Magical Microfinance Tour # 1

So the day has come. The season of overeating is done. The bay at Bondi has been swum one last time and it’s off to Dhaka to visit Grameen. So. What do I expect to find? An organisation alive with vital energy, a strong balance sheet and 8 million members! A mature business looking to its future after surviving and thriving for 30 years. A family of companies making huge contributions to the modernisation of Bangladesh, in telecoms, textiles and technology. A land where climate change is already a reality for millions who’ve left their villages for the city. A still new nation developing its way of being in the globalised world. A people experimenting with car free city centres and life beyond plastic bags. A lot of cricket! And then more cricket!! And so many things I cannot imagine. I expect to learn by the minute and have each expectation confirmed and confounded by turns. Time to drive from my life of luxury, this little anomalous pocket of comfort on the coast, to the anonymous airport and see what Bangladesh and the energy of its 150 million people has to teach me.