One month has gone by...

There are so many things that strike me about living in a developing country, particularly Bangladesh of course since I’ve had a chance to observe a lot more and will be here for a considerable period of time.

First of all, the cost of living. It’s incredible and horrifying to absorb the reality that so many people in the West make such ostentatious salaries that they’re not only able to meet the exorbitant Western cost of living but also surpass it by a breathtaking sum which allows them to spend lavishly and take it all for granted in many cases. A person living on a very modest salary in North America or Western Europe could afford many luxuries here. It’s unthinkable. It really does cost very little to feed and clothe people here, the issue lies mainly in rooting out the cause of poverty and teaching the man how to fish instead of providing him with the fish.

Another thing is the media coverage. Never did I think I would get the opportunity to apply the knowledge I acquired in university because back home balance of trade problems are not an issue, SAPs (structural adjustment programs) are not an issue, subsidised western industries are not feared. Here, most newspaper articles speak of development initiatives, mistakes made by the West, UN Summits, Millennium Development Goals and steps people take to alleviate their individual poverty.

There was a very interesting article written in the Daily Star about how the US could easily have mitigated the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe by having more money in the emergency fun rather than in the war on terror fund, how more energy is spent on preventing unlikely deaths (such as ‘terrorist’ bombings and such) than more probable deaths such those caused by illnesses.

Also, one article spoke about how the government’s response to the hurricane will likely hurt the Republican Party at the next elections as a similar incident occurred in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) when a cyclone hit in 1970 causing around 300,000 deaths. Helicopters arrived from a few surrounding countries not really believing it to be a true tragedy and thinking they were seeing animal carcasses washed up on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Up close they realised that those were all human bodies. West Pakistan, where the capital was located, barely acknowledged the situation nor sent any aid, thus aggravating the already-brewing political tension and triggering the Liberation War which eventually led to the creation of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in December of 1971.

An interesting sidenote concerning Hurricane Katrina is that our poverty-stricken Bangladesh has pledged $1,000,000 in aid towards the US relief effort and has even sent help. Even Sri Lanka pledged around $25,000 despite its ongoing recovery from the tsunami!

A third striking detail is the lack of importance placed upon religion despite the Muslim majority and the recent bomb blasts triggered in the name of instituting Islamic law in Bangladesh. When we got here we were very casually told to call Muslim women ‘appa’ and Hindu women ‘didi’ (both meaning sister). The best example of the harmony between the two is at Aungshee, a store owned by the NGO I work for, dedicated to the fair selling of clothing and handicrafts made by local women. The two women who run the store were introduced to us as Appa and Didi. It was too cute. It’s hard to imagine such peaceful communal living between two religions that just next door in supposedly secular India live in conflict in many parts, not to mention Pakistan which Bangladesh used to be part of. It seems as though given Bangladesh’s creation in the name of the Bengali language and ethnicity, that is the unifying factor and religion is merely secondary.

My final thought for today is the speed at which work gets done around here. All those of you who have lived/worked/spent time in developing countries must be smiling knowingly. We were told from the beginning during our orientation in Victoriaville that life is paced differently here and that everyone isn’t scurrying around trying to squeeze out extra time from their packed schedules. And I knew this before as well from what I’ve heard about leisure time in Europe and from what I saw while I was in Africa. But it’s really phenomenal when you’re actually here with the purpose of working. I’m not saying I mind that much, it’s actually quite refreshing, after four years of papers, to not be constantly staring in the face of a deadline. The HR advisor working at the head office is from Holland and has been here for around a year and she told us that one major difference in the way Bengalis do business is that they don’t put you to work right away but they want to get to know you really well first, your mentality, your thoughts, your background, how you feel about them, etc. To survive here you really have to think Bengali and not overworked North American. When we’re at the office we wonder where all the people are, whether anything’s getting done at all, what they could possibly mean when they say they’re so busy. But once again, we have to think in relative terms. In addition there are just so many people on each project that the slower pace is acceptable because a lighter burder is placed upon each pair of shoulders. This creates more employment and more time to chat over tea and biscuits. It all gets done somehow though, and really well too.

New pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=190i8ygb.ajgz9br&x=0&y=2711gf

Adventures in Chittagong

Here’s a funny little anecdote about an adventure we had on our first night living in our new flat in the neighbourhood (thana) of Khulshi, Chittagong. During our first week here we lived in the Changaon thana.

