Highs and Lows

I officially had my worst experience in Bangladesh. I’ll keep the description short, but that in no way reflects how much the experience impacted me. I decided last weekend to make the best of a sunny weekend day and tour Old Dhaka. I went to a famed palace, then a beautiful mosaic mosque, and later found my way down incredibly gritty auto repair streets to find some rickshaw art that I love so much. Because I was frequenting areas where white tourists usually don’t tread, I was receiving far more stares than usual, which means constant starting and harassment by little children. At the end of the day I had simply had enough and decided to find a CNG buggy to take me back (about a 45 minute ride) home. I approached a CNG driver who was leaning against his buggy, and he told me that he’d charge me 4X the price I paid to get down to the area. I balked and said I’d pay a quarter what he quoted, and we did a price dance for a minute or two until a nearby cop decided to fluff his feathers. He forced the driver into his buggy by the neck, and the driver hopped back out. The next thing I knew the cop hit the driver with a massive bamboo stick and the strike made me scream. The driver fell to the ground, and the policeman struck him again. I cried out to try to get the policeman to stop, but he hit the poor man a third time. The man had nothing but fear in his eyes and scrambled into his buggy to shut the metal door. By this point I had drawn quite a crowd, as I couldn’t control my screams, and as I looked up, all I could see were a sea of men’s eyes surrounding me. Next thing I knew someone was helping me into another buggy, and on the way there I scolded the cop for needlessly beating the driver. I understand that he was just trying to help a foreigner in a difficult situation, but as soon as I was on my way home I couldn’t hold back my tears. I felt responsible for the man’s beating, and I regretted ever having balked at the price. It was only a few dollars after all. The policeman’s unchecked power infuriated me, and I wanted so badly to report him, but I knew even that wouldn’t matter. I vow to not argue about prices anymore.

…on to greener pastures…

I have been making phone calls to directors and other NGO like my life depends on it, and I have learned how hard it is to arrange for meetings here. Things get canceled so frequently that I literally go hour by hour. I was able to meet with the head of BRAC’s microfinance programs, which was an extreme honor. I asked him a range of questions, as my expectations about microcredit before coming in large part do not match the reality I am seeing at the ground level. For example, many women aren’t starting business that they otherwise wouldn’t have without a BRAC loan. Instead, they are enhancing and growing business they already have, or more commonly, are giving the money to their husbands. I’m questioning why the women aren’t being more innovative. Are the loans really helping the overcome hurdles? It seems to me that BRAC is targeting women (for the most part) that have some sort of financial security to begin with.

I also had the honor of meeting with the director of BRAC’s education programs, and as a past teacher myself (briefly), I was full of questions. BRAC is in an interesting position because it offers primary education to millions of Bangladeshi children, and many argue that BRAC is a parallel government to Bangladesh. The BRAC schools teach children five years of primary education in four, yet there are no BRAC secondary schools (although BRAC does provide some training at the secondary level). I understand that BRAC is focusing on primary education for multiple reasons (i.e. meeting the Millenium Development Goals, raising all Bangladeshis to a minimum academic standard, etc), but I was left to wonder what potential could be untapped if BRAC created a gifted program for some of its students. The Director stated that he’d rather reach as many children as possible than provide extra services for exceptionally bright children, but again, this was an unpalatable answer for me. It seemed that he’d only be interested in developing costly gifted curriculum if a donor came to the fore and specifically targeted money to such a project. Any takers???

Today I had a very different set of positive experiences. Despite the torrential rains (yes, monsoon season has started overnight!) I was able to go to two other NGOs, and the meetings were incredibly valuable. I am finding that so many NGOs are doing similar work. In fact, my project here is almost identical to another that Save the Children is implementing. Why are they not communicating? Is there really that much competition for donor funds among NGOs? For this reason I have tried for weeks to arrange meetings with Save the Children and another organization called JOBS, and both meetings were today. I learned so much from the directors I spoke with. One was a Bengali doctor who is spearheading incredible programs targeting adolescent girls and the other was an American woman who is providing market assessment and job linkages for rural girls like I have never seen. It is a particular inspiration for me to see American women abroad making substantial, meaningful changes with an all-Bengali team.

Now my project will take me “to the field “ quite a bit because I do not feel as thought I’m working to the project’s potential in the 20-story, air conditioned BRAC Centre building in Dhaka. I put this in quotes because going to the field has typically meant an overnight or two to three day drop-in on multiple villages. We drive along in our fancy cars, stay long enough to do some interviews, etc. and take photos, but I desire to be more fully integrated as much as possible in the communities. Therefore, I am hiring a translator to go with me today, and I am going to throw embarrassment to the wind a bit and go on an interviewing frenzy. I plan on talking to anyone and everyone who will provide answers in a certain town, and I hope to report back soon with positive results! I fear I may be seen as a crazy foreigner, but in order to assess markets and start to devise livelihood schemes I need to get talking!