Empowering (Day 2)

Today started with a 6:30am run. I was very happy that my running suggestion was well received by Sally (a fellow American woman who has spent a lot of time in Bangladesh off and on since the founding of the country and GK in 1972). She gave me a route through the compound. It allowed me to run around the beautiful lake and by GK workers' homes. Running ahead of Sally and Maureen gave me a serene time to think while exploring the compound. My favorite part was the quick gathering of Bangladeshi children I attracted. This of course turned my morning jog into a fartlek workout (for those non-runners out there just know that my jog was interrupted by short sprint races the children found very entertaining). The boys would wait for me each time I circled around the giant campus loop with sly beaming faces, a thumbs up by me and the sprints would begin. The boys only lasted a minute or so before tiring out. This was probably due to many reasons: they were younger than me, they don't get as much protein or a daily multivitamin like I do, they don't have loads of free time to spend hours training, etc. Plus there isn't a very big running culture here in Bangladesh overall - but with the smog, dust, not too mention 200% humidity year-round can you blame them? I steam like my own personal sauna after finishing a 5 mile run and it takes a lot of little pep talks to myself each morning to keep following the  full body covering if you're a woman rule.
However, despite the humidity and uncomfortable clothes, each lap the kids' enthusiasm energizes me. My pride also gets a little boost (yes they're only 5-10 year olds and so yes I should have probably let them win). But the favorite part of my run today was towards the end when a little girl joined me. She didn't make me sprint like the group of young boys. Instead, with a beautiful smile spread from ear to ear she happily kept pace with me all the way back to the compound. Whenever she would start to tire a bit and slow down, all it would take is an encouraging smile and thumbs up from me for her to pick back up again. With this encouragement and good pace she lasted a lot longer and withstood the humidity a lot more stoically than the young boys (clearly girls are tougher/ stronger).

This 10 minutes of a morning jog with this girl was a very small piece of my eventful second day here - my professor had her purse stolen (my wallet was in it - so I lost some cash, credit cards, identity, etc). In addition, I met a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and sat through sessions on how to improve primary health care in Bangladesh and worldwide. Yet, this girl sticks in my mind more than my stolen wallet. More than the wonderful people who run GK (they contacted a past advocate/ current lawyer to do an investigation, gave us gifts and money to apologize, and made sure our every need was tended to). I think its because this girl gives me hope for developing nations as a whole. She represents the strength of the women who I have met here and during my trips to Haiti too. She lasted longer than the boys and did so with a stoic smile - more than I can say for a lot of runners and she was only a kid.
It gives me hope knowing how much GK stresses the empowerment of women. They train illiterate village girls to become Community Health Workers. They give shy young women the education to become paramedics (the equivalent to America's PA's). In an area of the world where women do not hold as many rights as I am blessed with in the US, it helps me sleep better at night knowing GK is working to change it all. These girls get an education, are told to speak their mind, and given the independence to go into villages by themselves to provide the health care these people need. It gives me hope that the CHI group I go to Haiti with might be as successful with its CHW program. A hope that someday a bunch of foreign white people won't have to go around the world to provide medical care to people of developing nations. That someday I might visit these places and just sit back and watch as the strong empowered women of the area provide all the medical care that is needed. It's not going to happen overnight, but in the meantime I can sleep better knowing the future of the GK medical care system lies in the hands of strong, stoic, beaming, runner girls like the one I met this morning.