I wasn't sure what to expect when we ventured out into rural Bangladesh and visiting RDRS's project sites. I found this past week very interesting and I was able to learn a lot about international development and the culture in Bangladesh. I must say I am very impressed with the hospitality we have received (especially the many invitations for tea) and how friendly, welcoming, and curious people are. People also seem genuinely happy which is hard to come by in Canada- when you smile at someone and try to communicate across a language barrier they usually smile back. I remember trying to communicate with a women in a rural area with the few words of bangali I know and she seemed so friendly and excited to see us, I wish I could have had a real conversation with her to find out about what her life was like and every time I would smile at her in the crowd she would give a genuine smile back.
This past week also came with a bunch of new challenges and struggles but I am optimistic the next few weeks will continue to be rewarding and full of learning and experiencing new situations. Some of this weeks struggles have included: battling the sweltering heat, learning how to handle a stressful situation where tons of people are staring and taking pictures, having a crazy schedule full of many activities, not actually following the schedule and adding new activities without us being aware, privacy is a privilege in Canada and learning how to handle a new culture with different customs when it comes to privacy, eating the same food everyday with little variety (when we do see something new like pasta last night it was a huge deal), and visiting a government hospital was also a struggle.
One thing I would like to keep in mind for this next week in Kurigram is a question we have been asked many times by various people in different projects- What can you do for us? I have yet to come up with a good answer for these people, so far what I have is to share your story and to learn from you. At a project site, which was an indigenous women's forum, we asked what RDRS could do to help them more and they replied to be able to learn income generating projects to help support their families more. A man from RDRS was with us and right then and there it was decided that these women would have training sessions to learn various trades, it was nice to see that by us being there and visiting them they hopefully were able to gain something from the experience that would benefit them.
As I mentioned earlier, visiting a government hospital here was an eye opening experience- the hospital was the best in the district but there was still a massive gap compared to a traditional medical facility we were used to. In the hospital there was no sense of privacy- people were crowded in every room, records were stored in massive piles, the doctor flat out told us people's medical history, and everyone knew what was being handed out at the pharmacy. There were blood on the walls, dirt on the floor, goats outside, needles on the floor, dirty equipment, people on the floor in the wards, but they did have a functional autoclave which was good to see.
It was good that women had the opportunity for family planning options in the hospital however I was concerned that they did not know about side effects and different options because the nurse making commission and the women needed their husbands permission. I was able to tour the pharmacy which was interesting. The drugs were free because they were about to expire but there was a 3 taka dispensing fee. The most common drugs were all antibiotics which was concerning because resistance was a worldwide issue. Here they don't appear to do a lot of diagnosing and they tend to attempt to treat with various medication first. Tomorrow I have the opportunity to meet with pharmacy representatives which will be intersting. I read today that pharmaceutics is a major industry here which is not surprising because every second store in the market is a pharmacy.
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