Tears

And now it’s time to say goodbye to Bangladesh.

It’s been a busy, hectic and exciting past few weeks, but tomorrow I leave the country! Hard to believe my time here is already over!

I don’t have time to write the kind of blog post I want to and should with the amount I’ve done, but I’ll try to touch on the highlights.

A big one was a visit from the Executive Director of Dipshikha to Rudrapur. He’s really an awesome man (more on that in a second). He also came with a new Dipshikha staff member at the Dhaka office named Jesmin. She’s really nice and I think she’ll be a great asset to Dipshikha. I’m also happy because she’s not replacing anyone – she’s an addition. This means Dipshikha is expanding – yay!

Mahbubul (the ED) and Jesmin spent most of their time in Rudrapur in meetings so I didn’t see much of them while they visited. But they also invited me to join them the next day on a visit of some other Dipshikha sites. I jumped on that in an instant! We went by private car (traveling in style!) first to Bakultala, in the Birghonj thana (thana basically means county. It’s just an administrative division, don’t worry about it). Bakultala is a small site, but with a lot going on. They listed for me all the projects they have going, but I don’t remember them all. But there was definitely an emphasis on credit and on income-generating activities. It was super exciting to hear about it all! We even got to sit in a few minutes on a workshop to develop entrepreneurial skills in local villagers. They were all of their own accord, and it was really great to see their earnest faces eager to learn! There were tea-shop owners, and rickshaw drivers, and cosmetics salesmen and farmers. So neat!!



Bokultala. A pretty little site! The Area Manager just to the right of the tree, then the Dipshikha ED, then Jesmin.

After Bakultala, we visited Bhobanipur (ok, I REALLY think I have the name slightly wrong. I have it written somewhere, but I’m not unpacking my suitcase again to find it. Normally they just call it Birghonj, because it’s in that thana). Again, Bhobanipur has a focus on income-generating activities and credit programs. We met some tailoring students, and they showed us these cloth strawberries they make. They then sell them to souvenir shops in Germany, and get a personal profit from the strawberries they make. It was cool, because it was really tangible. For each strawberry they make, they get 15 taka or something. Really cool!

After lunch in Bhobanipur (which was goat meat! My first time, and so good!!) we headed out to the field. This was one really cool experience. We drove out along some dusty, bumpy road into as rural an area as I think you can get. Then we visited a family (or rather, several families) who are Dipshikha beneficiaries. When we arrived, people just started streaming into the house –by the time we left, there were literally more than a hundred people (I counted) crowded around us! But what was really neat was Mahbubul walking me through the Dipshikha Family Development process. I got to see info cards for the family, where they record information about number of family members, income generation, education, health, and everything else you can imagine. Very thorough. Then we could see the report diary of visiting Dipshikha workers, where they record progresses and setbacks. And, we could see the family’s vision and plan for their future. They had recorded what their dreams are for their family: children graduating from college, a tin roof, some more land, a couple cows. We got to see the self-diagnostic programs, where families could rate their own levels of poverty based on several factors, and plot their own improvements as they achieve their goals. Then we got to see the cow the family bought with a Dipshikha credit loan (now paid off!), and their vegetable garden, and the daughter’s grade 7 notebook, which was supplied by Dipshikha too. It was a really good experience for me. I got to see some other aspects of Dipshikha and was very, very impressed by the work I saw. Dipshikha gives me hope for Bangladesh. They are doing genuine work for this country.

Returning to Rudrapur that night, my time essentially became a long drawn-out goodbye. For one thing, the high school students were saying goodbye first. They have a government exam at this time (lasting something like 11 days), which they actually complete in other schools. In fact, METI is not a government-approved high school. So, students are registered in 2 schools –METI, and a government school. They attend METI 5 days a week, then the government school on Saturdays (I’m only learning this now, of course). So, their last day at METI was the Thursday before I left Rudrapur, and for some, before that (they were taking a few extra days at the government school for practice exams, etc). So I had to say the very sad goodbyes, especially to grades 7 and 9, which I spent a LOT of time in, and who had really grown on me.

Then the next week was my last couple days with METI. My last day was the saddest. I didn’t teach any classes, just floated and took pictures and sang songs and tried to spend every last minute that I could with those beautiful children. Then when I finally went to the grade 5 class (who I’ve also spent a lot of time with) in the afternoon, I broke down. They had dozens of flowers for me, and gifts of all sorts. Once the crying started, it scarcely stopped. We had a football match – grades 3, 4, 5 – for which I managed to put my game-face on (we still lost), but then we had our closing ceremony for the day.

The students had prepared literally hundreds of flowers for me. Several of them came up to offer them to me. Then a couple students asked me some questions about my time in Bangla, and a couple gave short speeches. And then, each and every METI student (well, primary student) came up one by one to shake my hand, to get a hug (I can’t help but go on a tangent for a moment here. Only males could be hugged, since I’m a male. Hugging across the gender divide is seen as highly indecent, even among married people. This was tough for me, because of course the girls mean as much to me as the guys do. But I decided to maintain cultural appropriateness) and to say goodbye. SO SAD. :’(


When the students had finally streamed out, I had my last cup of tea with the staff members. Again, sad.

Then came my goodbye ceremony with DESI. Again, they offered me more flowers. They sang me songs, and made me sing, and even made me laugh a bit through my tears. But it was emotional for all of us and crying was, admittedly, the main theme.

But what’s most important is that I’m happy to have met them. That this goodbye is so difficult shows how much they’ve impacted me. How much they have taught me. How much they have come to mean to me. How much I will miss them. And how much I’ll remember them.

DESI: The best of friends.

My travel day back to Dhaka was another horrible one. After final goodbye hugs in the early hours of the morning to DESI and my closest METI friends who live nearby, as well as all the staff, I headed out by ‘van’ (they call it that in Bangladesh, but really it’s just a rickshaw with a flat wooden square being pulled, instead of a seat, so it’s practical for both people and goods) to catch my bus in the nearby village of Mongolpur.

The ride was terrible! What should have been a maximum 8 hour bus ride turned out to be more like 11 and half hours! We were held up by accidents and terrible traffic jams and my phone died so I couldn’t even call Dipshikha and was just left feeling anxious about that the whole ride (I really didn’t need to be. The Dipshikha staffer who was meeting me was getting regular updates from the bus office on our position. But he still had to wait a ridiculous amount of time for us to arrive). Exhausted, emotionally-drained, but back in good ol’ Dhaka.

Today, my last day in the country, I spent finishing up my final report, and then in a meeting with my supervisor, the Executive Director, and other Dipshikha staff. It was a good sharing opportunity, and they even presented me with a beautiful jute bag! I love this organization! They are so good! If you’re reading this, you should volunteer with them!

So that brings us to now. Tomorrow, I’m off to India! A whole other adventure awaits! I have no idea how much blogging time I’ll have in India – it’s only three weeks, and I’m moving a lot, and I don’t know how often I’ll get internet.  But I’ll try my best to get at least a few in, preferably with pictures!

-C



Me with (most of) the Grade 5 class. I love these kids.

P.S. I know there aren't very many pictures in this one, but I don't have too much time to wait for my internet to stop being silly. Early flight tomorrow, gotta get some sleep!!