Chittagong Train Station

Nothing like a train station full of men waiting to buy tickets in the men-only lines on the first day tickets were available for Eid Break (5 days in advance). Off to the right corner there was a line with 5 or 6 women waiting to buy tickets. Upon our arrival we were quickly noticed and watched over (literally) by all armed-forces members working at the train station - we weren't certain who the threat was - us or them - but nonetheless, they got an up-close-and-personal view of the foreigners. When purchasing tickets each individual can only buy 4 tickets at a time, so Calynn, Trishna, and I waited patiently in line to purchase our 10 tickets. When it came time for the transaction we just stood there as the assistant from AUW (a male) handled our transaction. Clearly we were only needed to hold a place in the women's line and speed the process up (I can't imagine how long most of the men in the station had to wait for tickets - there were 100s). Upon returning to AUW we learned that there had been a mistake with our tickets and we were charged more because the ticket attendant had charged us for his mistake (he printed our tickets with a start destination of Dhaka instead of Chittagong...??? and then had to reprint them - costing us about $6)

Mamun's Village

September 13, 2010 Upon return from our vacation in Sylhet and Srimangal we were invited to our friend's village for a belated Eid celebration - our friend, Mamun, is a waiter at our favorite restaurant, Tava - conveniently located across the street from our apartment. His brother-in-law picked us up outside our apartment in a nice van and we drove for about an hour while dancing to Hindi/Bollywood/Bangladeshi music and enjoying the views as we left Chittagong in the rear-view mirror (don't get me wrong, I love Chittagong but I'm more of a country/small-town girl!). Our day was very relaxed and mostly consisted of eating lots of food and drinking Cha with Mamun's family and friends. We found his family to be very welcoming and genuine. His village was the nicest of villages we've visited in Bangladesh although he kept apologizing about the status of his family. We weren't quite sure how to react to these comments but we assured him that we were overly happy to be visiting his village and continually reminded him how nice his village was - they had running water, several houses for the many families, and they were well educated - most of his family members spoke English (almost none of the locals from the other villages spoke English). This humility was was just another sign of his genuine friendship and hospitality. Our day started with snacks (fruits and michti - sweets) then a tour through a few homes as we made our way down to the beach, then a photo shoot prompted by one of Mamun's friends, a late lunch back at the village --- chicken, rice, dol, roti, curried eggs, etc., then more cha and talking then a trip down the Road of Temples before returning home. Here are pictures from the day - if only I could have captured the smells and sounds of the village as well :) Sweet, salt air and palm trees blowing in the breeze as a storm moved in....this was by far the best day I've had in Bangladesh upon arrival and have no doubt it will forever be my favorite memory of this country and a newly-formed friendship.

 

Mamun's village - taking a break :)

 

Walking out to the beach - gorgeous! the air even smelled of the salty beach :)

 

The group on the beach (Mamun's friends with Sara, Me, Michelle, Kristen, and Katie)

 

Mamun and I out by the beach

 

one of Mamun's friends insisted we have a photo shoot on the beach -- that's him behind us - coaching us :)

 walking through parts of the village on our way back for lunch

while we were chatting in the sitting area one of the women insisted the children were bothering us and sent them outside - only to pop up at the window :)

 Mamun and his family - so cute!

 after visiting Mamun's village we drove a few kilometers to the Road of Temples - after a short hike up a hill we were rewarded with great views of spectacular temples - and met these nice ladies who wanted a photo shoot with the Americans

the temple

Eid Mubarak

September 7-12, 2010: Eid Break - A group of 9 WorldTeach volunteer teachers traveled to the Sylhet Division for some R&R and adventure in Srimangal and Sylhet! Our trip started with an overnight train from Chittagong to Srimangal with an unknown arrival time - luckily many passengers were curious as to where the foreigners were traveling so we were woken up in time to hop off at the small train station in Srimangal. Our time in Srimangal was wonderful! We stayed at the Eco Cottage, tucked in between tea plantations and a peaceful river. Our two days in Srimangal flew by -- tea plantations, pineapple farms, a lime market, a man-powered boat ride, 7-layer tea tasting, hiking through the Lawacherra National Park (leeches and all), watching women package Betal leafs while seeking shelter from the rain, and good food and a great tour guide :) Then, it was time to give Sylhet a chance - on the neverending van ride to Sylhet we fortunately took a break to see Madhabkunda, Bangladesh's tallest waterfall! Our time in Sylhet was cut a little short but we were thankful to not be stuck in Sylhet indefinitely....or take a 9ish hour van ride home to Chittagong....

