I have five minutes to copy and paste this from word ..sorry if there are format weirdness...off to kurigram see everyone in 5 days...
Week summary:
Friday- we left for Thakurgurgaon (tak-ah-gow-ah) and met their staff
Saturday- visited a school for Abidasi Children(5-6 years old), and then to talk to a community policing group
- got caught in our first Bangladeshi rain storm!!
Sunday- visited a Shikon Education Center (catches kids who had to drop out of regular school, many ages)
and then the Shonglap Adolescent Center (young women 12-18, trades& women empowerment
focus)
Monday-visited a village near Nilphamari and learned about the RDRS sanitation program, then visited a fish
culture farm (cage and field cultures)
Tuesday- spoke with members of the Harivasha federation then visited the Indian border/ no man's land, then
visited a tea garden/ farm
Wednesday-learned about microcredit ( I missed because I was sick) then visited Kantojiu temple
Thursday- visited a 200+ year our mango tree (HUGE) and headed to Rangpur..and internet!!
Which brings you pretty much up to speed on my going ons for the last while. Unfortunately, over the past week I have discovered that malaria pills hate my body and have been making me very sick, but besides the one morning I have still been able to go out and experience the awesome things we have been learning about here. Also the group has been very helpful, especially roomy/doctor/momma lindsey! After tonight I am going to switch to taking it in the night and see if that works better than in the morning.
Regardless, I have been having an incredible time. If you ever don't feel good just take a cold shower and ask a Bangladeshi child to sing for you and you will perk right up lol. Up until Friday I was feeling a little disappointed like we weren't really doing anything yet, but when we went to the school for Abidasi Children I was overcome by how real this trip really is. We came up to a small town where a crowd was already awaiting us and walked into a tin hut. Waiting for us was around 22 neatly arranged 5-6 year olds with their school sacks neatly in front of them. As we sat down the class "leader" (a little girl who marched around like a well trained soldier) got up and greeted us and told the class to do the same. Then 6 students got up one at a time and gave us each flower necklaces. They then went on to sing and dance different songs for us in groups and as individuals. They were the most incredibly well behave students I have ever seen, but also very nervous. We sang a couple songs for them, but felt very inadequate after their awesome song and dances.
Then after the children were done we got to visit their village. It was very simple and rustic, with mud/clay huts but at the same time very pretty with some architectural detail and flowers. It was really neat to see how they could do so much with so little. They were all very proud of their homes!!
The week continued on like this and I was astounded that no matter
where we went that the Bangladeshi people were such a proud people.
It didn’t matter if they were showing us the difference between an
unhygienic and a hygienic latrine, or their field/pond fish cultures.
They were all happy and proud to show us their improvements and
developments. It was amazing to see how much they could do with what
they had.
This focus on development leaves the country with many contradictions
due to technology. For instance, during our meeting with the community
policing group we had to move inside because it began to storm
outside. We crammed our team and about 15 men into a small office with
no electricity at the time, but lit by two very small candles. During
our meeting by candle light the one town leader’s cell phone kept
going off. It was super odd to me to be sitting in a room with no
power and to be talking by candle light but to have people in the room
with us using cell phones. It seemed like such a secondary technology
compared to basic electricity. Not all of Bangladesh is without
electricity, but due to the fact that they do not have a enough
electricity to supply the entire country at all times they have
rolling black outs. So one minute you are reading in your room with
the fan on and the next you are in complete darkness and silence.
Sometimes these black outs can last for hours. Luckily for us, many of
the places we have been have had generators, but not everyone is so
lucky.
On the eighth we visited a school for young women. It was a pretty
intense experience. When we got to the lane of the town children were
lined up at an ice cream cart, but the minute they saw us they darted
back to the school…you read correctly, in Bangladesh we trump ice
cream When we arrived in front of the school many people were there
waiting for us. Some with musical instruments, a couple with flowers
and number of girls dressed up in a row. As we got out of the vehicle
they began singing and throwing flowers at us. It was very
overwhelming, and it actually got me thinking about a lot of stuff and
pretty worked up. Why were these young women and town giving us such a
huge welcome? What are we doing for them? Is it just because we are
white? Foreigners? Or is it simply because we are visitors with RDRS?
I was obviously very grateful for the huge welcome but it made me very
frustrated as well as concerned for these girls. What were people
telling them we were there to do? Later on, in the discussion we had
with them I got more frustrated when I was told that the focus of the
school was women empowerment and trade skills and yet these young
women, and even their teacher (25, married 2 kids) were still being
interrupted or spoken over by men. Obviously, since I don’t speak
Bangla there is a possibility the men were helping them or something
innocent like that, but it did not appear that way. I found this visit
to be a very frustrating one, but at the end of it, it was great to
have the girls ask us to dance with them and they taught us a couple
group dances.
The next day we got to learn about how RDRS is working to improve the
sanitation of wells and latrines in villages. The community manager
was great at telling us all about the problems the program faced, but
I was continually distracted by the children of the village. Unlike
the kids from the other places we had been, these kids were fearless.
They loved talking to us (even if we couldn’t understand them) and
pointing at us and posing for pictures, in general just interrupting
with us. Especially this one little boy who had obviously just
finished playing with green paint with his little friends. If I had to
give him a name it would be Mr. Mischief!! You could tell that it was
his life purpose to be up to no good!! All I wanted to do was play
with them, but I was suppose to be focused on water sanitation lol.
