International House of Iftar

As my fellow interns return to England this week for classes, I am left with two more months to fill with research and adventures. Truly, one of the most rewarding aspects of being in Bangladesh these past three weeks has been getting to know these amazing people I have the pleasure of calling my peers. Not only have I enjoyed their company, but I’ve learned about tackling the world’s problems from different perspectives (economics, education, human rights). In three weeks the intense conversations we’ve had and absurd situations we’ve been in have brought us together in ways that we’ll never experience again. Living and working in Bangladesh has changed us all in completely unique ways, and I’m glad to have shared some time with all of you.

The departure of my intern friends is sad, but the nature of a 3-month internship is that you enjoy the time you have with people. Shouldn’t it be that way for life in general? Sometimes I forget this. Anyway, old friends depart and new ones appear in your path, or are randomly interrogated by me about the legitimacy of the American Club and coincidentally happen to be a fellow biochemist. Imagine the frustration of trying to do gel electrophoresis when the electricity shuts down twice a day, or when you are lacking crucial reagents: “A friend of a friend is bringing some methanol from Chittagong next week.” Sketch.

So enough of the sappy sentiments. High points of the past week: talking about women’s empowerment with a group of women agriculture extension workers, cooler weather, cheap pearl earrings and movies (one dolla!), a three-hour lunch at the American Club and relaxing swims and an evening out at the Bagha Club (ending in a bizarre game of darts where a drunken Scot decided on the rules and my only instructions were, “Hit the small seventeen!” which I was told about 12 times and while being conditioned to respond to simply “M”), and meeting more Bangladeshis. We had a cross-cultural going-away party for my friends, which we brilliantly named “International House of Iftar” and we all prepared our favorite food. This included veggie “fajitas,” bruschetta, mango-pineapple salsa (prepared by yours truly and surprisingly embraced by Bangladeshis, but this should come as no surprise based on my family’s fondness for fruit salad in hot chili sauce), and our favorite desserts (we managed to veto the British “puddings”) of chocolate cupcakes, cookies (from the American Club, since we don’t have stoves here), and of course jilapi.

Low points are continued bug bites, a rickshaw ride from hell, coming down with the flu for a day, getting increasingly frustrated with American politics, being extremely sad about missing out on PowerVoting and other activism but so happy for its success, anxiously deliberating graduate school options, and boredom at work. As promised last week, here’s the down-low on my internship:

The purpose of my internship is to write a report on the socioeconomic impacts of hybrid rice, which has much higher yields than traditional rice (rice is a staple food of Bangladesh and rice farming is one of the most common occupations here). I’ve done some preliminary interviews with researchers, seed distributors, farmers, and agriculture extension workers but in two weeks I’ll be doing extensive interviews with farmers and their wives in an area of Bangladesh that was hit by Cyclone Sidr last year. BRAC distributed hybrid rice seed to farmers there as a relief effort but this has caused some controversy, since hybrid rice is more expensive, can’t be replanted, and is rumored to decrease soil fertility. I’m also interested in how this is affecting rural women, who do all of the post-harvest work (though based on my interviews so far, women are the ones who actually convince their husbands to grow hybrid rice- they are the confident, socially astute mediators between the worlds of male-dominated research and male-dominated field work). I’ve gotten myself into kind of an absurd position where I’m taking on a big project for the world’s largest NGO, my supervisor is the Executive Director (2nd in command) of BRAC and also a social scientist who has extensively studies high yielding rice, and I have absolutely no social science field research experience. But my confidence has been increasing as I realize how much background research I’ve done in the past few years, how I have great resources back at MSU to help me, and lastly how I was chosen for this position and that I have the motivation to do the best I can. My own eagerness to get into the field almost resulted in me being sent to a coastal town, a 9-hour drive (minimum) and 3 ferry rides away (which aren’t known for being the most reliable form of transportation), for a week with a “translator” who actually can’t speak English. I had to bail last minute, prolonging my boredom at work, but I would have accomplished nothing without the ability to communicate. If nothing else, I will leave here having learned something- whether it’s what to do or what not to do- about social research.

Last thoughts of the day:

It turns out Bangladesh is only the 10th most corrupt country. Something I’ve learned while here is that although Bangladesh is in the need of serious institutional reform in all aspects of life (politics, education, health, environment), it could be worse. We decided there were probably about 10-15 countries that were worse to live in than Bangladesh, in terms of violence, instability, and standard of living.