Change Yourself…Change The World.

Since I am posting every day now about Grameen Bank, I may as well continue.

Today I met with Grameen Capital Management, a Grameen Sister company that connects micro-finance institutions with capital markets. It goes along with Muhammad Yunus’s idea that poor people should have the right to have access to capitol markets, just as well as rich people do. I went in with three other interns- two of them economics majors, and one of them an accounting major. Pretty much everything that was talked about went over my head- stock dividends, debt-to-equity ratio, under-writing, discretionay and non-discretionay accounts- but I was really interested to hear about these terms and how they are applied to Grameen Bank. More and more I am realizing that having passion for poverty alleviation poverty is great- and that is the first step- but if you REALLY want to make a difference on a wide scale, you need to have a well-formulated plan, with lots of experience backing it up.  Everyone that works at Grameen Bank is very passionate about poverty alleviation and they have joined because they want to help people- but before that, they were statistics teachers, investors, business executives, economics professors- and they are all using their back round experience to help lift the world out of poverty.

I have always wanted to take economics and business classes, but I have never had the opportunity with the schools I have gone to. Grameen Bank is my opportunity to learn all of these terms, and how they apply to poverty alleviation. It is the best education I could ever ask for.

I got my internship with Grameen Solutions, a sister company that promotes technological advances in the most rural areas of the world. I can’t wait to start working with them July 1st. For now, I am having a truly fantastic and amazing experience in Bangladesh and I know that I will continue to for the rest of the time that I am here. I am so happy.

Much love,

Brittany

First off, a little about Bangladesh.
Today, I watched a toddler get hit by a car on the highway. We were driving by so I didn’t get to see the aftermath (I think he was okay), but it was an absolutely shocking thing to see. The roads and cars here are unbelievable and dangerous. Interns have told me they’ve gotten into car accidents at least 3 or 4 times in the month they’ve been here. With India, it is different- they drive just as wildly there, but they always manage to stop half a second before hitting something. In Bangladesh, these cars just plow on through.
Bangladesh is incredibly, incredibly hot. You cannot spent 30 seconds outside without sweating profusely. This is not just because I’m foreign- all of the Bengalis are sweating bullets too. Every time I finally peel off my clothes at the end of the night, it feels as though I had jumped into a swimming pool. Also, the amount of water I consume here is insane. On average, I’ve been drinking 4 Liters of water a day. As for the food, my body is having a really hard time adjusting to it even though I am sticking to the safest options. Grameen Bank has a deal with a really nice hotel where interns can stay there for much cheaper than the normal price. Even the food from this restaurant in the hotel has given me the runs nonstop for three days, and an unhappy stomach.
Excuse me for the graphic and probably unnecessary details. I am just trying to give a picture of what it is like trying to adjust to the life here in Bangladesh. Truthfully, it may sound horrible to everyone who is reading this, but I love it here. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve went through all of these problems traveling in India and maybe it reminds me of the amazing experience I had with Carpe Diem… but it’s pretty cool for me to not be bothered by the fact that I’m sweating buckets every day, facing stomach cramps and pink eye and cockroaches in the hotel room, and I am totally comfortable with the situation. It reminds me of how far I’ve come from the person I was a mere two years ago.
Today I bought material for my first salwar kameez. In Bangladesh it is the most common clothing worn by women, and it is also widely worn in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. I have refrained from buying a sari or a salwar kameez when I was in India, but I decided it was high time I get myself one (partly because I have no appropriate clothes for Bangladesh anyway- you have to cover your legs and shoulders here since it is a conservative Muslim society). I wanted to get it done the real way instead of just buying a ready-made one in the store- I wanted to buy material and then get it tailored. After hours of searching, I finally found the right cloth. They come out tomorrow- hope it looks fabulous.

On to Grameen Bank.
Grameen Bank is astounding. I honestly feel that I am having an experience as amazing as my first trip to India with Carpe Diem in 2008. I am learning so much here it is unbelievable- I feel as if I’ve taken a crash course in micro-finance for the past two days. I feel that a whole new world has suddenly been opened up to me, and I am trying to absorb every single detail that I can, while I can. Today we (some interns along with my coordinator, Mr. Kabir) went to visit a branch in a rural village 50 km outside of Dhaka. We went to visit a center meeting and met Grameen borrowers (the poor people in Bangladesh who are taking out loans from Grameen Bank), drank sprite, played with the children, and asked all kinds of questions to borrowers about what they do with their loans. It was quite an eye-opening experience. The level that Grameen Bank works at is so intricate, covers so many areas, and helps so many people in all aspects of their life. They are not just a bank that the poor can borrow from, but they also provide savings accounts with high interest rates, advice on businesses to start, information on health and education, higher education loans for borrower’s children, and a much longer comprehensive list of things that they offer to Grameen borrowers.

Truthfully, I am so lucky and happy to be working here, and I am so happy I made the decision to come here. I am so interested in micro finance, and working with Grameen Bank is a dream come true on so many levels. Speaking of which, I might be meeting Muhammad Yunus on Thursday!!

If you come to Grameen Bank with a plan and an agenda, and are constantly on top of your coordinator getting him to coordinate events for you; if you ask questions at every turn about loans and savings accounts and premiums; if you are willing to get up at 6:45 AM and get back at 7:30 PM… then Grameen Bank will be an absolutely, jaw-droppingly, beautiful discovery for anyone that wants to learn about micro-finance, banking, or business. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I am so proud to be working here and learning here.

