Service Learning Project: Chars

After our semi-vacation in the Sundarbans (Shoon-der-bahns), Caitlyn and I headed off 70 miles North of Dhaka (Tah-ka) to Sirajganj (I don’t know how to pronounce it… whoops), a small village on the Jamuna River, to partake in a service learning project. We stayed at ARCHES, an organization that helps sustain communities. ARCHES is functionally a bunch of connected tin shacks with cots, soil floor and squat toilets that don’t flush. Although the amenities were hard for the US and Bangladeshi students to handle, the natives of the village told us they loved their homes, and wouldn’t trade them for anything.

We partnered with a nongovernmental organization called CARE, which focuses on international development. Each morning, we would travel two hours on a boat to the Char we worked on (Picture below). Chars are islands within rivers that are created from silt. They are subject to erosion as the water levels/currents fluctuate, and are extremely susceptible to flooding. A Char is only habitable for 5-10 years maximum. Some only exist for a few days; one Char we saw on Tuesday was gone on Wednesday. While we were there, we planted banana trees to give them some protection from the flooding and rain. We also compacted dirt to help raise their primary school so it can act as a flood shelter during the monsoon season.

(Above- Picture taken while getting off the boat the first day at the Char.  There was a  huge village welcome.  Literally everyone came to watch/stare at us.  Most of the Char people have never been outside of Bangladesh and were very interested in the idea of foreigners visiting their village.  The children gave us all flowers and walked with us from the shore, inland where the school was.)

(Picture of the school children singing the Bangladesh National Anthem the first day.  They seem excited that we would help them elevate there school.)

The villagers were the most hospitable people I have ever met. The kids would dance around us as we walked into the village and worked with us to move dirt. The work we completed in three days could have been finished in half a day by the villagers. We made these villagers visible when they are frequently ignored, not only by the world, but by their own people and government. That was the true purpose of our service. It was an amazing cultural exchange, and one that both groups benefited from tremendously.  (Picture- Children on the Char, and everywhere in Bangladesh in general, love getting their pictures taken, and mostly love it when we show it to them.)

While at ARCHES, we made a friend named Shumi. She is 7 years old and told us she was in fifth grade… in the villages, they don’t often count birthdays, but we were sure she wasn’t in fifth grade. She only spoke Bangla, so our relationship was a lot of making faces at each other and playing hand games. Before we left, we had to explain that we weren’t going to come back in the evening like the other days. She refused to let go of my hand until the last moment before we left.

Another villager, Julie, gifted us with free beauty treatments. She owns a beauty parlor next to ARCHES. Some girls got their eyebrows threaded, while I got my nails painted with live henna, called Mehehdi (which I don’t know how to spell). Many Bangladeshis believe you must cleanse your body to purify it, but you can’t clean your nails with soap, hence the use of henna. About 8 of us got something done, and we paid 1500 taka, only about 20 USD, and to them, that was overpaying.

Visiting the Chars was an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity that Caitlyn and I truly appreciate. I will never forget the connections we made with the kind villagers we met.

Check These Out!

The Group Exchange Blog:    http://aylpbangladesh.tumblr.com/

A cool Article from The Independent (a Bangladeshi newspaper) on the exchange from their perspective (pre-our arrival):     http://theindependentbd.com/paper-edition/city-life/85713-youth-leadership-exchange-programme.html

Another neat article by The Independent after our interactions with the Madrassa students:    http://theindependentbd.com/paper-edition/city-life/86255-think-beyond-your-borders.html

Tiger Territory

So Leah and I don’t have access to computers most of the time, and when we do, we tend to have poor internet connections, so we will hopefully try to update the blog on everything these next few days!

Leah and I got to spend four days, from December 26th to the 30th, on a huge boat in the largest mangrove forest in the world- the Sundarbans.  This forest is split between India (forty percent) and Bangladesh (sixty percent) and Sundarban in Bangla means ‘beautiful forest’.  It was so nice to be able to take a break from the chaos and noise of Dhaka and our time on the boat was amazing.  We got to hike in the mangrove, hangout on the beach at the Bay of Bengal, go on smaller more scenic boat rides, participate in a mock climate summit and bond with our group of American students from the San Fransisco, New York City, and Twin Cities areas.

