A Small Appetizer for an Amazing Meal

After a day in Dhaka, in central Bangladesh, we made the six-hour journey by van to Rangpur in the northwest. Here we find the North Bengal Institute, a training facility of RDRS-the localized rendition of LWF Bangladesh. With an 11-year history as a localized agency, RDRS has much to commend it.

Besides 2,500 staff and 2,000 volunteers, there’s the RDRS guesthouse in Dhaka where we were warmly welcomed and generously fed, and then there’s the North Bengal Institute where “warm welcome” is hardly adequate to describe our reception. There must be a secret to such sweet watermelon juice, but Aslam’s not telling. There’s nothing Aslam wouldn’t do to make our stay comfortable. A former chef, Aslam is better suited to the public life, but knows all the secrets of a good kitchen.

We’d had a big breakfast in Dhaka and stopped en route for a snack, so on arrival at 3:30 Aslam had prepared “a small lunch”-rice, curried fish, curried chicken, stir-fried potatoes and greens, mixed vegetables, and fresh mango. We’re expected back for dinner in four hours.

Accommodation is very comfortable: a good sized room with twin beds, a TV, a heated shower, and the only in-room internet connection(!). And not forgetting anything, a vase for the stems of flowers we were presented on arrival.

We’re most anxious to see the training room and once again Aslam is ahead of us. The room is set; the bottled water is at the ready; the candy dishes will be filled within minutes. Is there anything else we need?
Vuthy would rather not have the tables and chairs set this way, but I’m happy with the U-shape. Vuthy wants the extra tables taken away, but Aslam and I would like room for guests at the opening ceremonies. Vuthy wants the curtains pulled, but Marcus likes the tropical view. We knew this before, but here’s further evidence that our styles are different!

The next morning shows it in spades! Vuthy is the quintessential effervescent Trainer. There’s no energizer he doesn’t know and he moves the participants through their paces. He sets up daily teams to attend to energizers, daily evaluation, and daily summary, something we aren’t familiar with, but obviously the participants are. (These daily teams take an unexpected half-hour bite from the beginning and end of each day.)

Before the first team is launched on its opening energizer, Marcus pulls us back to the agenda. He’s to begin the day with icebreaker introductions-a great technique learned in a CUSO session and carried around the world for the past 17 years. Marcus begins with an easy one: line up by height, shortest to tallest. The trick is giving our height-half know it in feet and inches and the rest in metric, so both answers are allowed. Even so, places have to be switched as we round the circle.

Marcus’s next challenge is for us to line up alphabetically by family name. This bumps into cultural traditions as well as demonstrates uncertainty with the English alphabet. Some young adults in caste-based societies (India and Nepal) are no longer using their father’s or husband’s “title” (as they call it) because it indicates caste and they are trying to develop a more open society. Some Bangladeshis appear to go by their surname; and of course the Cambodians name family first and then given name. Our nametags identify us as “Margaret” and “Marcus” so that confuses those looking for Bs and Ss. This time as we round the circle, L ends up before most of the Ks(?).

This also provides opportunity to listen to accents in a non-threatening way. The Indian, Nepali, and Bangladeshi accents are quite similar. And, I find, more familiar to our ears than the Cambodian accent. South Asian refugees and immigrants have brought that lilting English to Canada.

And so begins our four-day workshop on communications and rights-based advocacy with the four LWF country programs in Asia, cooperating under a network called AZEECON.

There are many challenges in the four days, not the least of which is a result of poor communication between the facilitators. Yikes! AND me having to follow the Ultimate Trainer who has upstaged me with his talent AND content on Day One!

We’ve spent a lot of time analyzing what happened and today’s theory is that Asians learn by rote and train in a related way. The questions asked indicate the right answer. “Which is better then, the rights-based approach or the needs-based approach?” My “nominal group technique” sets up situations in which there is no right answer. I had to explain a task repeatedly, until I couldn’t believe the requests for clarification.
The workshop was saved by a field visit on Wednesday although jeopardized somewhat by an assignment from me to create a communications tool for an issue requiring advocacy after visiting an appointed stakeholder group (youth, women, village development committee, local government representatives). Thursday morning, after Marcus’s debriefing exercise for the field trip, the teams presented their communication tools. I evaluated the tools first on communications merit and then Vuthy spoke to the advocacy effectiveness. (This time, I think I stole some of his thunder!)

As usual, we are greatly impressed by the staff of LWF-this time sampling India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The India program is about a year ahead of Cambodia in the localization process. Enthusiastic, dedicated, and full of good humour, the participants are a delight to meet and Marcus grills them over meals so that we learn as much as we can about each country.

And so today, we have followed the rail lines and power lines (another indication that we’re in a former British colony: infrastructure) back across the flood plain to Dhaka by van. The traffic is unnerving, particularly for the front-seat passenger. The highway (at one point crossing the Jamama River on a 5-km toll bridge) is bordered by rice paddies-no surprise, but even the Cambodians note the variety of other crops-long beans and other unfamiliar green vegetables, taro and other root crops, pumpkins, banana, bamboo, and jute. Using crop rotation, the fields provide three crops a year throughout the country’s six seasons.

Back at the RDRS Dhaka guesthouse, we have eight hours to wait until our 1:20 am flight to Kuala Lumpur. I’ve chosen to stay here and write rather than shop. And I’ve written just the smallest appetizer for the amazing meal that it was!

We hope your appetite is whetted to hear more about Bangladesh.

Donnabad,
Margaret and Marcus, back in Phnom Penh