them as we went by! I couldn't help but smile! Also, he brought me back a way I hadn't been yet and we ended up driving right along a river or a canal or something, and although the water was brown and the other side had rickety houses a la slum, that is the only place in Dhaka I have seen so far where the trees are actually green and not covered in a thick layer of dust.  It reminded me of the Rideau Canal and Colonel By Drive, which also made me very happy. 

Since I haven't had the chance to talk directly with many of you, I do have some exciting news! Although Sana has been married almost a year, they didn't do any of the ceremonies or celebrations beyond the actual marriage ceremony.  Her wedding is on January 18th, and guess who's going!!! Right now the thing I am most excited for is her Houloud (sp???), which is on January 16th and is kind of like her bridal shower except it has about 150 friends and family and there is daaaancing! And guess who is dancing!  =D My last few visits to Sana's have been dancing lessons, and hopefully on Friday all the dancers will be there to practice their different songs.  I am doing one with two Australian interns Sana works with at CARE Bangladesh, and a bit of another song with a bunch of other people.  I will make sure to get videos for your amusement! I have been given my Houloud Sari as a gift, and am borrowing another for her husband's Houloud on the 17th and another for the wedding on the 18th.  I haven't picked one for Jamil's Houloud, but I am wearing this beautiful pinky-purple and purple-y-taupey one for the wedding.  I am nervous as they are pretty revealing but my blouse is a little longer than they typically wear and I will hike up my petticoat and I'll be fine. So exciting! 

Before I get into the details of the village trip, many have asked about the Independence Monument so here is a picture.  It is quite amazing, and as I said the grounds of the Memorial/Monument are the most beautiful 84 acres in the Dhaka environs.  I can't say they are the most beautiful in Bangladesh, because as many have you have seen in my second album on Facebook the villages and fields are incredible.

In Dhaka city we have spent some time visiting some of the markets and this place aptly named the Pink Palace, which was the seat of power of Bangladeshi leaders for several hundred years.  I can't really tell you much more about it other than there were lots of pictures of Bangladeshis with British folk, and one of the most famous Bengali leaders started the first Bangladeshi political party called the All Muslim League. I made the mistake of pointing out a gargoyle on the side of the building to my Italian friends Daniela and Marco, and was telling them the difference between gargoyles and grotesques within earshot of the manager of tourism of the Palace, who then followed me around pointing things out excitedly because I had told him I worked in tourism back in Canada.  FYI, a gargoyle's function is to move water away from the building so it doesn't damage the walls, whereas grotesques are just decorations.  The ones at the Canadian Parliament are grotesques.  We also explored Old Dhaka by rickshaw, and Old Dhaka is the only place in Bangladesh with any indication of road rules; the roads are so narrow that rickshaw and CNG drivers have to wait in line (GASP!!!) at some busy intersections.  That's the extent of Bangladeshi road law. 

I must say the village trip did not start particulary well for me.  We left Dhaka at 8 am on Sunday, January 23rd, by mini-bus (aka passenger van).  There were 10 interns, a coordinator from Grameen Bank, and the driver.  I was able to sleep for about an hour right at the start, and things went pretty smoothly until after the ferry crossing (where, I cannot say).  By pretty smoothly I mean the roads were wide enough for our driver to crazily pass around the rickshaws, CNGs, huuuuuge busses driving like madmen, and cargo trucks.  The 20 minute ferry crossing gave us a chance to get out and stretch our legs.  By about 3:00 we reached the first Branch Office, where three or four interns were staying and met up with their translator.  We made another couple stops and finally reached Barisal city in the Southwest of Bangladesh at about 5, but we couldn't find the offices we were supposed to go to and drove around until about 20 after when we found it and picked up some Zonal Office staff and the last two interpreters before going off to LUNCH at 5:30.  A very very very long day without food.  As I have mentioned I think, drivers here live on their horns.  By the time we got to Barisal I was litterally ready to cry I was so sick of the constant sound of our driver's horn.  We ate and took off for Bakerganj village, another ferry and about an hour away.  I have never in my life been so thankful to get out of a car, and that is saying something.

The first night we just kind of sat around with the Bank staff, and had a late dinner at like 9:30 or so.  The food was really good, it's mostly rice and vegetables and this lentil soup called Dal which is really delicious.  Marco and Daniela are vegetarians but still eat fish, so we had fish with most meals and it was amazing because it was really fresh and not too fishy.  The next three days, we attended a different centre meeting in the morning.  At the centre meetings, all the groups of that centre get together with a centre manager to give their loan installments and savings deposits.  Many people have criticized the Grameen Bank for the authoritarian style of the repayments, with their salute and the fact that most of the centre managers are men.  My experience was that the women were all very proud to participate as members of the peer community, and many would salute us even outside of the meetings as a way of distinguishing themselves as members of Grameen Bank. 

