Some Thoughts

dear friends,
I first have to apologize for my absence in the past days. I came down with a touch of food poisoning last week, which, as my brother who experienced it last year in Bangladesh can attest, is not an enjoyable experience. Also, we have been having some major internet connectivity problems, which are now fixed (fingers crossed).
I have been thinking a lot about my life here in this country. Like most places in the world, being successful in Bangladesh is about who you know and who wants to help you out. So I spend a lot of my time talking with wealthy, important people, trying to build relationships that may be useful in the work of Basic Needs. At the same time, I spend a large part of my time with the most poor sectors of society, slum dwellers, village children, and orphans. Life here can take on a surreal, schizophrenic quality.
Let me give an example. The other day I took a trip to Bashundhara City, a towering structure of glass and steel which claims to be the largest shopping mall in all of South Asia. Here you can eat foreign food, buy fancy electronics, or catch an American movie in the cinema. Contrast this with the young girl I met on my way home. She was standing unprotected in the rain, weaving between cars so that she could sell little flowers to the people inside. I asked her name and gave her the typical greetings in Bangla, to which she reacted with a broad, beautiful smile. Before the motorcycle taxi moved on, I clicked a couple pictures of her through the metal gate.
That picture is, to me, emblematic of the problem. I am on the inside, protected and dry, and she is on the outside, soaking wet. It seems that, in this country, both sides accept this reality as par for the course. They seem not even to consider it a problem. But, as an outsider, I have a special position in that I can move between these worlds, and see them both intimately.
You know, I once heard a saying that the only logical response to the realities of life is insanity. Life can be vicious and absurd, and the moment we come to accept this is the moment we can work against this. One Bengali man recently heard about my project and called me an "ambassador of God." This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while, but it also makes me think. Perhaps part of our role in Basic Needs is to help remind Bengalis themselves of their inherent power to change their system, to get out from behind their gates and to spend time with normal people. If they did, they might discover what a treasure Bangladesh has in its citizens.