*sidebar* So in Bangladesh  you can only buy your tickets usually 10 days in advance but since it was Eid Break we were only able to buy our tickets 5 days in advance, which meant we purchased our tickets from Chittagong to Sylhet on Sept 2nd but were unable to purchase our return tickets. These were then going to be bought via telephone but for some reason that didn't work so we were told we could buy our return tickets when we arrived in Srimangal. When we arrived in Srimangal the ticket office wasn't open...then when it did open we were told we couldn't buy a ticket that would leave from Sylhet in Srimangal....then we got to Sylhet and were told that the trains weren't running the day we wanted to go home, so we started looking for a van and driver to drive us home, then the hotel sent someone to the train station with a 300tk ($4) bribe so that someone would sell us tickets! ahh Sooooo with all that said and done we were able to take a day train home on the 12th (versus the originally planned night train on the 12th). *end sidebar*

While in Sylhet we went shopping (I bought 2 new fabrics to take to a tailor for new shalwar kameez and a nakshi katha, embroidered bed cover), we had an Eid meal at an AUW employee's relative's house, we went to Jaflong for a boat ride (where we met up with Russell, our tour guide from Srimangal), and visited Tamil - the Bangladeshi/Indian border. 

All in all our trip was a much-needed break from the hussle and bussle of the city...the air was fresher, the streets were calmer - they even had sidewalks, the sky was clearer - just right for star gazing....they even had fewer/no mosquitoes! Here are a few pictures from our vacation, more to follow later...I promise!

 Kristen, Ayla, and I stayed in this cute cottage at the Eco Cottage in Srimangal

man-powered boat ride in Srimangal

fishermen on the water in Srimangal

 

colorful boats in Jaflong and the young captains 

 

The group of WorldTeach volunteers and Russell, our awesome tour guide, and new friend :) 

We met this family at the waterfall and then again the next day in Jaflong - small world :)

My life in random thoughts

I haven't been making time to blog lately, sorry! I blame the overabundance of thoughts and ideas and pictures to go through....and the fact that teaching is my life and I finally had to buckle down and grade writing assignments, which was hard!! So, to catch you up here's a little blog of my life in random day-to-day thoughts in Bangladesh :)

-- My new found love of the nurse's office, saline packets, and having a mom away from home. We've all been getting sick and Sunday I was feeling especially sick/tired so I went to the nurse's office for a remedy and one of the nurses, Miss Rina, took care of me and made me rest for a while and it was just like having mom tend to you when you're sick.

-- I looove not wearing shoes....in class!! :-D On Monday I walked into my microeconomics TA class to see a row of bare feet feeling the textures in the carpet and taking a breather from their shoes! Those of you that know me, know I love to walk around barefoot but the idea of being barefoot in class was a tad bit taboo but I wanted to be barefoot too! So for the first five minutes of class I had a revolution about the freedom I was feeling just by being barefoot in the front row of class! :)

-- The library has Who Moved My Cheese AND He's Just Not That Into You (what else do you need?) It's funny to see the random titles in our library and I love walking from bookshelf to bookshelf to see what's within. I promise to take a picture of the library next time I go - b/c it's reminiscent of a large, at-home library and I love it! :)

-- I love being an ISFJ! I taught my students about personality types this past week - ahh sooo exciting! My students probably think I'm crazy on a daily basis because of my excitement about all the subjects we get to talk about!

-- I love the students @ AUW and I want to meet all of their families/visit all of their hometowns! I often see one my girls from my assessment testing group in between classes and the other day her mom and little brother were visiting and she was overly anxious to introduce me to her family! Her mom invited me to come visit anytime I want :) This is why the Bangladeshi culture is so amazing - they are so open,  friendly, and hospitable.

Bhatiary Village

August 26, 2010: This was a very special day...The executive director of WorldTeach, Helen Claire, has been with us here at AUW for the past month and she has a dear friend, Caroline Bauer, who has spent many years in Bangladesh. While living here, Caroline adopted the Bhatiary Village and built a play park, which we had the privilege to visit. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon...(more photos added to the end of my Bangladesh photo album)

The Play Park

The kids at the Play Park

so cute!!

Walking into the village

Our first glimpse into the village

The WorldTeach group on the rooftop of Caroline's house (which was amazingly gorgeous!)

The Penthouse (what we call our apartment) roomies

The Play Park Director's home

Bhatiary Village

I love visiting the villages - the people are so amicable! and the children are beyond adorable!