The scenery was breathtaking and the wildlife seen on the river and during our hike was incredible.  We saw everything from Ganges River Dolphins and monkeys, to wild boars, deer and bright beautiful kingfishers.  The Sundarbans is also home to the Royal Bengal Tiger and while we didn’t see a tiger (probably for the best), we saw tons or paw prints.  The guides told us that most of the paw prints were a few days old, but some of them they told us, were only a few hours old.  There was an eerie thrill knowing that we were in tiger territory. (Picture of us standing around a paw print).

We also learned from the guides, that the Sundarban mangrove trees play an important role for Bangladesh.  The trees act as a coastal force against the extreme winds of cyclones, and protects the inland areas from increased devastation.  However, deforestation of mangrove trees is taking away nature’s natural cyclone shield.  Human impact, in addition to the negative affects of climate change on the forest- primarily the increased salinity impacts on the plants and animals- is a major concern not only for the biodiversity of the largest mangrove forest in the world, but also for the security of communities in Bangladesh in relation to the environment.

Youth Ambassadors: Making Connections

Yesterday, Dec 22nd, our AYLP (American Youth Leadership Program) group had the opportunity to visit the US embassy here in Dhaka.  The officials from the embassy expressed great excitement in having us, the first large group of American high school students to ever visit Bangladesh.  We are honored to be youth ambassadors so genuinely welcomed into this beautiful country.

Our visit to the American center included activities with local madrasa students.  When we first arrived at the center we walked into a room madrasa students already were.  It was very quiet and our American cohort was very timid because we didn’t know what to expect or how to act.  Our preconceptions were probably also influenced knowing that madrasas are very religious schools and that the students we were going to meet have had less than two years of English.  While we had initially though that they might be following our lead in the activities, boy were we wrong.  Within minutes of starting ice breakers the room was filled with smiles, chatty teenagers, and genuine curiosity on both sides.  We were especially very impressed at how well they spoke English and how open they were.  It was very cool to see that they were just as interested in our lives as we were in theirs.  It was very fun answering questions about Halloween and such and learning about Eid, their hobbies, and playing cricket (their national and most popular sport).

Farjana, one of the madrasa students, was probably one of the sweetest girls I have ever met.  Her, Alisa, and I were partners in one of our activities.  This activity required us to draw a picture of someone in our group without looking at the paper.  The drawings turned out so goofy and it was a lot of fun to get to know each other.  Farjana, I learned, is in the ninth grade and loves henna, candle-lit dinners, gossiping and pasta.  When I told her my favorite food was pasta as well, she jumped up from where she was sitting and shook my hand again!  It was so cute.  It was quite the experience to get along so well with the madrasa students despite our different backgrounds, religions, geographical locations and appearances.  Farjana knew just as well as we did the importance of understanding other cultures and it really stuck with me when she said that she “will never forget this day because it is so powerful to come together.”

Welcome to Bangladesh

While we haven’t really been able to find much free time to update our blog since arriving in Dhaka, know that we have been settling in quite well despite all the sickness amongst our group and that we will keep up with posting about our experiences whenever we get the chance.  While our trip is primarily to study climate change our first week here was planned for us to learn about and absorb the Bengali culture. It has been very cool bonding with our Bangladeshi hosts of the exchange.  It is sometimes hard to put into perspective that despite geographically on opposite sides of the planet we share many commonalities with the Scholastica students.  It comes down to even the simple things such as sharing similar tastes in music, chatting about Twilight or Harry Potter books, or participating in similar clubs.

We are also very touched by the generosity and hospitality of their families who have opened their homes to us for a great portion of our month here.  The food here is very good.  We eat a lot rice, curry, and chicken. They pile food onto our plates and want us to be well fed.  Many of us have learned that when we say we like a particular dish our hosts are quick to scoop another helping onto our plates.  We are not sure any of us have ever eaten so much.  Also, the timing of meals is also very new to us.  What we think would be the normal portion for dinner is eaten as a snack after school, and then actual dinner is eaten very late around 9:30pm.  Many of us have also found ourselves in situations of being watched while we eat because they are so interested to see if we like the food, and we nearly always do!

Another aspect of adjusting to Dhaka is becoming accustomed to the crowed streets.  In addition to the huge population within Dhaka, there are no road regulations; both of which contribute to the terrible traffic.  A seven and a half mile drive to Scholastica from the Gulshan neighborhood where Caitlyn is staying takes on average 35 to 40 minutes.  During the time traveling by vehicle we are exposed to sights of extreme poverty and beggars tapping on our car windows asking for money, known as |taka” in Bangla.  It can be very emotionally difficult to try to ignore the beggars (who are mostly children, elderly, and people who have been disturbingly mutilated) when only a glass window separates you from them.