After moving all our stuff and settling into our new rooms, we decided that we needed some things from the GEC, which is an area surrounding a roundabout nearby that has lots of little plazas, shops, internet cafes, restaurants, etc. We were pretty proud of ourselves when we spoke to the CNG (baby taxi/autorickshaw) driver in Bangla, offered him 20 taka (it’s around 50 taka to 1 canadian dollar) and got in. We soon realised we didn’t know where we were going! At that point we still thought the GEC was a mall or something (cause everyone was saying we could find everything at the ‘GEC Moor’ and we know now that ‘moor’ is circle or roundabout!), and we knew that it was quite near but the driver took us on this long way, stopped somewhere, got out, moved the CNG into park (with us in it) and walked away! We had no clue what to do and we pondered this for around five minutes. We asked two women walking by where the GEC was (Appa, GEC kothay?) and they pointed out yonder but we didn’t know if that meant two minutes or ten minutes away. So we just sat there stupidly, waiting. Then the driver reappeared out of nowhere and, laughing, told us that we were in the GEC! We were mortified... we paid him quickly and walked away as fast as possible.

So then we went into the various stores to get our various things and did pretty well considering the language barrier. Once again we were pretty proud of our resourcefulness and productivity and once again it came back to slap us in the face. The problems arose when we realised that we stupidly hadn’t written down or memorised our new address and we had no clue how to explain to the driver where we lived. All we could say was that we lived in Khulshi, at an YPSA office (the NGO where I work: Young Power in Social Action), and that two landmarks we remembered were Asia Bank and Pizzaland. Basically he brought us to a stop somewhere and said ‘eta khulshi’ (this is khulshi). We went through the landmarks with him and he had no clue but he didn’t get annoyed with us, he drove up a couple of feet to where a security guard was standing. The security guard didn’t know what we were talking about, his friend didn’t know what we were talking about, and the random people that eventually gathered around didn’t know what we were talking about! Luckily Sehr had her mobile on her and we managed to reach someone to help us out. Too bad it was the CE of our NGO. Needless to say, the next morning, word had already gotten around and we got some hearty laughs from our colleagues.

Bangladesh Hey!

Someone yelled that out when the first power failure we experienced hit our area... it was very funny, and we are quite used to them by now.. at least 2-3 per day so it's nothing special.

I finally got access to the internet after so long and I thought I'd you all a list of things I've had to get used to in the past week and a half or so. Enjoy!

1. cold to lukewarm showers! actually a good thing because it's so hot here

2. sometimes we do have to make use of the eastern toilet... VERY hard to get used to..

3. can't go out at night past 9 pm for girls... not too wise... lots of activity though, woman-free!

4. we wear salwar kameez everyday!! it's really fun, and we can be super colourful!

5. everything is bargained, not only prices but time as well! like when you need something done, the merchant will set a date far away and you work him down.. nothing is fixed!

6. we ride rickshaws (the bicycle type) and CNGs everywhere. the CNGs are also called baby taxis, i'll upload pictures soon.

7. the air pollution is brutal... for that i am grateful for the salwar kameez because it comes complete with a dupatta so you can cover your mouth and nose!

8. the traffic is sheer madness and navigating it is an essential skill

9. here you attach 'sister' or 'brother' to everyone's name... for sister it's 'appa' for muslims and 'didi' for hindus... for men it's always bhai so it's easier

10. we have to be careful not to swallow any water while brushing our teeth.. it's bottled water only and soon we'll work our way up to boiled water

11. the meals have been very boring so far, lol... but that's the menu where we are staying... lots of rice, watery daal, chicken or fish and some veg... the other day we treated ourselves to pizza hut

12. the food is SO spicy and there's hardar/haldi/holud (turmeric) in everything so your fingers get yellow!

13. we eat with our hands here and watch out.. don't touch your food with your left hand!

14. like i said before... power failures all the time.. just take them in stride

15. people eat dinner here at like 10 pm... i guess it's kind of like when we're away at school :)

16. everyone asks you if you're married!

17. no matter where we go, absolutely everyone stares at us, men and women alike.. it's like they can spot a foreigner from a mile away.. and we always hear ppl whispering 'india' and 'pakistan' around us..

18. we do our laundry by hand!

19. very hard to get used to never being understood or understanding anything.. but we're slowly learning the language.. ami bangla shik achi

20. the doorways and ceilings are so low! yes, i have hit my head a couple of times

21. the honking in the streets is so LOUD... but it's part of the chaos control...

22. men are the shopkeepers in every store, no matter what the merchandise.. even ladies underwear!

23. people make brutally honest comments with the best of intentions..

First batch of pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=190i8ygb.pc004pb&x=0&y=4ea86