Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 4

Weather update: Another storm last night and I woke up this time to see an amazing light show. The electricity also went out four times, but the elevator worked. It was quite a bit cooler today than it has been, and there was a nice breeze.

We drove out to a remote village this morning to see more of the BRAC training centers and meet some girls who have started their own businesses. The roads were so bad that we had to stop the van and take rickshaws the last mile or so into town, so I can now say I have been in a rickshaw and I didn't have to risk my life in Dhaka to do it. The village was surrounded by rice fields that were full of people up to their waists planting the rice crop; it looks like pretty dirty work. Although it was very poor, the village, and the fields around it, looked like a movie set.

We met a few girls in the area that were in the BRAC program. One girl made money by starting a vegetable garden. This may seem very basic, but it is amazing what a little training in what to plant, and when, can make the difference in barely getting enough to eat and having enough food to sell the excess and make money. We met a second girl that was raising two cows and selling the milk to make money; she had also gotten the training through BRAC. Seeing the cows reminded me of an interesting exchange between one of the Nike folks and one of the BRAC employees a few days ago. Lisa asked the BRAC person if they had done a saturation analysis to see if too many girls in any one area were trying to raise cows. The BRAC guy looked at her like she was crazy and said, "we have 150 million hungry people here, I don't think we have to worry about too many cows."

Interesting fact: Bangladesh's per capita income is $2,300 compared to the world average of $10,200.

When westerners show up in a small village with cameras everyone from miles around gathers to see what is going on. This presents an interesting challenge in that they make a lot of noise while you are trying to film and some start yelling unsolicited answers to the questions you are asking the girls. Since a lot of boys were hanging around doing nothing, we interviewed a few to find out what they think of the programs the girls are involved in. Most didn't seem too interested in the girls or didn't care too much about seeing them better themselves. We asked the boys some of the same questions we were asking the girls about what they saw in their futures or how they thought Bangladesh would be different in 10 years. After a few weak answers the girls all laughed and said, "see how stupid boys are, this is why people should concentrate on girls."

After we left the village, we headed back to Dhaka to interview the founder of BRAC, Fazle Hasan Abed. He was a little late so we got to visit the BRAC store where they sell all the products the girls in the program make. There were a lot of traditional embroidered clothes, some jewelry, handicrafts, etc. Kind of like the Nike employee store. I bought an entire new wardrobe of Bangladeshi outfits, so I will be sporting a new look when I come home.

The interview with Dr. Abed was really great. He gave us a lot of good info about why they choose to focus on girls; his key quote, "I have met many defeated men, I have never met a defeated woman." He also talked about how they are branching out to find new job skills they can teach women. One that was really interesting was training girls to be journalists. He feels that the more girls they can train, the more women's issues will be covered in the media.

Interesting fact: 90% of Bangladeshis are Muslim and it is illegal to drink here, but they have a bar at the hotel, where you can order alcohol as long as you have a foreign passport.

This evening we went out for our first meal at a Bangladeshi restaurant. We were told the food was really good, but that it is expensive. Three of us ate like kings and the total bill was $60 with tip.