grameen

At one point during our visit to Jobra, I had a quick premonition (luckily unfulfilled) of headlines reading, "american teacher comes to bangladesh and ruins grameen bank"...like everything i've encountered thus far in Bangladesh, nothing is written in stone, except those things that are, unless you're with the right people - so they're not, unless the 'right people' you're with aren't the right people after all - and so they aren't not...and the cycle continues.  thus was my monday last week when i went with my class to Jobra to interview borrowers.  we didn't go through Dhaka, the head office, because we had some personal connections and we didn't necessarily need to get to interview the bank officers. 

apparently grameen wasn't down with that. after about two hours of calling people, who called on our behalf to grameen, we were given official permission to speak with officers, see the main branch office, see transactions taking place, the whole gamut.  and it was fantastic.  more info to come, plus examples of my students work.  first, though, here are a few photos i took while we were there.   i don't have many of the borrowers themselves because it's Ramadan and most of the women didn't want to have their picture taken as a result.  but i did get a few pictures during the day.  

one of the greatest quotes from the day was from one of my students who turned to me, after speaking with a few borrowers and with a bank loan collector, "if it's THIS HARD talking to villagers about personal issues like this now, how hard must it have been for Muhammad Yunus 30 years ago?"

oh teaching. 

i'm off to nepal tomorrow, but i'll be back October 5th, so expect more updates then!

where it all started...

Grameen Bank that is. yup. in that little brick house.  backstory: 6 weeks ago i was on a train to dhaka with Angela (roommate/fellow teacher) and Peter, who was visiting for 2 weeks.  i HAD assigned a 'thursday project' (a project to worked on throughout the semester, every thursday) but was re-reading Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, and i had an epiphany. literally. 

fast forward to class that week. i told my class that i recognized we'd already started one project, but i had this idea...if they were interested...and we could scrap everything we'd done thus far and start fresh...

well, my class is awesome.  i think these 12 girls have gotten used to my spontaneity, even in the classroom, even when maybe teachers shouldn't be as spontaneous as i am.  the project we've been working on is based on Banker to the Poor.  In a few weeks the AUW will have it's official opening in Dhaka, and Muhammad Yunus is our keynote speaker.  He's been a friend of our founder for a long time, and has been involved with the university as it's grown.  I thought it would be great if my class could read the book, read some critiques, do a simulation, meet some borrowers and end up putting together a presentation for the rest of the school on microfinance/Grameen before we go hear Mr. Yunus speak. 

THEREFORE, yesterday (Friday) we got to go to Jobra, the original Grameen village.  Mr. Amar Hossein met us and gave us an overview of Grameen and his experience with it --- he was one of Yunus' students when the project was started, so it was a firsthand account of how everything progressed.  i had a complete 'teacher' moment when i was watching my students take film, take photographs and ask this guy questions.  They were so interested, so well spoken, so in control and made a fantastic impression.  

We're hopefully going back later this week to watch transactions and get to interview borrowers!! exciting!!

In other news i had hoped to give you a glimpse into the life that is here...via a movie i made while walking down the alleyway next to our building.  i constantly call the children that live their my little saviors, because they re-instill my faith in humanity, and children, every time i walk through the alley (it's our shortcut to the main road behind our building).  however, the movie's refusing to upload, so you'll have to settle for some photos.

Not only are they ADORABLE, but they are genuinely excited when we see them.  they yell out "HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI M'AM!! HI M'AM!! HI HI HI HIHIHI!!!" when we started speaking to them in the little little little bangla we know, they got even more excited so now it's more of a flurry of basic bangla greetings, 'hihihihihihihi's' and attempts at english phrases "how you m'am?!"

compared to the countless beggar children we confront any time we walk through the streets around us, they are, literally, a breath of fresh air. 

latest article on the AUW - pretty exciting stuff

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/09/09/the_education_of_kamal_ah_mad/