A Third Princess and Sickness

We’ve been in Bangladesh for nearly four days now! It is crazy. After arriving without luggage (don’t worry, it came a day later), we had to go meet our host families in our plane attire with nothing to change into. Despite this, they still seemed to really like us! Right when I (Leah) got there, my host mom, who I call Auntie, told me that I was her third daughter, her third princess. Bangladeshi families are very much family families. Today was Friday, the first full day of the weekend for them, and they just stayed home the entire day together, often just sitting on one of the beds and talking. My sister, Rasa, doesn’t hangout with friends because Dhaka is so big, and they live on the opposite side, it would be a 4 hour round trip. My littlest sister is Fariha, she is six and absolutely adorable. Yesterday, she called her mom’s cell phone while she was at home, and we were coming back from school. She told her mom to give the phone to me, and she asked how I was and how school was and then there was just silence. It was very cute. And she is very quick to call me pretty and cute, which is another big plus. There is a bad virus going around my group filled with vomiting, diarrhea and very high temperatures. A third of the group has the sickness right now, not including Caitlyn (yet)! Because of my sickness, I missed going to the US Embassy and the Slums, which were both apparently very cool experiences that I’m sorry I missed. But you all can expect an update from Caitlyn in due time!

Bangladesh Bound

It is nearly 1:00 a.m. and we are sitting in the Dubai airport! After arriving in D.C. Saturday morning, we had a chance to meet the entire group. The thirty of us began to bond over a nice Famous Dave’s dinner, and we met with our crews, or our “homebase” for the trip. The following day was a lot of ice breakers and running around; everyone is really kind and funny, creating a really good environment for our trip.

We had our all day orientation on Sunday, including many games and ice breakers. We ended the day by heading to the Dulles airport to take off to Frankfurt, Germany. Our flight was delayed an hour, which wasn’t a problem until we landed in Germany. We basically recreated Home Alone; there were 37 of us running through the airport, hoping to make our flight. Luckily, we did. Unluckily, our luggage won’t come until Wednesday morning, meanign we will be spending our first day and a half in Dhaka wearing the clothes we started in on Sunday. Our host families will be so pleased to meet us.

We are now waiting in Dubai. The airport is crazy; it’s like the Minneapolis airport times 47. Everything is marble, with fancy lights and many seafood resturants. It’s basically a high-end mall that also sometimes has planes come in and out of it. We will be here for a few more hours until we leave for Dhaka, where we will go immediatley to the there school, Scholastica.

Our trip from luxurious Dubai to impoverished Dhaka will be the ultimate culture shock. Only ten more hours!

You may ask… why?

Hello!  We are Leah and Caitlyn, high school seniors at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota.  We have been selected as two of thirty students from the U.S. to travel to Bangladesh in December for a four week American Youth Leadership Program (AYLP), led by World Savvy and fully funded by the U.S. Department of State for Education and Cultural Affairs, to study climate change.  We will be in Bangladesh from December 17^th to Jan 13^th (we leave in less than 2 weeks!).  We are looking forward to the opportunity to partner with students relatively our age from the Scholastica School in Dhaka, to visit communities and organizations, and to personally see the impacts of climate change, while also learning about local Bangladeshi culture.  In addition, we will participate in workshops, fieldtrips, meetings with government officials, and service learning activities to explore the environmental, social, economic and political impacts of climate change in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh was the chosen country for this trip because it is a low-lying river delta nation of about 160 million and which is at the forefront of suffering climate change consequences: increased flooding, river bank erosion, storm surges, droughts, more intense cyclones, and increased salinity in freshwater sources.  It is even estimated by the U .N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that rising sea levels will cause Bangladesh to lose 17 percent of its land by 2050, leading to about 15 million displaced people.

We are both very grateful for this opportunity to participate in an exchange program that embodies youth empowerment.  As high school students, it is very honoring to be given the chance to travel abroad and study a global issue while representing our country.  Together, we have chosen to keep a blog to continually update our families, friends, school, and greater community about our experiences.  Hopefully we will be able to Capture Bangladesh through posts and pictures to bring awareness to the impacts of climate change.