I am also very proud of my negotiating skills. Instead of sitting around like all of the other new interns are, tomorrow I am meeting with a Grameen sister company, Grameen communications, and on Wednesday I am visiting another sister company, Grameen Shakti (energy), and on Thursday I am meeting with Grameen Trust (a micro-finance replication company for MFIs all over the world) and possibly Muhammad Yunus. On Saturday I leave for a four day stay at a two star branch in a rural village in Bangladesh. I can’t believe how amazing the next week is going to be.

Sorry these posts have all been so long. I have only conveyed about 3% of my day to you, that is how intense it is here. I am loving every second of it.

Much love,
Brittany

Dear friends,

Today was my first day as an intern at Grameen Bank. I hope every single day is like the one I had today! I don’t know how to condense everything that I have done and learned today into a short story to relay back to you. What I CAN say is, Grameen Bank is an amazing institution, and in my opinion they most definitely deserved the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Of course, I am coming away from my first day as an intern where they spoonfeed you how amazing Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus is. But truthfully, just even the ideas themselves are amazing and completely innovative, and I truly believe that Grameen Bank does EVERYTHING in the best interest for the poorest people in Bangladesh.

Today I met a whole bunch of interns, walked around the Grameen headquarters, met with Janat (Head of the International Program department and one of the starters of Grameen Bank- she is mentioned in Muhammed Yunus’s book ‘Banker to the Poor,’), met with my coordinator, and went over all of the basics of Grameen Bank. It is amazing that almost all of the people I have met that work for Grameen Bank have been there for over 20 years. Today my awesome coordinator, Humayum Kabir, went into great detail about Grameen Bank and answered all of my questions about micro finance. I have come to respect him a lot in only one day because of the thoroughness of his answers, and his will to make me understand terms I had never heard before (for example, Grameen Bank borrowers pay 20% interest back on their loans at a declining rate for one year- which means that they actually pay a 10% flat rate. Kabir spent about half an hour explaining to me what this means). I feel that I’ve gotten an amazing education today.

However, with that being said, it was all my own doing. I had heard experiences from other interns last night- how coordinators take weeks to set up appointments that is just a simple phone call, that most of the interns just hang around all day waiting for something to do… that some of them just check in the morning and then leave the rest of the day… well, that is not what I came to Grameen Bank to do. I came here to learn about micro finance, and to have an amazing experience, and no one is going to stand in my way of that. I had to deal some tough cards to the internship department today (fortunately I have been in developing countries for the past year so I know how to be insistent). If I hadn’t persisted that I be given a full orientation today and just gone with the flow, my day would have been from 10 AM-1 PM, like most of the other new interns. Instead, I made sure my day was from 10 AM- 6 PM; I facilitated all of the questions to Kabir which kept him explaining all of the types of loans and positions at Grameen Bank for two hours; I almost demanded an internship at Grameen Solutions after this week, because my friend who interned here last summer told me they have the best internship program- and I went to the Chief about it instead of my coordinator, who made sure it happened; and I battled with the internship coordinator head to let me go on a field trip tomorrow instead of ‘taking a day of rest from jet lag.’ What I am trying to convey here is, working at an organization like this, especially in SouthEast Asia, is not easy. You need to fight your way to get things done, but if you are persistent enough then they WILL be done. And I WILL have an amazing internship and I WILL learn a lot. I am sure of it. I feel that I came off as a highly persistent intern, but a gracious and deeply interested one- some one who is worth coordinating FOR.

I am so happy to be here learning about Grameen Bank and micro finance. I feel that this program is going to have a big impact on my future.

Until next time friends,
Brittany

This day has by far been the most unprepared I have ever been while traveling.

A) I had a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi, and Delhi to Dhaka, Bangladesh. I had approximately 20 minutes to change connections. The plane was delayed half an hour.
B) I did not have a boarding pass for my connecting flight, which meant that I would need to go through customs again, which would take another 20 minutes
C) There is only one flight a day from Delhi to Dhaka.

Guess who miraculously made it to Dhaka in the sweetest time crunch ever?

D) I had no idea what the name of the hotel I was staying at was.
E) I had no Thaka currency (Bangladesh money)
F) I had no money left to convert from USD to thaka, and I was told there were no ATMs in Dhaka.
G) I know absolutely no one in Bangladesh.

Guess who is chilling at the hotel after arguing down the cab ride to half the price, with plenty of money withdrawn, and a whole bunch of new friends that I randomly went out to dinner with?

The Grameen Bank internship… the way other interns describe their experiences are a…bit on the negative side… I start work tomorrow. I hope that I will do something productive with this month, and learn a lot.
It is so strange to think about where I was last night versus where I am now. Last night I was at a bar chilling out and smoking hookah with some Nepali friends. Tonight I was at a jazz restaurant in Bangladesh with seven new people I just met. Did all seven of us squeeze into a tiny taxi for the 40 minute ride home? Yes.

While Nepal is a more chilled-out India, I would say Bangladesh is like India on LSD. Excuse me for this random nonsensical post, as I am pretty much feeling like someone has slipped me some kind of drug right now… maybe it is because I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning thinking that there was no way I would find myself here, in this hotel, in Bangladesh by this time, and here I am- I have whole-heartedly jumped headfirst into the next phase of my life- Bangladesh, Grameen Bank, micro financing. Adjusting to my life is not an option.

Much love,
Brittany