In the Village.

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Since my last blog there have been 2 more hartals so I haven't been able to do much, but I did have quite an amazing day yesterday. I actually had the opportunity to venture into a typical Bangladesh village with one of the faculty members at the University. He was nice enough to offer to take us students and some of the volunteers on a walk through of a village where he resided while studying nursing.

On the surface it looks much different than the neighbourhood I am staying in. It is comprised primarily of very poor individuals as opposed to the middle class population that surrounds me now. Despite us foreigners exploring their home, the village people were very welcoming and invited us to have a rare glimpse of their daily lives.

Their homes were composed of nothing more than corrugated tin or mud. A simple area where they could rest their heads was located within the structures, but nothing more. They had handcrafted fire pits under a simple roof outside of their homes to provide a place for cooking their meals. Goats, dogs, cats, chickens and roosters were all running wild throughout the streets. The village had everything that was required for a community to survive. They had different sources of food readily available for purchase, as well as schools, places of employment such as garment factories, recycling plants, and rickshaw garages to pharmacies.

The children were fascinated by us, and the technology that we carried. We had quite the entourage of people following us around to figure out why we were there, but also in hopes of having their photo taken with a digital camera so they may see themselves on our devices. There was one incident where a group of men wanted me to photograph them working - I saw no harm so I snapped the shot and proceeded to show them their faces on the screen. As I let them see the photograph, one of them snapped my portrait with his cellphone and thought it was only right to display my picture back. It was quite comical, yet endearing all at the same time.

It was saddening to see the conditions in which they lived, but also in which they worked. The garment factories are just like what you envision when you hear the term 'sweat shop'. The flip side I guess is that it provides them with a job, a source of income, and a sense of pride that they can attain that for their family. Most work here is extremely labor intensive and unsafe as I'm sure you can imagine. One strength I noticed though is their sense of community. They are all so closely knit - helping each other in any way they can, trusting one another and relying on one another for support. They truly possess a high level of happiness despite their life circumstances.

At the end of the journey we sat at a typical tea stall where we were served a sweet black tea. The tea stalls also sell Bangladeshi sweets and other goods so it was a nice place to end the tour and sit and watch business conducted.

I think I'll let my photographs do the rest of the talking as I should get back to my homework. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed capturing the traditional way of life here in Bangladesh.

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Comments

[Evelyn Shuya]

Hi Shalyn, Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and commentaries. I look forward to your posts. Enjoy your adventure, stay safe and study hard.

[kim]

Beautiful photo\\\'s Shalyn! xoxo