The borrowers are responsible for building their centres.  Most are all small wooden buildings with tin roofs, and as the centres we visited had all been established in the 1980s the buildings were quite dilapidated, with cracks in the walls etc.  Although this kind of negates the development seen in many other areas of the villages, the cracks in the walls did allow me to get this great picture of the attendance register, a stack of Bangladesh Taka (the currency) and stacks of the borrowers' log books.  This is one of my favorite pictures from my trip so far. 

After each centre meeting we visited some of the borrowers' income-generating projects and houses.  The first meeting had a member with a higher education loan for her son, so we had a chance to meet with him and talk about his schooling.  That meeting was quite a reality check for me, as he discussed very openly the corruption of the education services in Bangladesh.  For the last ten years or so, teachers have been "offering'" extra sessions after school lets out for their students.  They charge for these classes, and as well as giving extra help they often give away exam questions and such.  The students who don't need and can't afford to pay for the sessions are targeted and penalized by their teachers, who explicitly give them lower grades.  Our student had taken the classes for several years even though he didn't need them, but in his last year his family couldn't afford them and he had to stop.  As a result, his teacher gave him a lower grade than he had earned on his final exam, and he missed his chance at medical school. He spoke about one of his friends who, because of a three-mark penalty, missed the roster of the districts' best students and also missed out on medical school. All for the ego of a community-based "teacher." Our guy was going to college for marketing in Barisal, with plans to eventually go to graduate school if he can find the money.  He is one of the lucky ones; because of the unbelieveably high rates of unemployment and underemployment, Grameen Bank can't offer higher education loans for college-level education anymore as they are very unlikely to find work and be able to pay back the loan.  He is probably one of the last students to go to college with Grameen money. 

Getting measured for my Kamis

 That first day we also met a borrower who worked out of  her house as a tailor.  She was absolutely lovely, and we were devastated to learn that her son, no older than 13 or 14, has cancer.  Our impression was something in his chest, possibly lung cancer.  It was very sad because she has worked so hard for what she has, and on top of her sorrow in dealing with a cancerous child, including having to travel with him to India for treatments and checkups, she cannot work very much.  Thankfully she has so far still been able to make her loan payments with the help of her friends and family, and the village chief (or similar, I can't remember what he is called) has offered her some financial support for the extensive medical costs. As there is no chance she would have accepted money from us, Daniela and I asked her to make us Kamis, the long tunics the women wear over baggy Salwa pants.


The Tailor with her son





It is a very strong reality check to meet a family whose life is so very fragile. Although far from perfect, it also puts our healthcare system in pretty harsh perspective.  When we visited the Grameen GC Eyecare Hospital in Barisal on the way back to Dhaka, I learned of a Nurse training program the Bank has undertaken with some of the other Grameen organizations which has admitted the daughters of Grameen Borrowers, and who have assured jobs at the Grameen hospitals when they graduate.  This is definitely a step in the right direction.  But back to the village! After the second centre meeting, we saw a borrower with a microenterprise loan for her chicken farm which has about 850 chickens! They have also invested in biogas technology from Grameen Shakti (Energy), and this allows them to run their stove off methane for up to six hours at a time.

Daneila and I with the tailor in our beautiful Kamis!

 They also own a motorbike, which are surprisingly common in the villages all things considered.  The second centre had a few stuggling members, which are beggars to whom Grameen Bank gives interest-free loans with no repayment schedule.  Unfortunately, this woman was not one of the successful struggling members; she had bought chickens and ducks, most of which died, and she lost her house when cyclone Sidr hit the area in 2007 (or 2008?).  Her husband died a long time ago, and both of her children work low-paying jobs in Dhaka city.  One of her sons drives a rickshaw and I can't recall what the other does, but neither can afford to send her any money.  She now lives with her brother-in-law in his small home, quite far from the actual village.  She is very old, and doesn't have the strength to walk far enough to make much money in a day begging, so she has trouble just surviving let alone trying to pay back her loan in order to get a new one. 

We also visited Grameen Shakti's two offices in the village, one which does their solar panel technology and the other which is involved in selling low-cost, energy-efficient stoves.  We saw one in a house and it had significantly reduced the amount of soot in the home because of the chimney-type thing, and also they don't get as hot on the outside so they are safer.  Other than that we were mostly meeting with various Branch and Area Office staff as the two offices were on the same compound. We also went for this beautiful walk one evening through the village and down to the river, along which we walked all the way around for about two hours. It was awesome =) Many of my pictures in the second album are from that walk which was definitely one of the highlights.

Anyways I had almost finished this post last night and then lost some of it when the power went out, so I just went to bed.  I am moving over to Grameen Trust on Sunday and there is plenty of excitement to talk about but I think that'll wait till the next post... which hopefully won't be in two weeks! I will also talk more about the food and Dhaka city. Much lurve, and feel free to keep the comments coming here and on my pictures!