p.r.bullen - travelogue

women's development project, south of chittagong A British woman, Jane * , was living there, and she took us around to several of the smaller villages nearby, driving through the rice paddies. Most of the projects we saw there were women's motivational groups that double as sort of a mutual savings society (like Savings & Loans).

Aingeal asked each of the women that you see here their names, what they did, how many children they had, etc. The Bangladeshi aid worker who was interpreting for us was amazing, not just translating but he also asked them other questions, the kind of follow-up questions you'd naturally ask -- or, as is often the case, wish you had thought to ask. Some of the women had unbelievable numbers of children for their ages. There was a lot of giggling. At the end, the women asked if Aingeal was married, where her husband was (right there, coincidentally), how many children we had, why we didn't have any, etc. They'd be pleased, I think, to hear that we're to be parents next month (I write in May, 1999).

* I hope I remember her name correctly! That's her on the right