Muddy Casualties, Success Stories, and Bloody Bananas

We woke up early today just in time to see the century's last "full" solar eclipse from the rooftop terrace at our hotel, then rushed over to Grameen Bank to start our journey for our first Village visit. Six interns piled into a van, accompanied by our Grameen coordinator, Rafique, who also helped tremendously with translating all day as we talked to villagers. After a nail biting 3 hour ride from the city center to the rural outskirts, and stopping twice (once for directions and once just to see Rafique's long lost friend), we finally arrived at Amdala. We made it into the Branch Manager's office just in time to escape a torrential downpour outside (the first time we've actually seen it rain here even though it's technically their Monsoon season). We learned from the Branch Manager that he is in charge of 84 separate centers, made up of 623 groups, which are then made up of 2,925 total borrowers (people who have taken loans from Grameen Bank). We waited for the rain to let up a little bit then got back in the van for a little drive further down the road. When the van stopped we were all warned to be careful because the path we would be walking on was slippery and muddy because of the storm. As we began our walk to the village we began attracting curious children and adults alike, who began following us on our muddy trek. Half way through our walk one of the girls had already fallen in the mud (TWICE!), and another one had lost her flip flop as a result of a battle with a sticky puddle. When the one girl fell in the mud I had to do all I could not to laugh my butt off, especially because our journey wasn't over yet and bad karma would surely move my name right to the top on the list of following mud victims. However, one of the village children who had been following us started laughing and pointing at her as she lay helpless in the mud... I found this absolutely hilarious to say the least. This little girl and her adorable friend ended up staying by my side the entire visit, and by the time we left they were the first Bangladeshis that had captured a piece of my heart.
While we were walking, the General Manager turned around and told me "You are a very strong woman" which I think had something to do with the fact that I was one of the only people who hadn't faced any type of casualty with the mud so far. As we neared the village center we heard clapping and cheering, and it turned out that all of the women who were members of that village's Grameen branch were together in their meeting place welcoming us with a standing ovation! We were ushered into their meeting area, given seats up front facing the assembly of women, and the meeting promptly started. The women took turns depositing their money to the Branch Manager, who then counted their money and recorded it in their log. We were able to ask some of the women questions (How long have you been a member of Grameen Bank? Who was the first borrower from this group? What did you use your first loans for? Do all of your children go to school? etc.), and then they had a turn to ask us questions (Are you married? Where are you from? Are your parents still alive? How many siblings do you have? After university are you going to get a job or get married first? etc.).

Then we met the first borrower of the village (23 years ago!), we saw one of the houses that was built by a couple who had received a housing loan from Grameen, and met a "success couple" (or a man and woman who had successfully worked their way out of poverty through the microloans made possible by Grameen). It was all quite impressive to see the real life results of microlending.
As we made our way back to the van all of the villagers kept asking us in Bengali to come back to visit them (specifically after we were done with school and had jobs and were married). We learned to say "Acha, acha!" (a combination of "Yes" and "See you again soon" type of response) which they got a big kick out of. We made our way back (the path was a bit more dried out by this point), saying "Donobad" ("Thank you") over and over, so appreciative of their hospitality and willingness to share their lives with us.
We stopped at the General Manager's office again for a pit stop and a miniature banana break (complete with more tea of course). This was my first experience with quite an interesting phenomena of a "squat toilet". I have been finding great humor in so many of these experiences throughout the day, so of course I had to stop and laugh at the situation as soon as I saw it and thought about the logistics. After that ordeal I went to open the door but the sliding lock was stuck! Again, I laughed at the prospect of being stuck in a Bangladeshi squat toilet stall, but finally was able to slide the rusty lock over to get me out of there.

I went back to the main room, grabbed a mini banana, and then noticed the end was covered in blood. Gross! Then I realized it was my blood, and on further inspection saw I had sliced my finger open on the rusty lock in the bathroom. Probably the first thing every international travel guide book tells you NOT to do is to cut yourself with a rusty nail (or in this case, a lock). I tried to not make a big deal out of it but the General Manager was profusely apologetic and insisted on cleaning it up and putting a bandaid on it. It ended up throbbing a bit for the next hour or so, and I continued to think about how we take the small things for granted (like soap and water to wash a bloody finger). Glad I got my tetanus booster :)

Tomorrow we may get to meet (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) Professor Muhammad Yunus! It may just be a short photo op, but it would still be a great chance to be in the presence of someone who has created and propelled such an incredible movement of microlending around the world. To be continued!