Leg 2 in Bangladesh

The 2 nights I spent without internet connection

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Day 1 in Rajshahi

We set off on the second leg of my trip here in Bangledesh this noon. We took a whole 5 hours for a 300-kilometres trip and the ride wasn’t exactly conducive for nap taking. I spent most of my time looking out of the window, getting amazed by the people and things I saw on the way up north. The 2 cities are separated by townships (where traffic immediately slowed down), stretches of fields and bodies of water. When we got to the motel, we were welcomed by our partners. In my previous position, our institution was a grantee, and I know exactly how it felt to be receiving donors. When the role reversed, it started to feel kind of weird.

Now that Yvonne and Mattias left, I am continuing my adventure with my colleagues from Bangladesh.

Day 2 in Rajshahi

Today is a long day. We started off the day with a visit to our partner’s office, then a local pre-school, the Union Parishad’s office, a village belonging to an indigenous group (Adivasi) and the bi-monthly Gender Development Forum.

I was amazed at the spontaneity displayed. The children didn’t need egging of any kind when asked to volunteer for performances. The indigenous, a group that is highly marginalized and living in extreme poverty, were highly pro-active. They shared spontaneously about the issues they were facing and how the help they have received from our local partners had changed situations in their lives. They also asked interesting questions that I wasn’t expecting. The participants at the Gender Development Forum were an interesting lot. They were very vocal about the key issues in their daily lives. Men and women, old and young sat together on a large straw mat laid across the field. There wasn’t a single moment of silence. We hear their views and their efforts in making positive impacts in their community. I don’t understand them, and so I observed their expressions. You know how when people speak passionate about things they truly feel for, their eyes sparkle? That happened. It was pretty obvious that our process of empowering the rights holder is very well implemented here. The results were stark and remarkable.

The people asked: Does your government take a top-down or bottoms-up approach? I paused for a while, looking for the most diplomatic answer. Here, we are advocating the participatory approach but I cannot lie. And so I went “top-down, but my government is one of the least corrupted (if not, the least) in the world, and so we trust our leaders”. They looked at one another, then nodded their heads. I came back in the evening thinking how we Singaporeans are becoming so complacent that we are somewhat ignorant. I am guilty of that.

Suddenly, I felt ashamed.