My Place

I got a couple of responses back from my last blog post. All of them were from family members. All of them lead me to believe that the rest of my family believes in a more straightforward perception of reality than me. I'm ok with that, I'm actually quite happy with that because it keeps me grounded. That said, I still think I'm on to a little bit of something with my idea of how our perception of time affects our lives. My mother is correct in pointing out that a year is still a year but how we see that year is something different. Think of when you were in school. What did you measure your year around? Summer vacation right? What happened when you finished school? What has that done to your concept of time?

In an address to Jon's statement about me thinking to much I would like to say a little something. I found this quote on the internet today and I'm instantly a big fan of it. I hope the source doesn't mind me borrowing it but as it is perfectly legal for me to do so regardless of their feelings I'll do it without asking. "The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." by Horace Walpole It seems to me that my problem is that I both feel strongly and think strongly. It keeps life interesting.

In the past week I've hung out with the Korean's a couple of times. Today is one of my co-worker's birthday so we got invited over for a Korean meal as a result. Korean barbecue is amazing. Today we are heading to my co-worker's host family's house to celebrate with them. It should be quite intersting to see how that one turns out. Then tomorrow I think we'll be having a worship time and Monopoly game with the Koreans. Also, I think a couple of us are going to start up reading through the Purpose Driven Life together. I'm kind of looking forward to checking that out because I was in college when Howard-Miami went through it.

In my work this past week I had my 6 month review. 6 months!!! It hasn't seemed that long. I also finished putting together a survey for our monthly meeting this next week. I wrote it up in English and then my boss translated it into Bangla. The translation ended up being a tricky process because like any two languages, things don't translate exactly. After several discussions the third draft turned out to be satisfactory. I also found out that I've been put on a committee of three to plan our next all staff retreat. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because I've been open about that fact that I would be willing to help out with such things but now that I've been told to do it I'm slightly afraid I'll screw it all up. I should be fine though, I've done enough event planning in the past. Besides, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me.

This next week could be an intersting one. We start off the week with our monthly meeting and I'll get my surveys filled out. Then I might either go South to Dhaka for some business or go North to a village for work. I might also do both. I'm not sure what will happen, but it will happen and I'll deal.

Time

So I just had a slight break and I thought I would rattle off something that I thought of this morning.

So it has about been six months now since I got here. (I just used so to start off two straight sentences. >.<) But yeah, it hasn't seemed like nearly that long. As I pondered the meaning of it not seeming long, I realized something. I completely missed out on a traditional winter for the first time in my life. I'm wondering if not having a long period of time where it was ridiculously cold has thrown off my perception of time? Will this continue to be the case? I don't know for sure but I'll probably eventually figure it out. Maybe getting used to the weather cycles here will get me re-acclimated to a yearly calender? This also leads to another thought. We always talk about how everywhere people go they talk about the weather. Maybe that is less of a commentary on the weather itself and more of a recognition of time? This line of thought leads me to one last question. If this global warming thing is happening and does happen the way scientists predict, how is that going to affect societies perception of time?

Sleep well.

Ants

So I just remembered something important.






I made some Koolaid the other day.






I forgot to strain it...














We've been having troubles with ants in our sugar lately...






That Koolaid is all gone already...




I don't think he noticed but I must say, Sorry Nate, anyway...







You know what they say about ants in your Koolaid though right?






Great taste, goes down smooth!

It's new years here...so I thought, "hey, why not post"

I have a bicycle and I'm not sure why this is underlined and blue...Veronika the girls cook and the look I often got from her this past weekend while we were visiting her home in Pirgacha.Rajon, Veronika's son, is making a kite out of newspaper, rice, bamboo, and a piece of string...I challenge you to give it a try. I don't know what is up with the underline thing...from what I understand this sight doesn't even give me the option to underline...ugh, I should have gone with a wordpress site for my blog instead...Have any clue what this is? I'll give you a hint, several of my co-workers thought they grew on trees.The girls being sweet and innocent, meanwhile, Rajon is Rajon...BTW-the goats they are holding are less than a week old and adorable.I don't know this little guy's name but we had a good time together.Evidence of said good time...(I don't know why it's making me do this in bold either)

Lena my co-worker, a rickshaw wala, and myself gliding along a brick road on a hot day...this was actually on a vangari though, not a rickshaw...

Suddenly it's letting me not underline? I don't get this program right now. Whatever though. In the past week I went swimming at the local hotel's pool, spent an evening hanging out at the Korean's apartment, went out for a field visit on the back of a motorcycle, went on another field visit (but took the bus this time), and finished up with another trip to Pirgacha.

