Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!
We are sure going to miss those greetings as we walk to school everyday... or just walk out our front door. Kids, adults, elders, friends, colleagues- always quick to say an excited hi! when we walk past- and our response is an equal excited Hi! Hi! back. We are nearing the end of our trip here, seems just as surreal to be ending as it did to be starting. For nearly a year we planned and waited in anticipation as the date of departure neared, and now it is nearly complete. Mixed emotions and reflective thoughts fill a lot of our time here; have we completed what we set out do to do? Have we contributed to this cause? Have we left an impression that will help future students? Future nurses? Have we... did we... could have... should have? These are questions that we ask but know the answers will not be immediately found... and that is okay.
But onto the interesting parts...
What have the last 2 weeks been like? Well first of all we should have added "cockroaches" to our blog title. Luckily Heidi has a killer instinct (I know who would have thought) and tackles those little- although not little- buggers. The other night Ricki was approaching the sink with her pitcher of water- however was stopped in mid stride when a GIANT cockroach (they must have HGH-human growth hormone readily available here) was coming out of the sink. Literally paralyzed with fear... there was also one coming out of the drain hole of the sink... she screamed for Heidi... "What am I supposed to do about it?" Heidi replied. "Well I don't really know...." Ricki answered in fear "...provide morale support I suppose". Needless to say, Heidi rescued Ricki and there was no toothbrushing, face washing, or trips to the bathroom that night... and the sink holes remain plugged with grocery bags just to be safe.
Despite our clinical being cancelled we have tried to be as involved as possible with our colleagues clinical placements. We are little followers that tag along and are able to revel in the teaching opportunities with their group of students. And what a group they are! This group of 9 students are what really displays the potential success of the this program, and the impact that it could have on this country. These are only the 9 we have seen in clinical- but we know that previous students and our students one day have or had this influence as well. Mostly we have spent our time at CWCH- Centre for Women and Child Health located about 30 mins away from the University- or 20 minutes if you're riding in an off-road Evil Knevil style CNG. Nancy completes her Maternal Child clinical here every Friday. We have been lucky to be able to spend our time in the Paediatric/NICU area with the assigned students- teaching baseline assessment techniques, fluid requirements, and paediatric specific skills. The students take it in like sponges- eager to learn and so grateful to have the ability to (too grateful sometimes- it's our job!). Our focus remains on the students during these days... we have often come home with emotional conversations afterwards. CWCH represents the screaming need of quality nurses and improved education. It demonstrates even further the importance of the IUBAT Nursing Program and the journey it has ahead.
Last week we were invited to tour a garment factory just outside of Uttara. Mohammed, one of the directors of this company- called Lusaka Group provided us with the tour- he also lives nearby and has become quite good friends with Jim. As previously posted before, garments are the primary export of Bangladesh. Mohammed estimated that 30-40 million Bangladeshi's work in the garment industry... nearly the entire population of Canada! The factory was pretty interesting to see- none of us had ever been in a 'factory' before, or had seen anything mass produced, and we did not really know what to expect- we've all heard the horror stories, ethical debates, and recently the devastating fires in Bangladesh. But, during our tour we were pleasantly surprised. It is hard to make an actual conclusion of the garment factory business here in Bangladesh- like everything else, this industry is a clear 'grey zone'.
So here is what we did see: the factory was spacious, clean, well-lit, full of windows, there was a doctor's office with a full time nurse (the doctor comes once a week), first aid kits on every floor, fire exits, a large canteen area, and from what we could tell good ventilation. The volume of product and people was stunning. Each floor of the building- 7 in total, were designated with specific purposes- one floor: cutting and initial sewing, the next: sweaters only, the next: finishing and packaging, the next: ironing and T-shirts and so on. What was really interesting was the amount of men that were employed- initially we had thought that it would be predominantly females doing the 'sewing and ironing', but there was what looked to be a good mix of women and men working alongside each other in these type of labour roles. However, in the fabric dying area- it was a clear majority of men. From what we could see, it looked like any factory that could exist in North America (understand that this is strictly from an observational standpoint and we are well aware of why garment factories exist in Bangladesh). We are also fully aware that 'tours' of garment factories can be a rare occurrence- and even more uncommon was our ability to take photos.
The Lusaka Group produces sweaters, T-shirts (regular and collared), trousers, knitted tops, and other fabrics. Garment factories have the ability to produce certain types of clothing and companies seek them out to produce their designs and particular products. For instance- Disney and Roots (which we we saw there- kind of bizarre) hired Lusaka to produce their T-Shirts and placed their desired order- but if wanting to produce jackets would seek out a different factory. The garment business is expected to continue to increase in Bangladesh. Previously, China had been the 'go to' country, however with recent wage increases it is more expensive to produce there, and therefore the 'better business' is being sought out elsewhere. *Insert human rights and international regulations here* would be the continuation of this topic- something that you can refer back to the previous garment industry post.
As for the rest of the time we are wrapping up classes- actually held our last official class yesterday and we are preparing our final exams. We are very much addicted to cha- particularly condensed milk, in which we have recently added to our morning oatmeal (waistline look out!). And we are also continuing to finalize our Nepal and Malaysia details... more on this later.
More pictures to come. Love and miss you all so much.
Heidi and Ricki xo
