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Published: November 30th 2007
The temperature has been pleasant/moderate - high maybe 82 degrees F and no need for a coat. The humidity is mid range and there has not been any wind or rain. Although the Hurricane killed 5,000 or so and wiped out many villages - it did not have significant impact on the areas that I have traveled or will be traveling.
I am having some back pain as a result of sleeping in the village on the hardest bed I have ever slept on (see attached picture). The bed had a 1 inch (or less) pad on hard wood. It hurt not only my back but everywhere bone meets skin and met bed - so for instance it hurts at my lower rib bones and my hip bones. Riding in a old VW bus over constant gigantic pot holes resulted in jarring actions against the bottom of my back and hitting my head on the roof,
Lynn wisely pushed me to bring my own pillow. The village pillow was very hard and high.
In the village we slept under a mosquito net - but the mosquitos don't seem to be in season. I shared a room with my
new friend from Hong Kong China - Simon.
Within Grameen Bank and all if its facilities there is not one single pad on any chair - and certainly not any couches or anything like that.
All the Grameen facilities are stark and drab at best. The latrine outside the main conference/board room where we met Yunus was no nicer than in the village,
My pants indicate that my goal of loosing weight is being achieved. In the village each night they made chicken without spice for me. I call it chicken - it tasted like chicken - but were small pieces that were hardly recognizable as chciken. Lots of oranges, bananas, apples.
The shower (see picture) and the whole facility in the village does not have hot water - which made for a very exciting morning shower.
When I first arrived at this hotel in Dhaka I thought it was a bit of a flea bag hotel. Now that I have been in the village and returned to the original hotel - I feel like I must be staying in the Ritz Carlton. Amazing how ones perspective can change so quickly.
It is now
10:30 PM and I need to crash.
Tomorrow is a day off and I don't have a plan other than to join with some of the others and explore Dhaka. One of our participants is a native of this area and knows it well - although she now lives in the U,S,
I am looking forward to sharing with you the things that are really important and and I suspect will be life changing. We met and I video interviewed the original borrower that Yunus loaned to. There have been moments when my reception has given me what must be like the experience that a rock star experiences - and it was pretty overwhelming. All of the people we have encoutered have been amazingly hospitable. The Grameen program is an incredibly well oiled machine with unbelievable results. They now have more money than they can dream of spending. I will try to put some faces on all this.
I suspect I will wake up about 3:00 AM as I have been doing since I arrived and may be able to blog more at that time.
I welcome your questions. Good Night for now.
Thanks for
joining me on this journey. I hope I can bring it to life for you,
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Martha
non-member comment
Blessings
Hi Marty, Darrell and I received and read your blog for the first time today and looked at your pics...They are really amazing! Our prayers and good energy is coming your way. May you remain safe and healthy on your special mission to help the people of Bangladesh. I told Usha you were there now, and she sends her blessings along with the crew at the studio...I believe your transformational purpose is funded with love too, and will spread wherever you go....Martha