The trip to Pirgacha was the highlight. I continue to love my trips to the places where indigenous people live. It was beautiful and peaceful. The people were wonderful and I got sick again. Lol, it wasn't all that bad this time other than when we went on the hike. (I thought I was feeling better but wasn't.) For the most part though, I still got to enjoy myself and spent a fair amount of time just playing with the kids which I always love to do. A group of 4 of us went and stayed from friday until sunday. We attended a couple of services at the local Catholic Mission. They were pretty packed. After having lunch on Sunday, we caught a ride to town so we could catch our bus back to Bogra. We almost missed our bus but got there on time with a little bit of help from some really nice people. I was happy and so I tipped our rickshaw wala a generous amount, which made him really happy too. We got back at a decent time and I was even able to skype my family who were at Steven's house for the day.

I have one more comment about cockroaches before I let that subject go to rest for awhile. Nate jockingly commented last night that he was going to have to send an awkward email to our boss about how I talk to things. He made a reference to Tom Hanks and Castaway. All because I yelled at a cockroach that he wasn't supposed to come into the living room as I smashed him with my sandal. I was kind of in a grumpy mood already last night and that darn cockroach didn't choose a forgiving time to make his move. Also on my bad side is Lena's male rabbit who she claims can't be replaced for awhile. All I know is that he is looking pretty tastey. I would imagine this streak of hostility is brought on by the heat. It has been very hot lately. Yesterday I was out riding motorcycle and realized that even at around 30 mph the wind was barely keeping me cool. I'm to the point were I probably drink close to a gallon of water a day just to keep hydrated. The worst part is that it isn't even humid yet most of the time. I'm sure I'll find a way to survive but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. So for everyone back at home who got snow last week, send some this way!

*edit* so it turns out that they aren't blue...and they're all bolded...I'm probably going crazy

Issues Brewing...

So you remember the saga of Hank, Jake, and Gary right? Well there is some new pertinent information about them. I have now learned not to just throw open the door and walk in to join them. One night I was doing this to go brush my teeth and Hank landed on my shoulder. I wasn't wearing a shirt at the time! Lets just say I stood up very straight in the second it took him to jump back to the wall. I still managed not to kill him though, I mean it wasn't his fault I came barging into his home right? The other thing I realized tonight is that I got the names wrong. They should be Hank, Jake, and Mary! Yeah, that's right there are little ones running around. They seem pretty skittish so I'm assuming they are Hank's but maybe Jake's just been telling horror stories about what happens when you cross me and they're scared by me still. Either way, it's still weird to see the little brood running around when I thought it was just me and the guys.

The Clock

So I was writing an email the other day and I had one of those aha moments. I was thinking about how I approach things and I realized that very little about me has changed since I was a little child. Please let me take the time to draw you an analogy as to why I think this is true. My grandma loves to tell the story about the time when I destroyed her clock. Any time we are talking about things I did as a child she brings it up. You see, I'm a deeply curious person and always have been. I want to know why things work and all the factors behind them. So you can imagine the torture a clock would have been for me as a child. What makes the dials turn and why so steadily? So one day I got my hands on my grandma's clock and probably a screw driver. I dismantled it completely and of course grandma caught me at the end of the act. She asked me why I had done it and I of course came up with an intelligent response of something like, "I don't know, I wanted to know what was inside." (I wasn't conniving enough yet at that age to lie) Here comes the key part though, as grandma tells the story she always comments about how we never did get that clock back together again. That was the aha moment in my reminiscing! You see I love to try to dismantle everything in the world around me so I can understand or even just partially understand how they work. Sometimes this is a physical dismantling and sometimes it applies to concepts which I take apart in my mind. Unfortunately, as in the case of the clock, oftentimes my attempts to reassemble things would be an utter disaster. I mean with time, I have gotten better at getting them back together but it isn't always the case. I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is watch me! I might take apart your clock and not be able to put it together again! At the same time though, there are probably some things you can allow me to do. I think maybe under supervision I could clean the clock or just open the case and look at how it works. If you let me do these kinds of things you might learn a few things about said clock yourself and maybe come out of it with a better clock in the long run of things (through the cleaning or in a better understanding of what you are looking for in the next version). For your everyone's sake though, don't let me destroy clocks.

In other news, I would like to thank my younger brother Jon for a wonderful idea. Last year through a process of family trips to visit him at college we would often go to a local pizza buffet because it was cheap. He liked talk about the peanut butter and jelly pizza they had sometimes and how amazing it was. Well, I had never had it but seeing as how we have peanut butter, jelly, and a cook who does a good job making pizza crust here, we decided to try it out. It was amazing! I would suggest anyone and everyone try it if you haven't already. That said, I also got really sick last night and ended up throwing some of it up. Turns out it's also the best tasting puke I've ever had too! I'm feeling a lot better this morning and hope you can forgive me for ruining this post by adding that last bit.