Sylvia's Journal

I am wearing my Nepali shalwar kameez. It is a little out of fashion here. I am not sure whether this is because it is from another country or whether the shalwar kameez fashion has simply changed everywhere since I bought it four years ago. The hemlines are way up and I feel like an old maid in a calf-length skirt amidst miniskirts. I learned years ago that here, just as in the west, the hemline defines how fashionable you are. At that time I was out of fashion in the opposite direction (I wore a hip-length top when everyone else’s top was down to the calves). I figure one day I will get it just right.

I started the day blowing a fuse in my room and thus had to shower in the dark. But my computer was on another circuit and Axel greeted me enthusiastically via Skype; it was 6:30 AM for me and 7:30 PM on the previous night for him. It was a nice start of the day.

It took us 2 hours to get from my hotel to the retreat place which is not all that far outside Dhaka. Savar used to be a rural area but now textile factories are being built closer and closer and with that populations move. It is semi-urban now and will soon be urban judging from the construction.

When I walked into the room reserved for us it was set up in U-shape with a power point as the central feature. For a moment my heart sunk – it is hard to dismiss the person who was planning to present the first powerpoint. After a brief formal opening I asked permission and forgiveness to dispense with the powerpoints (this is always a gamble) and was met with enthusiastic cheers. And so we dropped all the presentations and followed the day as I had designed it. From then on it was easy to facilitate the group.

For the first time in 5 years these two parties were sitting together around a table, one a famous cholera research center, the other the school of public heallth. We spent the day around 2 challenges; the morning we studied the quality of the MPH program using data in people’s heads as well as formal evaluations; in the afternoon we studied the upcoming ‘marriage’ as one centre moves in with the other by the end of the year by looking at identities and then, in small groups, explore hopes and worries about the union. The union/marriage metaphor was fun to play with (dowries, in-laws) and also because I got to quote Obama often about a more perfect union. The nice thing is that everyone understands this language which is now suffused with hope.

We canceled the dinner in exchange for a lunch at some later point in time because everyone wanted to get on the road. The trip back out also takes hours again. I had a private tour of the trainging and resource center and then we joined the rush hour which we interrupted at ‘Coffee World’ in a crowded Dhaka street for an Americano and more talk about BRAC, facilitation and succession planning (BRAC has now completed that process successfully). By the time our coffee was finished the traffic had eased and we made it to the hotel quickly.

I ordered another Thala in my room which was delivered by Alexander Rosario. I asked the waiter about his rather unBangladeshi name. As it turned out he is from the Portuguese diaspora (way back he indicated by pointing far behind his shoulder). I wonder if this was a group of Inquisition refugees who moved East rather than North to Amsterdam centuries ago. I’d love to know that family’s story.