Eventually, the program manager asked us to please stop taking
pictures of the kids lol.
Week summary:
Friday- we left for Thakurgurgaon (tak-ah-gow-ah) and met their staff
Saturday- visited a school for Abidasi Children(5-6 years old), and then to talk to a community policing group
- got caught in our first Bangladeshi rain storm!!
Sunday- visited a Shikon Education Center (catches kids who had to drop out of regular school, many ages)
and then the Shonglap Adolescent Center (young women 12-18, trades& women empowerment
focus)
Monday-visited a village near Nilphamari and learned about the RDRS sanitation program, then visited a fish
culture farm (cage and field cultures)
Tuesday- spoke with members of the Harivasha federation then visited the Indian border/ no man's land, then
visited a tea garden/ farm
Wednesday-learned about microcredit ( I missed because I was sick) then visited Kantojiu temple
Thursday- visited a 200+ year our mango tree (HUGE) and headed to Rangpur..and internet!!
Which brings you pretty much up to speed on my going ons for the last while. Unfortunately, over the past week I have discovered that malaria pills hate my body and have been making me very sick, but besides the one morning I have still been able to go out and experience the awesome things we have been learning about here. Also the group has been very helpful, especially roomy/doctor/momma lindsey! After tonight I am going to switch to taking it in the night and see if that works better than in the morning.
Regardless, I have been having an incredible time. If you ever don't feel good just take a cold shower and ask a Bangladeshi child to sing for you and you will perk right up lol. Up until Friday I was feeling a little disappointed like we weren't really doing anything yet, but when we went to the school for Abidasi Children I was overcome by how real this trip really is. We came up to a small town where a crowd was already awaiting us and walked into a tin hut. Waiting for us was around 22 neatly arranged 5-6 year olds with their school sacks neatly in front of them. As we sat down the class "leader" (a little girl who marched around like a well trained soldier) got up and greeted us and told the class to do the same. Then 6 students got up one at a time and gave us each flower necklaces. They then went on to sing and dance different songs for us in groups and as individuals. They were the most incredibly well behave students I have ever seen, but also very nervous. We sang a couple songs for them, but felt very inadequate after their awesome song and dances.
Then after the children were done we got to visit their village. It was very simple and rustic, with mud/clay huts but at the same time very pretty with some architectural detail and flowers. It was really neat to see how they could do so much with so little. They were all very proud of their homes!!
The week continued on like this and I was astounded that no matter
where we went that the Bangladeshi people were such a proud people.
It didn’t matter if they were showing us the difference between an
unhygienic and a hygienic latrine, or their field/pond fish cultures.
They were all happy and proud to show us their improvements and
developments. It was amazing to see how much they could do with what
they had.
This focus on development leaves the country with many contradictions
due to technology. For instance, during our meeting with the community
policing group we had to move inside because it began to storm
outside. We crammed our team and about 15 men into a small office with
no electricity at the time, but lit by two very small candles. During
our meeting by candle light the one town leader’s cell phone kept
going off. It was super odd to me to be sitting in a room with no
power and to be talking by candle light but to have people in the room
with us using cell phones. It seemed like such a secondary technology
compared to basic electricity. Not all of Bangladesh is without
electricity, but due to the fact that they do not have a enough
electricity to supply the entire country at all times they have
rolling black outs. So one minute you are reading in your room with
the fan on and the next you are in complete darkness and silence.
Sometimes these black outs can last for hours. Luckily for us, many of
the places we have been have had generators, but not everyone is so
lucky.
On the eighth we visited a school for young women. It was a pretty
intense experience. When we got to the lane of the town children were
lined up at an ice cream cart, but the minute they saw us they darted
back to the school…you read correctly, in Bangladesh we trump ice
cream When we arrived in front of the school many people were there
waiting for us. Some with musical instruments, a couple with flowers
and number of girls dressed up in a row. As we got out of the vehicle
they began singing and throwing flowers at us. It was very
overwhelming, and it actually got me thinking about a lot of stuff and
pretty worked up. Why were these young women and town giving us such a
huge welcome? What are we doing for them? Is it just because we are
white? Foreigners? Or is it simply because we are visitors with RDRS?
I was obviously very grateful for the huge welcome but it made me very
frustrated as well as concerned for these girls. What were people
telling them we were there to do? Later on, in the discussion we had
with them I got more frustrated when I was told that the focus of the
school was women empowerment and trade skills and yet these young
women, and even their teacher (25, married 2 kids) were still being
interrupted or spoken over by men. Obviously, since I don’t speak
Bangla there is a possibility the men were helping them or something
innocent like that, but it did not appear that way. I found this visit
to be a very frustrating one, but at the end of it, it was great to
have the girls ask us to dance with them and they taught us a couple
group dances.
The next day we got to learn about how RDRS is working to improve the
sanitation of wells and latrines in villages. The community manager
was great at telling us all about the problems the program faced, but
I was continually distracted by the children of the village. Unlike
the kids from the other places we had been, these kids were fearless.
They loved talking to us (even if we couldn’t understand them) and
pointing at us and posing for pictures, in general just interrupting
with us. Especially this one little boy who had obviously just
finished playing with green paint with his little friends. If I had to
give him a name it would be Mr. Mischief!! You could tell that it was
his life purpose to be up to no good!! All I wanted to do was play
with them, but I was suppose to be focused on water sanitation lol.
Eventually, the program manager asked us to please stop taking
pictures of the kids lol.
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