Classes are Starting

Tomorrow is the first day of classes!! Why Sunday you may ask - well, Friday and Saturday are the weekend here. I'll be teaching a class on business leadership - using one of my favorite Leadership books - Northouse's Leadership: Theory and Practice as well as Who Moved My Cheese. I'll have a class of 17 with students from 6 different countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. It should be a great experience and I'm glad the first day of classes is finally here! :) I'll blog about how the first day goes after tomorrow! :)

Long Days with High Pay Off

Justin Bieber "I just need somebody to love" kept our long day at AUW alive today. Our day started before 7:30 when the van arrived at Kulshi to drive us to AUW. Most of us proctored our last exam for the Access Academy students this morning, except 2 volunteers who were proctoring TOEFL exams for undergrads in the afternoon. After the last exam was finished it was a race all day to grade, grade, and grade TOEFL exams (reading, listening, structure) and math exams (statistics, algebra, geometry, computation, etc.). This has been a 3 day testing process with a total of 8 exams: the 3 TOEFL exams and 5 math exams. There was only one math teacher working to grade math word problems so we quickly began grading word problems as best we could once we had finished grading all multiple choice tests -- personally realizing just how long it'd been since I last took a math class....man time flies! As the day grew longer and longer we entertained ourselves with singing and giggling and joking and occasional frustrations due to stress/exhaustion. When the day finally ended at 9:30pm we joked that in one day we had lived through all 4 stages of group formations - forming, storming, norming, and performing. We definitely kept each other motivated through the day and lots of chai, sweet treats, and pizza hut were definitely added bonuses! It was a long day but great day! It feels really great to be a part of AUW and the developing stages of the University. I'm so glad to be here with an amazing group of volunteers, supporting an amazing mission! :) We can honestly say that the WorldTeach volunteers just successfully administered all Access Academy and Undergraduate assessment testing, including grading and recording - Go Us! and so the year begins with one successful project under our belts and a glimpse into the amazingness of our students :) Now it's time for a little Love Actually to keep us all sane :)

Jobra Hathazari Branch, Grameen Bank

Today our WorldTeach group was privileged enough to be able to visit the village of Jobra, where Muhammad Yunus began his Peace Prize Winning project, Grameen Bank. My account of our visit is not meant to be all-encompassing but just a reflection and summary of interesting points. The Grameen Bank's website has a wealth of information that I would recommend checking out for more information.

Our day started with a briefing from Golam Mohammed, the Senior Principal Officer in Dhaka and our guide for the day. He discussed the types of borrowers, types of loans, and the loan process. Grameen Bank targets the landless and assetless individuals, 96% of its borrowers being female. Grameen targets women borrowers because they are most successful in caring for the family, ensuring the family's needs are continually met, and enrolling children in school, including higher education. There are 4 types of loans, loans for: business/income projects, housing, higher education, and individuals living in extreme poverty. To apply for a loan, the woman must provide her name, husband's name, and purpose of the loan. There are no legal documents to sign and the loan is collateral free since the general aim is to raise the poverty line. If the borrower is unable to write her name (sometimes the case) Grameen will provide her with writing lessons so that she will be able to write this information. This is important as each woman signs her name attesting to loan payments at the weekly business meetings.

After our briefing with Golam we heard testimonials from 4 male students whose mothers had taken out higher education loans from Grameen so they could attend University.

We then made our way to the village. Julia and I rode with in Golam's vehicle and were able to learn a little bit more about the microfinancing process and goals for each borrower. After the loan process is started, Grameen continues to check in with the borrower and family to assess the quality of life improvements. There are 10 main indicators that Grameen looks for to determine how well the borrower is doing in terms of rising above the poverty line. The 10 indicators are:
1. a home with beds for all family members (and mosquito nets)
2. water purification system
3. all children 6 years+ are going to school (when not sure of age, can tell when the child can bend his arm over his head and touch the opposite ear)
4. the woman is able to make weekly loan payments of 200tk
5. sanitary toilet
6. clothing
7. 3 meals a day
8. 5,000tk in savings
9. health care needs are met
10. additional sources of income available when needed

While at the village we were able to witness the group's official business meeting. The women had a ritual to signal the start and end of the meeting. This ritual included crossing and uncrossing the arms and standing and sitting several times. We then heard several personal accounts of when the women first starting borrowing from Grameen and how their lives and economic situation had been changed. One thing all the women adamantly agreed on was that they have more saris now than they were ever able to afford before receiving a loan.

