The tough Grameen Routine

Youngsters living in cities are definitely spoiled. They can afford the luxury of having a messed-up life. They can wake up at 4pm, eat lunch at 10pm and go to disco club for the rest of the night.

And this is exactly why the first few days in village for me are a little bit tough for me. I was told to wake up at 7am, have breakfast at 7:15am and start our village study at 7:45am. Life in village is simple but disciplined. Villagers, who mainly rely on agriculture, have to work all day before the sky turns dark.

There are virtually no night activities as there are not even street lights in villages. And there is not even a single computer in the branch office of Grameen Bank although the Branch office is supposed to be the most “modern” building in that area.

That’s why a color-TV became a luxurious item that draws everyone’s attention. In fact, watching TV is the only thing we could do when the dark came. The branch manager was nice enough to lend us the TV room for our stay. The existence of TV eased up a lot of anxieties of us staying in a village that has absolutely nothing to do.

And there are of course no meals other than Bangladesh cuisine. Our village stay was a constant bombardment of curry. The lucky thing for me was that rice is the basic source of starch for Bangla. For me, everything becomes amazing when it comes with rice. 

Our life is of course relatively easy since we are doing nothing more than observing. The real work of branch manager is much tougher.

In villages, 80 borrowers would be grouped into center. They are asked to carry repayment throughout regular and frequent center meetings. A main job for Branch managers is to travel from center to center to check the repayment status of borrowers. After using up their morning for 3~4 centre meetings, they have to go back to the Branch office and start spending their afternoon for disbursing new loans.This does not include countless home visits branch managers have to carry out everyday. 

All the meaningful Grameen activities happen in villages. When you sum up the work of branch managers you basically got the amazing work done by Grameen Bank. These branch managers themselves are usually master graduates. However, they are earning not more than 20000 taka ($250USD) a month.

And these managers are doing this with opportunity cost. If they choose to get into a commercial bank or State-owned bank, they can earn much prettier profit than 20000 taka. (Bribery is very common in this country) They can also sit in the air-conditioned offices rather than soaking sweats in the hot, dampy villages.

This is why there are a lot of things to be learnt in the village trip. It is not only about backward life. It is about a determined heart to help the poor by going deep into the poor.