In Nepal, again...

So I've returned to Nepal again. I spent that last 9 days here attending the World Aprecciative Inquiry conference and visiting IDE projects with my boss. Those days were very interesting. Appreciative Inquiry seems like something that could have huge implications upon how we do our work as MCC. Basically, the concept was born out of someone looking at something like a newspaper and realizing that all we ever think about is negatives. The question is raised then, what happens if we start targeting positives instead? The idea that this has birthed is that by focusing on our strengths we can actually use them to cover up most of our weaknesses and in a much healthier way. As with all things, I think this has it's place in what we do but don't really see it as a perfect solution. The IDE visit was to see some of their agriculture work and we shared some really good information back and forth. That said, I'm still in Nepal even after those trips. All the flights are full so I've had to wait for an additional 2 days in Katmandhu by myself. It's given me a lot of time to think and here are some of my musings:

I've been sick in 5 different countries now. Canada is the only country I've been to in which I can't remember getting sick. I've thrown up in at least 3 of those 5 countries. I might have thrown up in a 4th one but that would require some double checking to verify as I don't remember.

Throwing up doesn't seem as horrible now as it used to when I was a child. The past several times I've thrown up it's seemed much more like a pleasent thing rather than a bad experience. I don't even recall having a bad aftertaste in my mouth after any of them. I can remember once here in Bangladesh in which I wished I could throw up and couldn't manage, it was horrible.

I'm hands down an extrovert. When I'm left by myself for too long I absolutely hate it. I've been on my own for about 36 hours now and am just fed up with it.

When I'm around people too much I get burned out. I take on more than I should sometimes just mentally other times physically. I should let that go and just do what I can.

"the kiss glows in his heart" (The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky) I read this quote in a different book but it really struck me anyway. I'm not one for setting specific goals in life because I figure I need to leave things up to God but I will profess to having one solid goal. When I'm dead and gone I want to be remembered as one who has left kisses that glowed on other's hearts. (I feel like I've done this in many relationships in life and yet know I have many more that I could do a much better job of this.)

8lbs of coffee is a lot

well, that's all I'll post for now...enjoy

Mufajil

On Saturday I worked outside moving some bricks around to make the house look nicer. My neighbor (You guessed it! His name is Mufajil) from across the street come over. I was chatting with him and he had his son with him so I asked what his name was. I would guess that his son is maybe 3? His name is Mitu (pronounced "Me Two"). I found this quit humorous but not as humorous as I thought it was when I saw little Mitu running down the street with his pants around his ankles about 30 minutes later.

Names I've had on Bus Tickets

Mr. Fil (Most common spelling.)

Mr. Feal

Mr. Feel

Mr. Feeel

Mr. Fiel

Mr. Fail

Mr. Phil (They actual ask me how to spell it occasionally.)

Things I saw on my way to work this morning.

The first thing I saw was something like 4 neighbor kids come out on the front porch of their house to yell at me. There is something about me on a motorcycle that they never seem to get tired of.

Then I saw a little girl (maybe 12?) brushing her teeth.

As I got out of my village I saw a fat short guy running at a pace that I'm sure I could walk faster than. He definitely seemed out of place.

I also saw a Muslim guy walking with prayer beads. I haven't seen too many of those either.

Some fields of rice were beginning to be harvested.

I saw a group of nomadic gypsies starting their day.

I also saw a group of about 50 soldiers in shorts and "A" shirts finishing up their morning run.

My final joy of my morning ride into work was seeing an older man with a very nicely trimmed beard and Muslim tupee (prayer hat). That description is only from the head up of course, from the neck down he was wearing a full windbreaker running suit which was complete with many large patches of vibrant colors like purple, yellow, and red. It took me back to my childhood when I small part of the US population thought that such things looked good.

To be truthful with you, I was sad at how few people I did see brushing their teeth this morning. For some reason Bengalis seem to like to stand on the street while they do it and often times I'll see 5 or 6 people brushing their teeth before I'm even out of my own village.

Blargghhhh

Why Blargghhhh, you might ask? Some might have noticed a certain amount of lack of creativity and motivation occurring on my blog the past several weeks. If you didn't notice, just trust me, it did happen (I know, I was there, does that mean I have street cred?). I think the problem is a result of my missing a mundane life. I've been missing the nice life that I had when I spent weeks at a time at home in Bogra. Even when I have been in Bogra, I managed to spice up that life a little bit by moving into a new house. Now I'm attempting to settle into said house without being here for more than maybe 3 days in a row at any point in time. Makes me miss my childhood when I would spend 99% of my time at home on the farm because my parents weren't dumb enough to torture themselves by taking me places when they had someone else at home to watch over me in a controlled environment (I can't blame them). That's one snippet of life. Here are additional random snippets.

I slammed my finger in a window today. It bled.

My big toenails are getting long. I should probably trim them.

I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and decided I should probably work on being a little more diligent in how I approach my faith. I then read Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and decided that some memorization work might be a good start since he talks about how that's where the Jewish children in Jesus' time started. I chose Psalms because it seemed like a good mixture of praises and laments that you could pull out and "chew your cud" on. I then took one last practical step and gave myself 2 years to complete this task. This is an effort to do this as something I enjoy and not ruin the pleasure of enjoying it by pressuring myself into difficult measurables. I'm not on pace to reach my goal currently but I'm hoping I get a snowball effect later on maybe even beat it.

My pants got ripped the other day. I really liked those pants and now they will be out of commission until I have time to take them to be patched. I got those pants for free from a coworker.

I bought new sandals last night. My old ones broke and were getting pretty nasty even before that. I wore my new ones out of the store. I told the salesman that I didn't want the old ones. I thought they might have someone they sell used ones to. I was wrong, he picked them up, walked to the front of the store as I stood there watching (fun fact for you, the comma that would normally go in this location is called an Oxford Comma and is actually totally unnecessary, which is why I will leave it out) and just threw them into the street.

I have a fake Christmas tree sitting on the desk in front of me. I never put it away from last year and it seems that there is no rush now.

We plan on having a real American turkey for thanksgiving this year. Someone is coming to Bangladesh in Mid-November and will be throwing a frozen turkey in their suitcase for us.

Those new sandals I bought, yeah, totally rubbing my feet raw in a spot or two. I'm hoping the problem goes away if they're broken in or even if I just build up calluses I'll be ok.

I haven't been to the dentist in a while. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

I do think I'm going to get new glasses soon. I had talked myself out of them about a month ago but since the dry season has arrived the dust is starting to build and that is reeking havoc with my contacts. This has put the prospect of wearing my current glasses more into focus (laugh, it's a pun) and since they are half broken, that seems like a bad situation.

Oh and I was talking to my boss earlier this week. He was telling me about this thing called appreciative inquiry. Next thing I know he is mentioning how there is a workshop on it going on up in Nepal later this month and that a few people from MCC will be attending. Next thing I know after that he says, "you should go too, I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner." Within a couple of hours I had a plane ticket back to Katmandhu on Biman Airlines for November 15. Part of me wanted to turn it down and just stay put for awhile but frankly, this is a really interesting concept to me and I can see where it might help me directly in the work I do.

Oh and I also got a cold yesterday. It's a fun life