Our journey began very early this morning! We woke up at 5.45, checked out from the hotel and met Shamim who was waitin for us at the reception with our interpreter Matin! We caught a couple of CNGs and rode to Dhaka bus station! At 8 we left the city and headed for the village! Four hours of crazy as hell bus ride! Drivers here do not care at all about speed limits and stupid stuff like that. Simply because there absolutely no police around here in Bangladesh. We haven't seen a signle policeman in the whole journey.
Bangladeshi land really is a beautiful one! I knew Dhaka was not representative of the Country and that's also why i really cared a lot about this trip we've had the great chance to do. Rice fields are everywhere around us, and palm and bananas trees just spot the watery land leaving the almost forgotten clear blue sky and its pale sun as the simplest and most gorgeous background to this unseen picture. People are working in the fields and in the villages and we deeply enjoy observing them from the bus that now runs faster than ever on the even surface of the road!
Finally we get to the village at about one o'clock, we take a rickshaw and ride through the countryside for about ten minutes till we reach Grameen branch's house where our two rooms are located. Jaco and I are sleeping in the same room with Matin, whereas the German boys have their own room.
Right now, while I'm writing, Matin is talking on the phone with his girlfriend, whispering in Bangla. ( He's been with his girlfriend for 6 months and still hasn't even touched her! Impressive enough!)
Going back to our first day in the fields... as soon as we arrived, we went for a quick walk in the sugar canes fields where a guy cut us some pieces and showed the way ones supposed to chew the core of the cane, suck the juice and spit the rest. Every single person person here chews the cane! Hence, we tried it too!
Then we had lunch and discovered that locals all eat without forks and knives, they only use their right hand, because with the left, they say, you do dirty stuff!
After lunch (pronounced "luns" by Banglas) we were suggested to rest a little but everything was so new and interested us so much that we could not take a nap! So we woke Matin, who was already in bed ready to sleep a couple of hours, up. We also tried to wake Consti and Ferdi up but didnt manage to.
So we went for a walk through the village with the Branch (brans) manager and his staff. Houses here are mud of mud and people around are dressed in the most amazingly colored clothes and fabrics! Kids always follow us everywhere and they seem to adore our digital cameras!
Jaco and I got to no the branch manager a lil better and at some point asked him if it would have been possible to go to the near Padma river! Of course it was feasible!For us here almost everythin seems to be doable, we just have to ask! People, especially form the Bank, treat us really nicely!
So we got three motorbikes from the branch and rode to the riverside! A beautiful wooden boat was crossing the halfmile-wide river! A guy of ours gave them a signal to come back and pick us up! After ten minutes we were on the other side, on the amazing piece of land emerged from the water after the Indians deviated the flux of the river further up north.
While we were checking out this smooth white sands some people were loading the boat! After some other 10 minutes we got back an the vessel and sailed across once again.
Riding the bikes back we could not avoid noticin the simplicity and the beauty of this place that looks, I believe, how Medieval Europe on a sunny day probably looked like!
Every peasant is doing somethin, each one has his or her own particular activity, from building bricks and walls to squeezing sugar canes, from harvesting weath or rice to sell groceries, from washing clothes in the river to play cricket in front of the school! And every single person appears to be happy, not needin anything more than what he or she has.
Once we got back to the branch we met the two chickens, at that time still alive, that we had requested for dinner! How sad!
We then had our meetin with Grameen local staff and interviewed them! After a while the zonal (pronounced jonal) manager, a guy that controls about 250.000 borrowers surprisingly shows up. Everyone is honored to meet him since he's one of the 50 most powerful people of the Bank! So he talks to us and asks us questions. At a certain point... here comes the tea! We all drink it or at least have a sip and after few second he just spontaneously burps in our faces! Giving the World one of the most amazing burps ever heard! Somethin I wouldnt be able to do not even drinking a whole bottle of coke straight! I simply could not hold my laughter and so i laughed at him in his face so hard that i couldnt stop for at least the followin five minutes! Amazing! Im still laughin now! Wow! The room kinda went silent and everybody was ashamed and scared for what I did! Fantastic!
At dinner we decided to put ourselves completely into this new experience, except from Sir Rojahn, so we forgot about the silverware and ate everything with our right hand! All meals are served by the center managers who kinda surround us in a sometimes embarassing environment!
Allright folks! Time has come for me as well, to fall asleep! Get back to you soon!
Love Love Love
N.
Bangladeshi land really is a beautiful one! I knew Dhaka was not representative of the Country and that's also why i really cared a lot about this trip we've had the great chance to do. Rice fields are everywhere around us, and palm and bananas trees just spot the watery land leaving the almost forgotten clear blue sky and its pale sun as the simplest and most gorgeous background to this unseen picture. People are working in the fields and in the villages and we deeply enjoy observing them from the bus that now runs faster than ever on the even surface of the road!
Finally we get to the village at about one o'clock, we take a rickshaw and ride through the countryside for about ten minutes till we reach Grameen branch's house where our two rooms are located. Jaco and I are sleeping in the same room with Matin, whereas the German boys have their own room.
Right now, while I'm writing, Matin is talking on the phone with his girlfriend, whispering in Bangla. ( He's been with his girlfriend for 6 months and still hasn't even touched her! Impressive enough!)
Going back to our first day in the fields... as soon as we arrived, we went for a quick walk in the sugar canes fields where a guy cut us some pieces and showed the way ones supposed to chew the core of the cane, suck the juice and spit the rest. Every single person person here chews the cane! Hence, we tried it too!
