Thicker than water…

In general there are 3 kinds milk in Bangladesh.  UHT, powered and
fresh.  UHT is the Ultra-high temperature processing which allows milk
to be kept at room temperature while sealed, powdered milk which I
think most of us are familiar with, although it still has the fats.
Fresh milk, comes from Dudh wallahs, or milk men, who go around on
their bicycles with a plastic bucket full of warm milk.  Milk power
seems to be taking over the market to the frustration of people
milking cows.  My coworker Jodi tells me that it has to do with the
high food prices in 2008 and the government started allowing the
import of powered milk.  Apparently a lot of rejected milk power from
other countries gets imported in bulk and repackaged in Bangladesh.

I tend to drink a lot of milk in the US, but in Bangladesh I only use
milk in things, like tea and coffee or cereal.  The problem with UHT
and powered is the taste, and the problem with the fresh milk is that
it get’s watered down.  When I went to LAMB hospital in Dinajpur a few
months ago I was thinking through these issues.  Latometers are a
common way of testing the specific gravity of milk and by extension
quality.  I got to talking to some of the staff there some of whom
have been in Bangladesh for a very long time, wondering whether
introducing lactometer’s would have any impact on the situation. The
first observation was that the word for accountablity doesn’t exist in
Bangla.  The second was that in the old math education curiculum was
the following math question.  If you have enough milk for 4 customers,
but have 5, how much milk do you need to add?

Bogra is famous for it’s sweet yogurt or mishti dui as it’s called.
Daniel makes his own yogurt and was having problems getting it to set
because of the water.  He started using UHT milk and that sets up
well, but he asked an old dui maker how to find good milk.  The rather
disparaging response was that it was all bad.  Jeamon manush, teamon
dudh – As the people, so the milk.

or Digital Bangladesh – why my computer is in Hanoi

Ethos, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, is defined as “the characteristic spirit, prevalent tone of sentiment, of a people or community; the ‘genius’ of an institution or system.” The current ethos in Bangladesh is that of “Digital Bangladesh”‚–what Bangladesh needs to be a modern thriving country is to be Digital. So when I read the paper every day I see the new policies which the government is implementing as part of the new “Digital Bangladesh.” Some of these ideas seem noble and others just seem to be off the deep end.

I’ve mentioned the power problems in Bangladesh. One thing the government tried to reduce electricity consumption was to implement Daylight Savings Time. Seems simple, change your clocks and take advantage of longer days. It hasn’t gone well. There are many reasons for this, but mostly because it wasn’t really understood. The first problem is that some people didn’t change. Others, like the bus companies, changed their clocks but also changed their schedules so there was no real change. The remainder actually moved their patterns forward, but the end result was confusion and people started asking whether events would take place at “Digital time” or old time. However, even asking that question wasn’t a guarantee of success. Buses and meetings often start an hour late. Our office in Bogra changed our clocks, kept with the government schedule and after a few days of confusion things were sorted out and seemed to run relatively smoothly.

Aside from the logistical challenges, another problem is ‘Digital time’ isn’t so easy to deal with in the Digital world. Most electronics keep time based on Greenwich time and an offset and know nothing of politics in Bangladesh. I’ve had to set all my gadgets(computers, phone, etc.) to the Hanoi, Vietnam time zone so I can get the “correct” time. Daylight savings time was supposed to end September 30, however the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was out of the country and as a result the switch didn’t happen. The latest news is that we’re going to stay in this new time zone because they can’t figure out how to move back. With the shorter days this makes 8:00am seem very early for office hours.

In Bogra, we changed our office hours. Ek lafe tal gache ota jae na – One doesn’t climb a palm tree in one jump.

To every thing there is a season, turn, turn turn. Bangladesh is one of MCC’s oldest projects. There’s a plaque in the Dhaka commemorating the first volunteer in West Bengal back in 1946. At one point MCC Bangladesh had over 300 National staff and something like 70 Expatriate service workers or Bideshi’s, but a few years ago MCC switched to the partner model in Bangladesh, the budget remained the same, but staff contracted. National staff was reduced to more like 80 and the Bideshi group shrank to less than 10. One of the side effects was that a lot of the research MCC was dried up. The reason my position was created was to restart the appropriate technology program and is part of a larger agenda of trying new ideas. At this point, officially my language study is over, and officially I’ve started my work. The reality is that I still have a lot of Bangla to learn and I’m living in the office infested with mosquitos while building a place to work and live.

In the last year REAP has moved from Jolchatro to Bogra, and in the process gone from a small office to taking over a 4 story apartment building which they added a classroom on the top of. There isn’t a workshop here though and as a result the decision was made to rent some land in a village about 9km from the Main office, this would become the site for Adarsho Kamar Bari (adarsho – ideal, kamar bari – farm), a sustainable technology workshop and some Bideshi housing. I mentioned before how I ended up designing it as a result I have been throw into making a lot of decisions very quickly. This month was broken up by a retreat amidst the tea farms Srimongol and an unexpected tool buying trip in Dhaka, but now most days I ride out by motorcycle to go supervise and spend time with the workers. This is a stretch for my Bangla, but I can generally get my point across and understand the questions I’m asked. There are a few people who can speak English in the office but I’ve found that but for a few exceptions I’m generally defaulting into Bangla. Still not having a permanent residence after 6 months of transition might seem like a stressful situation and it is, but so far I’m really enjoying what we’re doing and that helps. The new buildings use hollow block make with a form of green cement which unlike portland cement doesn’t need to fired. Our roofing tiles are made from the same material. We’ve built a ginourmous rainwater collection tank and right now I’m working to nail down the details of an artificial wetland or “living machine” to purify our blackwater. Adarsho Kamar Bari has a biogas digestor captures methane from cow manure and while possibly a little large, but will hopefully give us biogas for cooking. We’ve probably made some mistakes in the process, but we’ve tried a lot of innovative ideas for our own way of living and some just might translate into village life. Kemon Achen? Ekano ami besto. – _Still_ I am busy.