We sat down with Rombek and interviewed him about his trip to Bangladesh.
Why did you decide to take the trip to Bangladesh?
“One of the reasons I decided to go to Bangladesh is because, like South Sudan, it’s a developing country. They share common humanitarian situations – the number of NGOs working in Bangladesh, whereas the number of NGOs working in South Sudan is equal.
Given that my topic is looking at the effectiveness of foreign aid in reducing poverties, I think it’s well suited in Bangladesh because I wanted to really understand how effective foreign aid interventions in developing countries in reducing poverties.”
Any advice for those who have the opportunity to study in Bangladesh?
“There are many reasons that one should consider going to Bangladesh particularly having two supervisors – in Bangladesh you’ll be assigned a supervisor from there while also having a supervisor in Kent.
Secondly, if you a student who likes natural fruits and that kind of thing, Bangladesh is actually a place to head to because all the fruits are natural, given that they are picked right from the garden and to the market. Plus the culture there. It’s something that is very fascinating. A few of my photos, you know, I enjoyed sitting open rickshaws. It’s something that I’ve never seen, having been introduced to a lot of chilli pepper because all the foods have a lot of spices and a lot of chilies. I even saw a Facebook joke that even taking tea, you need to know how to take chilli.
Academic wise, North South University, my host, was one institution with excellent facilities. The block was so beautiful, the library so, so nice. My supervisor happened to be the head of the economics department – that’s Doctor Asad – so welcoming and very knowledgeable. My worries were that it’s a totally new country, not like UK, and I thought I was going to face difficulties, but it turned out the opposite. So it was a very nice experience.”
“When I came to Kent, it was so fascinating because the environment is calm, the trees, you move freely. Kent was the first choice – I knew that I needed to come to Kent.”
If you had to describe your time at Kent so far in 3 words, what would they be?
“My stay in Kent has been so fascinating, lovely and a life-fulfilling chance.”
Why did you decide to do your Master’s at Kent?
“You can find a convenient place to study – you can stay in your room, or the library is very beautiful, the study rooms at the lecture blocks are really very, very nice.
You know, the kind of foods that I have at home, I got it at ease in Canterbury because my biggest worry when I was arriving here, maybe I was going to feed on rice throughout or you know, the English bread and that kind of thing. But surprisingly I was able to get the African flour, so I like that – call it ugali, that’s the common language, but it’s posho in English. So for someone who comes from my region, particularly East Africa, wow, this is the best place.”
What’s been your favourite meal to cook whilst you’ve been here?
“Yeah, my favourite meal – I’ve depended so much on dry beef, that’s my favourite meal. I’ve also tried to manage as much as possible balancing between fish, beef, then goats meat and that, and plus some dagaa fish, which I found in one of the shops around Canterbury – so I’ve been oscillating between those meals.”
Rombek is a Chevening Scholar studying MSc Development Economics.
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