Aiy Rickshaw!

So, as was mentioned in the previous post, rickshaws are a major part of life in Bangladesh. This is true for us personally as well. We start every morning with a rickshaw ride to Atticus’ school, then to our class, and then again to his school to pick him up. We also frequently take a rickshaw out to market or to go out to eat. The point is we have a lot of interactions with rickshaw-wallahs (pullers, drivers, whatever you want to call them). Usually Sam is either arguing with them about the fare or overpaying them by a ridiculous amount in order to avoid the argument or because it was extra hot, or rainy, or some other thing pulled on her heartstrings…

One morning after our usual ride to school in the morning the rickshaw-wallah wouldn’t take our usual fare and demanded more. Despite Sam’s insistence (she is usually a very good bargainer) that we pay the same price every morning he wouldn’t take the fare. The interference of the school guard wouldn’t sway him either. Finally, after Jon lost his patience and tried telling him in nonsensical Bangla and English “you can take the fare or take nothing” (making a zero with his hands) and Sam’s more rational and sensible insistence he took the fare. This made us realize how nice it would be to have a regular rickshaw-wallah so we wouldn’t have to haggle every morning.

So, on a related note, ever since coming to Bangladesh (and even before) Sam has wanted to buy a rickshaw for a rickshaw-wallah because most of them rent the rickshaw and never save enough to buy their own. About a third of their daily earnings goes to paying rent on the rickshaw, (which we had heard before and we recently confirmed with an English speaking rickshaw-wallah.) It costs 80 taka a day to rent the rickshaw and most earn between 200-300 taka in fares, so it is a big expense to pay the rent. A rickshaw costs about 10,000-12,000 taka (around 140 USD) but rickshaw-wallahs live so close to the margin, the reality of saving up that much is just never going to happen for most guys. So they shell out a large portion of their pay everyday just on rent. So, since our first day here Sam has been on the lookout for a regular rickshaw-wallah who can take us to and from school each morning and who in turn we could buy a rickshaw for.

We thought that maybe we had found a guy a few weeks ago. He took us to school and then gave us a ride home. Immediately, he asked what time we go to school in the morning and what time we go in the afternoon. He clearly wanted to be our regular guy. He is very nice too and speaks some English so we thought ‘Nice - this could be our usual guy.’ We found out his name – Mohammed Shahin. ‘This is great’ we thought, ‘everything seems to be in place…’ We were so excited by the prospect of being able to help at least a single person and assuage our western liberal guilt about being so well off in such a poor country. The next morning we went downstairs and : No Mohammed Shahin. ‘Oh well, that’s too bad.’ We found another rickshaw and headed to school. While riding back from school on another rickshaw, who do we see? – Mohammed Shahin. He looks up from his rickshaw, sees us, takes a moment to realize who we are and then with surprised eyes says “madam, excuse me madam…” and proceeds to follows us and explain to us that he forgot this morning, but that he will be there tomorrow morning – 7:40 – then he got whacked and stopped by our neighborhood guard. The next morning he again failed to show up and the next, but we now see him regularly around the neighborhood, usually just riding his bike around. Still every time we see him he tells us he will be there tomorrow morning and we all have a good laugh and part ways. Every time, Sam just says “sure, if you want to” but it seems like we all know it just isn’t going to happen. He’s a younger guy and maybe the mornings just aren’t his thing. So, Mohammed Shahin isn’t really going to be our guy- it seems like he kind of just wants to be our friend anyway and chat for a few in the street when we see him. Probably, it is for the best.

Finally, after being here for a month keeping our eyes out for a regular rickshaw-wallah that would actually show up, last week we were coming back from the school and Sam was feeling like she knew this rickshaw-wallah from somewhere. She asked Jon ‘Have we taken this guy recently?’ but he didn’t seem familiar to Jon at all. We kept riding along and when we got home the rickshaw-wallah asked if we wanted him to come in the morning to take us to the school. ‘Sure” we said, then Sam, still trying to place the guy in her memory, asked his name. ‘Taborok’ he said, and it clicked. Sam came inside and checked on her computer and lo and behold there was a picture of Taborok. Taborok was a rickshaw-wallah in the neighborhood Sam lived in 2 years ago and every night he would walk home with Sam as she walked from the house where she ate dinner to her apartment. (The walk was only a few blocks so it was too sort for a ride, but it was always nice to chat – he practiced learning some English and she worked on her bangla). At the end of the summer Sam had given him about 500 taka to say goodbye, but had always wished she could have done more.

So, after confirming it with the photo, the next morning Sam asked if he was the same guy from 2 years ago. ‘Yes’ he said and he said he remembers her. So that kind of settled it for us. He has been our regular guy since that day, coming in the morning to take us to Atti’s school taking us from Atti’s school to our bangla class, back home and back to get Atticus later, and back home (on busy days, sometimes all those rides aren’t needed). He is as nice a guy as ever, and today we got some tea with him after a ride to our class so he opened up a little more. He has three kids, (2 daughters, 1 son) and his face lights up when he talks about them.

So…tomorrow morning after we drop Atticus off at school we are going to go with Taborok to buy him a rickshaw! He will then work the amount off by hauling us around (but we’ll spread it out over the whole time we’re here and still give him some monthly salary too). When he isn’t giving us a ride, he can use the rickshaw without rent and his income won’t be eaten up by that stupid rent cost. Essentially, his income should be going up by a third, or more.

We also have a bit of a (no-pressure) proposal. We can’t really afford to just give the rickshaw to him out of our budget, so we’re having him repay us in reduced monthly salary over 9 months. However, if you would like to help Taborok pay his rickshaw off quicker, we think you could donate the money to us. A small donation of ten or twenty dollars from less than ten people would mean he would be able to get back at full salary sooner… he is also in need of a phone (so once he gets to know people they can call him to come pick him up rather than get a random guy and he can start having regular, steady work), which we are going to help him get as well. That will run about another 3000 taka or so (about 40 USD).

So you may be wondering at this point why we are taking a sudden interest in Taborok’s life so much. He’s never asked for anything except regular work and a monthly salary instead of daily pay. He’s just trusted us that we will pay him at the end of the month and has been giving us rides without any payment, which is a big risk for him. So why are we getting so involved? Well, everywhere you look here is poverty and misery, right in front of your face, and you can’t really do anything about it. You can give an extra big fare here and there and a bunch of guys get a slightly less hungry night, but maybe instead of spreading little bits of generosity over hundreds of men, by concentrating on Taborok’s family, we can do something that may have an actual impact. (This is not to be read as a generalized endorsement for the concentration of wealth!) Its complicated to maneuver here ethically, and this is probably partly a selfish desire to see results from what we give. But we have a lot of privilege, and among our friends and families we have even more. This is an opportunity to make a difference and give a pretty small amount with pretty major effect.

So maybe Taborok just got crazy lucky the day he walked home chatting with Sam two years ago and now it is finally paying off. (Sam has theories of fate here, but Jon doesn’t endorse them.) He’s a really nice guy though, and life has dealt him a hard hand to play, but he does so honestly, humbly, and honorably. We’re proud to help him out, it makes us feel good to do it, and we thought we would offer some of that good feeling to you too. We've set up a Paypal tab on here for a donation (to the right of the entries, under the archive), and we’ll count down the amount or something as it goes. You are also welcome to email us or Facebook us for more info if you want to know more.

OK, well tomorrow’s the big day! We’ll post an update then!