The day was very insightful to Bangla culture and the ideas of microfinancing and the many positive effects it has on these families and villages. These women are so dedicated and driven to success with an innate knowledge of business and finance needed to thrive. To be able to develop a profit-generating idea, receive a loan, and then make the dream a reality without formal training, business plans, or legal contracts is an incredible notion and the reason Grameen can be thanked for raising the poverty line in Bangladesh as well as the other countries they operate.

Jobra Hathazari Branch, Grameen Bank

Bengali pointing the way to the office

Inside the office

Inside the Jobra Hathazari Branch - all loan payments are kept in record books

4 University students who are enrolled at the University of Chittagong thanks to Grameen Bank's Loan for Higher Education

fields upon fields for cultivating crops in the Jobra village, Bangladesh

first arriving in the village

a few curious men from the village

attending the official business meeting --each team of 5 women sit in a row with the group leader on the far left and the group-at-large's leader in the front left



official closing of the business meeting

one of the borrowers

Jobra village, Bangladesh

just another glimpse into the beauty of Jobra

I dream of sweets...

Well, a lot is happening but not too much blog worthy I guess - just day-to-day life in Bangladesh playing out. *We are going to the Grameen Bank tomorrow! yay! and it's our last day of orientation - crazy!! - blog post tomorrow or soon after our Grameen tour*

The "death chalk" is working well....maybe too well - I'm getting tired of handling 1/2 dead cockroaches. This morning at 3:30am (when I couldn't sleep) and then again at 7:00 when I woke up there were 1/2 dead cockroaches on their backs (one each time) that had to quickly be handled with a thick paper towel! I'm glad that the chalk is working but can't they just find their own way to the trash bin.?! Anyway, this is not a daily thing at all just something that happened to strike twice this morning...

Today after Bangla class Mira (our table's teacher) took us to her favorite sweets shop (yumm) called SugarBun. They had tons of traditional Bangladeshi sweets, cakes, and breads...My roommates and I decided on 2 sweets to try and bought a box of 4 each (for 134 tk/$2) - pretty cheap, huh? I can't even begin to explain to you how amazingly delicious these sweets were (yeah, were - they're all gone!!)! The kalo jam tasted like a maple syrup doughnut soaked through with syrup! yumm and the other, Kacha Golla was an interesting texture but equally tasty - it tasted a little like a sweet dessert you would make using ricotta cheese. Both were definitely worth the thought of gaining a few extra pounds :)

Inside SugarBun

The sweets

See the Kalo Jam (bottom row, second from the left) and the Kacha Golla (top row, far right)

Street view outside of SugarBun which is within walking distance to AUW

another street view

i love how bright and colorful this city is :)

Here are a few pictures from the past few days....

Street market on our way to Aarong (Tuesday, 16th)

CNG ride home (I have a few videos....another day!)

The heartbreak children outside of Kulshi Mart/Tava....the littlest boy is always very persistent - broke all of our hearts today when it was pouring down rain and he was standing there shivering

Mira, my table's Bangla teacher, and I

Iftar

It's Ramadan here in Bangladesh and while we're not fasting we are certainly enjoying this time. (Except for yesterday when we were at AUW for orientation and school was closed b/c it's the weekend, so we were going to eat at Impala but then realized all restaurants are closed during the day for Ramadan...day ended up being cut short so we could come back to our apt to each lunch. By the time we made it back to our apartment tava had set up their iftar buffet and thus began our new obsession.) All of the restaurants set up buffet lines along the streets with a wide variety of foods to break the fast, called iftar. Our favorite restaurant across the street from our apartment, Tava, has said iftar. The staff is so cute and wonderful. We've eaten in the restaurant twice and the head waiter has memorized all of our names (so cute!). They have a variety of food including chicken kabaabs, pakora, fish fingers, veggie/chicken rolls, samosa, etc. and today I ate the most amazing pineapple pie!!! They also have another desert that has been deemed "funnel cake on crack" by Kelsey (another volunteer) - basically it's a thin dough fried in sugar and it is quite tasty (pictures another day...I bought pineapple pie today instead). This will be our dinner for the next month! no questions.

Tava's iftar set up in front of Khulshi Mart (our closest grocery store)

A few of our waiters - the guy in the middle is one of my faves!

this guy created quite a bit of commotion during our orientation class....i dont need to think about spiders like this crawling around my apartment! so i'll just pretend they are only at AUW!

trapping the spider!

at AUW with Kristen in yet another of my new shalwar kameez outfits