Return to the motherland

As I watched the gorgeous landscape of Canada and northern Michigan pass by from the window of the plane on my last flight, I was not only giddy that I made it back, but also kept giggling because I thought of Sohel asking me about my "motherland" right before I left, hence the title of this post. He's in the middle of the back row in this picture of many of the people I will dearly miss from Bangladesh. Clearly I wrote the rest of this a week ago, but better late than never!

Back row (L-->R): Anis, Sohel, Salam; Front row (L-->R): Rabeya, Sufia, Me, Dr. Sabur

I’m on the way home now, sitting in the Bahrain airport. I just walked by a couple of guys in long white robes and the stereotypical head scarf with a sort of crown-rope to keep it in place (think Yasser Arafat). As I was passing them, a young girl (like 12) who was on my flight from Bangladesh said “These people are real?!” I couldn’t help smiling – I remember thinking the same thing when I was here the first time. Flying into this airport is interesting – there is a weird mix of varying degrees of conservative, traditional dress and extremely progressive dress (like skin tight jeans and shorts with skin tight diamond-studded shirts). In the café I’m sitting in right now the girl is also singing along to “I swear”, which just seems really out of place here. I am curious to know what Bahrain itself is actually like. I think the range of people in the airport might just be a product of Gulf Air operating so many flights linking Asia and Europe with stops here.

Anyway, my last days in Bangladesh were busy, but not really all that eventful. Yesterday I went to meet a man who I thought worked for a company called ACI that distributes a lot of pesticides in Bangladesh, but he turned out to work for the Bangladesh Fertilizer Association, which is more or less an extension of the government. I think I was the only one who didn’t know this going into the meeting. I really didn’t want to know about fertilizer, but asked a few questions anyway so as not to be rude. He referred me to another guy that works for Haychem, another pesticide company that works in Bangladesh. He also works closely with the government. They both painted a picture of a perfectly regulated agriculture system in which there couldn’t possibly be a black market. In fact, one of them incorrectly described a black market as just dishonest businessmen who would stockpile seasonally important products if there were a free market system for fertilizer and pesticides (there isn’t – the government allocates and distributes the major fertilizers and pesticides, although some micronutrient fertilizers are not controlled). So suffice it to say, I’m not sure how true their information was, and the pesticide expert also informed me that farmers use names of just a few pesticides to describe all of them (anything containing carbofuran, for example, is Furadan, even though there are several other products containing carbofuran).

I spent the rest of the last two days buying a few more gifts and packing all my stuff into a duffel bag and cardboard box. I hope the cardboard box stays in one piece all the way to Chicago! Shulma, Bilqis’s housekeeper/cook made me the most delicious chicken and pulao I’ve ever had for lunch, and later Sohel picked me up to go to the airport. I really like Sohel – he’s nice, and not in a creepy way, although sometimes in that sexist way that annoys the hell out of me but is perfectly ok in Bangladesh. His wife is pregnant with their first child, so he told me he would email me when he/she is born.

I’ve been very ready to get out of Bangladesh lately, but now that I’ve actually left it doesn’t seem real. I feel like I’m just going on a trip and I’ll be back in a few months or something. Maybe if I changed out of my salwaar kameez it would feel more real, but I just can’t put jeans back on yet – this is so much more comfortable! Well, I will be home in another 18 hours or so and I will see many of you then. It’s been a great trip, and I’m sure I could say more about it, but this will be all for the blog. I hope you enjoyed following me around Bangladesh, even if it was mostly just Dhaka. See you soon!