frustrations, realizations, etc.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been struggling with the difference between the way the Grameen Intern Coordinators (all of whom are male) treat the female interns and the way that they treat male interns. It is undeniable that our coordinators show some sort of preference for the male interns, and it has been difficult for me to accept that. I’m slowly realizing (with the help of others) that it’s nothing personal. They don’t mean it as a sign of disrespect, but rather, they are much more comfortable interacting with males, and especially, other Bangladeshis. That being said, it is still frustrating to be spoken to like a child and ignored when I am trying to schedule a meeting. But, the longer that I am here the more I realize how little I know about the culture and what a huge role the culture plays in gender roles.  

 

In addition to the frustrations that come with being a woman here, I’ve also been annoyed with the inefficiencies of the Grameen business structure, and more specifically, the inefficiencies of the internship program. There are six internship coordinators whose sole responsibility is to schedule programs for the interns that are assigned to them. So, generally speaking, interns spend their first week learning about Grameen and going on a one day Branch Office visit. Needless to say, most interns come to Grameen with a considerable amount of knowledge about the Bank, and so, much of the first week is spent doing pretty much nothing. The second week is generally spent on a four or five day village trip. The remaining time is completely open and it is up to the interns to keep themselves busy. There are no scheduled programs through the internship office, and you basically have to bribe someone who works at Grameen to give you a project to do (often, if you ask for something to do, they will give you data entry, so everyone avoids that). As such, I spent a very frustrating day yesterday meeting with (and getting yelled at by) internship coordinators trying to schedule meetings and programs. We spent the entire day arranging a one day trip to two of Grameen’s sister companies (including an hour where we got yelled at for not talking to the right internship supervisor… talk about bureaucracy).  We then tried to go directly to some of Grameen’s sister companies (whose offices are located in the same building as the internship office) and schedule meetings to learn more about what the companies do. They rejected us and told us that we needed to have our coordinators schedule the meetings. Our coordinators then told us that they were too busy to talk to us and that we could “sit together after lunch.” Everything here happens “after lunch,” which in a heavy Bangladeshi accent sounds like, “Apsa lance.” Also, lunch break goes from about 12 or 1 to 3, because they have to “have a rest” after lunch.  I’m going to miss rest time when I’m back in the US…

 

So, today, we got to enjoy the fruits of yesterday’s labors. We took a trip to Grameen Shakti, which is a company that provides sources of alternative energy to villagers, and Grameen Kalayan, which provides health care clinics to villagers. We visited a branch office of Grameen Shakti, where we saw the technology center and chatted with some of the employees. We then went to the home of one of the customers of Grameen Shakti. Grameen Shakti installs solar panels on the roofs of people in villages, which can be especially helpful because the electricity is so unreliable in rural Bangladesh. Solar panels seemed so out of place on top of this small house in a rural village, but it does make some sense- they have plenty of solar energy in Bangladesh. We also saw some of the other projects of Grameen Shakti, including improved cooking stoves and biogas fuel. These projects were interesting, but the more interesting part of this visit to me was to see the houses of some villagers that were not recipients of Grameen Bank microcredit loans. Grameen Shakti and Grameen Bank are completely separate, so the people that are customers of Grameen Shakti are not necessarily members of Grameen Bank, so most of the customers have much more money than the other villagers that I have met through my visits to the Grameen bank branch offices. I enjoyed seeing the nice houses in the villages, and I especially enjoyed relaxing in one of these houses because there was a fan and the walls were made of mud instead of tin, so the temperate was ALMOST bearable inside.  

 

We then visited Grameen Kalayan, so we toured a Grameen Health Care clinic. The doctor there was very young and seemed to have a lot of great ideas for the clinic, but I was discouraged when I asked him what his plans for the future were- he seemed pretty ready to get out of the village and move to a city. I assumed that this would be his response, and I think it is pretty typical for doctors in developing countries to get some experience in a rural village, and then immediately move to the cities for a better lifestyle and more money. Still, I was glad to hear that villagers do have access to physicians for a small fee. They also give villagers the option to purchase a card for a yearly fee, which allows them to see the doctor for just tk15, which is about 20 cents- a very simplified form of health insurance. It seemed as though the clinic was doing a lot of things that were pretty inefficient. For example, there was a staff of about 8 people in the clinic and they said that they see around 20 patients per day. It could be argued that this low turnover allows for improved patient care, but it doesn’t make much economic sense. The staff members also go to Grameen Bank center meetings and tell the borrowers about their services, but for some reason, they do not do any health care education programs?

 

On Wednesday, I’m going to interview borrowers at an unsuccessful branch office. I’m really excited for this- I haven’t heard anything negative about Grameen from staff members since I got here, so I was surprised that they arranged this visit. This branch has a low repayment rate and a high rate of “flexible loan” borrowers. A flexible loan borrower is someone who has paid back less than 50% of her loan after 6 months, and so the terms of her loan are revised. She then has longer to repay the loan, so the installments are smaller.  

 

To end on a lighter note, it’s my birthday on Wednesday!!! 

Also, this picture has nothing to do with the rest of this post, but I think it's amusing. This was taken at the fort we went to in Old Dhaka. Notice the slums in the background. So typical of Dhaka...