Then we had lunch and discovered that locals all eat without forks and knives, they only use their right hand, because with the left, they say, you do dirty stuff!
After lunch (pronounced "luns" by Banglas) we were suggested to rest a little but everything was so new and interested us so much that we could not take a nap! So we woke Matin, who was already in bed ready to sleep a couple of hours, up. We also tried to wake Consti and Ferdi up but didnt manage to.
So we went for a walk through the village with the Branch (brans) manager and his staff. Houses here are mud of mud and people around are dressed in the most amazingly colored clothes and fabrics! Kids always follow us everywhere and they seem to adore our digital cameras!
Jaco and I got to no the branch manager a lil better and at some point asked him if it would have been possible to go to the near Padma river! Of course it was feasible!For us here almost everythin seems to be doable, we just have to ask! People, especially form the Bank, treat us really nicely!
So we got three motorbikes from the branch and rode to the riverside! A beautiful wooden boat was crossing the halfmile-wide river! A guy of ours gave them a signal to come back and pick us up! After ten minutes we were on the other side, on the amazing piece of land emerged from the water after the Indians deviated the flux of the river further up north.
While we were checking out this smooth white sands some people were loading the boat! After some other 10 minutes we got back an the vessel and sailed across once again.
Riding the bikes back we could not avoid noticin the simplicity and the beauty of this place that looks, I believe, how Medieval Europe on a sunny day probably looked like!
Every peasant is doing somethin, each one has his or her own particular activity, from building bricks and walls to squeezing sugar canes, from harvesting weath or rice to sell groceries, from washing clothes in the river to play cricket in front of the school! And every single person appears to be happy, not needin anything more than what he or she has.
Once we got back to the branch we met the two chickens, at that time still alive, that we had requested for dinner! How sad!
We then had our meetin with Grameen local staff and interviewed them! After a while the zonal (pronounced jonal) manager, a guy that controls about 250.000 borrowers surprisingly shows up. Everyone is honored to meet him since he's one of the 50 most powerful people of the Bank! So he talks to us and asks us questions. At a certain point... here comes the tea! We all drink it or at least have a sip and after few second he just spontaneously burps in our faces! Giving the World one of the most amazing burps ever heard! Somethin I wouldnt be able to do not even drinking a whole bottle of coke straight! I simply could not hold my laughter and so i laughed at him in his face so hard that i couldnt stop for at least the followin five minutes! Amazing! Im still laughin now! Wow! The room kinda went silent and everybody was ashamed and scared for what I did! Fantastic!
At dinner we decided to put ourselves completely into this new experience, except from Sir Rojahn, so we forgot about the silverware and ate everything with our right hand! All meals are served by the center managers who kinda surround us in a sometimes embarassing environment!
Allright folks! Time has come for me as well, to fall asleep! Get back to you soon!
Love Love Love
N.
3 commenti:
I am Jacopo.
From now on we will reply answers to your questions, good idea no?
Curra:
We are four: 3 from Bocconi Nicolo Ammendola, Constantin Rojahn, and me.
The 4th one is a friend of Constantin from Germany, Ferdinand Berthold.
Luis:
Me alegro que te lo hayas pasado bien en la fiesta de Alejandra, aqui como ves todo bien.
Oye acuerdateque los comentarios los lee todo el mundo, padres abuelos incluidos...jajaj.
Ya te dire fechas de mi llegadaa Madrid. Un abrazo.
Mamoun:
Maman, pas la peine de dire qu'il fait un beau incroyable a Madrid, ici a Dhaka il fait un temps merdic. J'éspère qu'à Kathmandu il fera un temps meilleur. Bisous.
Mami et Bippapa:
Je suis ravi que vous puissiez le suivre, vous etes les seuls grands parents qui savez comment un blog fonctionne, bravo!
Tout va bien et surtout continuez à écrire. Bisous.
Olivia:
Pas mal au ventre du tout pour l'instant... On verra plus tard, mais je résiste. Comment va le brevet?? jajaj. Travaille.
Sofia:
Moi j'ai écrit le blog, mais un ami pour faire "la gracia" à rajouté la derniere partie. Tout va bien?
Travaille L' IB. Bisous
Salut,
En fait j'imaginais que ce n'était pas toi qui l'avais écrit mais bon... c'était pour faire rire un peu.. mais je vois que ça n'a pas marché. Au moins vous avez eu votre dose grâce au splendide rot du mec!
Moi, ici je travaille, ne te préoccupe pas. J'ai donné mon TOK final essay aujourd'hui!!!je vais mourir... mais bon.. maintenant je ne peux plus le changer alors espérons.
J'ai reçu un lettre de Birmingham en disant que je suis acceptée, mais de toute façon je ne vais pas y aller alors..
J'espère que tout aille bien, amusez-vous et travaillez! bonne chance pour le reste du voyage.
Bisous.
Thank you Jacopo, for your answer.
I am glad you continue enjoying. Your mother and I werre having lunch together the other day and commented about your blog and your photos. We love them.!!! today I was having another lunch with a mexican friend, the mother of the guy who was with you in Mexico, Patricio Gutierrez Cortina. He has just arrived to Madrid for the next five months...so in your next trip to Madrid you can meet him. He lives in the same place wher Nacho Vicnes lives, in C.M.Moncloa.
I will write more tomorrow. Love and kisses
Curra
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