Finding My Way

Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world. Yet so far, Dhaka feels surprisingly relaxed and more like hundreds of small conjoined communities than like a mega-city. The high rises and downtowns of a New York or Buenos Aires are replaced by vast stretches of low apartments and mosques in every direction. Yes the streets are filled with people, rickshaws and cars and yes there are slums crowded with people but there are also hundreds of interspersed rives, lakes and patches of forest. It’s as if the city was built within the preexisting wilderness rather than in place of it.

One of the few tall buildings in the area is the BRAC building in which we work. And from the top of the building at the 19th floor, it is easy to see segmentation within the city. A slum across the street named Karail houses 30,000 people and is one of the largest in Dhaka. Immediately across about 100 yards of lake is Gulshan, a wealthy and very up and coming area. These communities puzzle piece together to comprise Dhaka with green space sprouting up throughout.
On the ground the transition between puzzle piece communities is not as visible but road and sidewalk traffic is fierce anywhere we travel. Roads are good and the country is roughly the size of Iowa, but travel is slow because of the competitive driving that results in 5 lanes of traffic on two lane roads. The danger of this structure was visible on our first day when we saw a man who was hit by a car and killed in an attempt to cross the street. This of course happens in many busy cities but it was a shock on our first day. We have also seen people riding on tops of moving trains and encountered a bus that broke down and burst into flames. No one was hurt but our beginning views of transportation had some shock factors.

While walking around people are extremely friendly and eager to speak with us in English. It is one of the four main subjects in the schools (other than Bangla, social sciences and math) and we are a unique opportunity to practice. We are living in dorm style housing at the BRAC training center with a group of Bengali students who are learning English and computer sciences and a group of Afghan men training for BRACs Afghanistan program. They are all very fun and we have been playing them in a board game where we flick tokens called grambol. They are all quite good at it. We are not.

I have loved the experience of a primarily Muslim country. 5 times a day we hear the echo of the call to prayer rising simultaneously from mosques across the city. There is also no drinking (except at a restaurant that serves “special tea” a.k.a. beer) and men and women are kept separate for the majority of their young lives. This leads to interesting dynamics amongst men who, in spending large amounts of time together, recreate social balance. Some men take on more feminine roles and very close relationships develop where men become “intimate friends.” This does not necessarily mean they are homosexual but they do often hold hands in public and
hold one another while walking around.

We spent a day in the community taking a look at the various BRAC programs and I am baffled by the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of the organization. The aim is to have a holistic approach to development but BRAC excels in nearly every field that it enters… and it enters every field. From providing legal service to health to private enterprises, BRAC does everything. By getting involved in every sector and “assaulting poverty” on all fronts, BRAC creates establishes social networks, distributes services, creates markets and owns value adding segments of the private sector that enables BRAC to earn a return that funds 80% of their activities. They simply have the attitude that whatever they do they will do it well and they aren’t hindered by over analysis or concern for perfection. Instead they do large pilots and assume that they will adapt programs rather than scrap them. It is largely based on the assumption that the idea behind their work is correct and that eventually they will provide all services. It seems completely opposite from what I typically see in the west and it makes me wonder about the transference potential of the model even within BRACs own successful structures. Yet thus far it has seen great success in an extremely difficult field.

One final moment that I enjoyed today was during our visit to one of the villages where BRAC had programs. While we were in the community learning about the village organizations, looking at jackfruit, learning about the legal structures and taking photos, the kids of the village had snuck up behind us and were taking photos of their own with a cell phone. It was funny to see all of us trying to be conscious of how many cameras were out and asking to take photos, while behind us we were having snapshots of us taken. On a similar note, someone told me that a joke in Bangladesh is that the beggars will call you on their cell phone to make sure that you are coming to donate that day. It made me smile.