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Bangladesh – who goes to Bangladesh except relief workers and Peace Corps Volunteers? Actually, Peace Corps suspended their program in 2006. Fearing the possibility of volunteers being targeted by Islamic extremists, they brought them all home. Yet, we are headed there to spend almost two weeks working with the Asian Women’s University in Chittagong. The University, partially funded by the Gates Foundation, is a ray of hope in an otherwise, hopeless country. They find promising Asian women from such desperate places as Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, and Bhutan and send them to Chittagong for four years of college.
Bangladesh and Haiti have been running a tie for the past many decades for the poorest, most catastrophe-ridden country on the planet. One climbs its way to second place only to have a cyclone or earthquake strike and it gets bumped to the bottom again. I remember years ago, an enlightened Colorado politician said something like the following in an interview with somebody like Dick Cavett where he announced his retirement from politics, “Nobody wants to hear politicians tell the truth. I mean really, what kind of future is possible for a country like Bangladesh other than poverty and remaining on foreign aid forever? You just can’t say that when you are running for office.” He never ran for office again. I bet he is an organic farmer growing weed in California now.
Once part of India, what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh became one country after WWII, separated geographically by India. East Pakistan broke from West Pakistan in the 70’s over cultural and language differences to become Bangladesh. West Pakistan became Pakistan. Bangladesh today is one of the most densely populated countries on earth. According to National Geographic, the 164 million plus people are mathematically incapable of being truly alone given its physical size. While we have been cautioned by our hosts about this unfathomable population density, I doubt we are prepared for what we are about to drop in to.
Nor, can one prepare oneself for the poverty. I remember feeling that I was a seasoned traveler when I left the Peace Corps and spent 6 weeks traveling in India. Yet I was completely overwhelmed and dumbstruck by the poverty and that was 25 years ago. I remember not even being able to react-the sheer numbers of homeless and destitute were too much to comprehend.
With climate change looming, the future of Bangladesh gets even darker. The two cities predicted to be hardest hit by rising sea waters are Chittagong and Dhaka: both in Bangladesh. Thousands of people arrive in Dhaka daily, fleeing the rising waters and seasonal flooding. The government itself is planning for mass ex immigration, yet its mighty neighbor to the west is building a fence along the border as fast as possible. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
We will arrive in the capital city, Dhaka tonight. For the next three days we will be touring the tea area to the northeast of the city. While in Chittagong, we hope to visit the Hill Tracts, an area on the State Department’s list of areas unsafe to travel. (So was the northeast coast of Borneo and we were just fine there.)
Of course it is the monsoon season. We have been warned about that too by our hosts. Our suitcases are full of wicking, fast drying clothing and we are wearing those god-ugly Keen “walk through rivers of water” shoes. Our veins are cursing with Mefloquine and we are vaccinated against most everything including adult polio. We were warned not to touch any stray dogs and not to let a drop of non-bottled water touch our lips (aside from nasty bacteria, the ground water is full of arsenic.) Last year the University had to deal with an outbreak of Dengue fever.
Bring it all on… like astronauts in space suits – we are ready, or not.
