Abuse and Hartals

Don’t really have much to say for once. I’m back in Delhi. The gender based violence, monitoring and evaluation conference went well. The participants were happy and comprehending what we had to teach them...I figure that’s as close to success during a 3 day conference that we can hope for. It was a bit frustrating to see these upperclass people creating policies and programmes for women that have been abused...not really understanding what the needs of this group is...not really listening to the survivors that we forced them to bring to the conference.

There was a Hartal announced for the second day we were there (the first day of the workshop) and it lasted for the remainder of the workshop so, unfortunately, we couldn’t (and obviously had no reason) to leave the hotel. It was pleasant though - lots of long, wonderful and translucent conversations with my colleagues (2 of my favourite people that I work with and 1 girl from the regional office in New York). The nights got even better when we found out how to buy black-market beer even with the bans, strikes and riots. The hotel was magnificent-right up there with a “Super 8” in Alberta. It even had a bathtub a hairdryer that looked like a vacuum and those little bottles of bath bubbles, shampoo and lotion. I was living the high life. I didn’t’ see much of Dhaka except for the ride to and from the airport (we were lucky that the Hartal was suspended for a couple of days before it starts up again on the 3rd. - our Bangladeshi colleagues were toying with the fact of making us ride in an ambulance to the airport to deter rioters) There was a bit more drama and much more politics ravelled into my trip but I’m tired and busy, upset about Nepal. One of my colleagues (the same colleague that was in the Maldives for the Tsunami) is stuck in Nepal…without phone, flights or internet we have no idea how he is doing. Mmmmm

Take care guys and email me sometime!

Michelle