Back

Hello, I'm back. Did you miss me?

I've been on vacation for the last several weeks and thus have not been writing if you hadn't noticed. I won't write much now but there will be a few longer posts coming soon with some interesting stories if you care to do all the reading. I'll try to add in some good pictures too so the deal is sweetened a bit. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for those as I'm currently sick and unmotivated to write much. I had this for the last couple of days in India and I dismissed it as a minor something that would go away. It just keeps hanging around and today I have a slight fever with it. I'm not dead yet though, so stay tuned!

Correction

I must apologize. Two posts ago I improperly quoted the side of the ambulance. It wasn't "property of" but rather "Courtesy" and I totally left out the word "Homage" which was just a big mistake on my part. Please enjoy the picture below to see the correct form the phrase.



This week I've been visiting partner organizations with some co-workers to do some paperwork and decision making with them. This invariably means that they serve us snacks twice in the morning and once in the afternoon because that is proper hospitality here. One afternoon this week they brought out half a dozen plates with nothing but deep fried foods. I was at a loss as to how they could manage to find the variety of deep fried foods that they did until I started eating them and realized that they pretty much just deep fried anything they could get their hands on. My favorites were the deep fried hard boiled egg and the deep fried onion (which I kid you not tasted exactly like a blooming onion). My least favorites were definitely the deep fried coriander leaves and the deep fried garlic which was every bit as strong tasting as you would imagine batter fried garlic would taste. Eat and smile....eat and smile. Sometimes you've just got to take one for the team.

Quote of the Day:

This quote comes compliments of my co-worker Lokhon who likes to show off his English speaking skills when we eat lunch together.

"Your Bangla is getting much butter."

I just about died laughing.

Property of:

I saw a black ambulance today. I thought that was odd until I read the side. "Property of Bogra Dead Person Collection Society" I'm still wondering why they had to form a society to collect dead people but consider the decision to paint the ambulance black very rational now. Now let's hope no one I know gets a ride in that ambulance.

This should be an interesting week in Bangladesh. The out of office party is calling for a strike on Tuesday. In the days leading up to that, I'll be traveling to a couple of different partner organizations with my boss for meetings. The strike should make for a nice quiet day at the office assuming that I come in early before the strike starts and leave late after it finishes. If it lasts longer than just the scheduled day they have, it might eventually get annoying. I haven't really thought through what I'll be doing the last two days after the strike but I'm sure I'll have plenty enough to do when they arrive.

I've been living "bachelor" for the last week or so. We haven't had our cook here this past week as he was off for holiday and we've been quite lazy. Last night I had mashed potatoes for supper. That might not seem all that odd unless you consider the fact that mashed potatoes were all I had. Tonight, I'm having mashed potatoes yet again. Tomorrow night Kalam will be back and that should mean a good meal. I have been eating fairly good at lunch this week though as I've been having lunch with the staff. This has typically meant that I get rice, dal, fish, some cooked spinach, and cauliflower (the in season vegetable right now). All the basics that your body needs and little more! It really is pretty good though.

Also, I should mention that I was pleasantly surprised at how my pies turned out. They were better than I would ever have imagined. Everyone thought that my cranberry pie was the best they've ever had (no one had ever had cranberry pie before).

In less than two weeks I'll be in India! I just thought I would mention that.

4 foreigners walk into a bar...

Actually it wasn't a bar it was a toy store. This past week was a busy one and part of the activities of the week was showing a visiting American and Nepali person around Dhaka. One of my newer expat co-workers joined us since he hadn't seen the parts of Dhaka we were going to. The first place we visited was New Market which is a very large market in Dhaka. We spotted a toy store and expat co-worker decided he needed to check it out to buy a toy for his host family's 3 year old son. We went inside and had many laughs at the absurd nick-knacks that were available (most of which would be extremely terrible gifts for a 3 year old boy). Then it happened, expat co-worker and I discovered the most awesome thing ever. They had a magnetic dartboard! We had to try it out of course. The shopkeepers were more than willing to oblige our desires by telling us where to stand and holding up the board for us. The epic game began with us standing in a corner throwing magnetic darts at a board being held 4 feet away from us. Expat co-worker struck first with a 60 point shot to the third ring. I followed that up with a lot of luck when I hit a bulls-eye for 100 points on my first shot. Expat co-worker followed my luck up with a bulls-eye of his own to get the crowd of 4 (2 visitors and 2 shopkeepers) excited. I then fired the next two shots which ended up being a 40 pointer to the 4th ring and another bulls-eye. The suspense was in the air as expat co-worker said, "watch this" and proceeded to throw his third and final shot underhanded!!! Now, if you didn't catch it in the last sentence, I think it is time to point out that expat co-worker used the infamous last words that all men (and women?) have a knack for using right before they do something really stupid. In this situation, the dart flew up and over the board in a beautiful arch before coming back down to land on a glass shelf which promptly shattered dropping its load of snow globes and ceramic boxes onto a similarly loaded glass shelf below it which also shattered and dropped all off the previously mentioned objects on the tile floor where they joined in the fun by shattering themselves. What followed was a first for me. I've been in many crazy situations in Bangladesh, the one that stands out as the craziest was when I hit a child with my bicycle, but I've never seen something actually stun a Bengali person the way this did (though just seeing me in some villages does seem to stun quite a few people). Both shopkeepers just turned and stared drop-jawed at the mess on the floor. Visiting American and I clasped our hands to our mouths to keep ourselves from laughing out loud. I have no clue what visiting Nepali did since he was quiet and behind us the entire time this occurred. Poor expat co-worker had an "ah crap" moment of silence. After about 5 seconds the "ah crap" moment struck me as I realized that I'm the only one in our group that knows enough Bangla to sort out how much we owe these guys. It took about 20-30 minutes of haggling before we settled on paying the store manager about $45 for all the stuff we broke. Judging from the fact that he kept apologizing and saying that he wasn't the owner, I think he felt somewhat like we should be mad at him. Judging by the smile on his face when we paid, I think it was one of the best selling days he's had in awhile.

Moral of the story: never say, "watch this."



In another one of my adventures from this past week, I went to a tailoring shop last night to have some pants made. While I was there, a middle aged man puffing on a cigarette took special interest in me. He started asking all sorts of questions about who I am, where I'm from, and what I'm doing. Having nothing to hide and being in a good mood, I answered honestly. Eventually after they get done measuring me he motions me over and has me sit down next to him. After a few minutes of additional conversation he turned to me and said, "your country...(pauses to take a puff on his cigarette which he promptly blows in my face)...is sexy country." That was my opportunity to be stunned. How do you respond to that?!? I finally settled on telling him that this wasn't proper English and then scurrying along.

It has been an amusing week. Now I'm off to bake pie!

Beef, it's what's for Eid.

This week is the week of the second Eid. It is my understanding that this Eid (Eid al-Adha), commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael. God of course provided a ram instead. You might also notice that the Islamic version involves Ishmael instead of the Jewish and Christian version which had Abraham offering Isaac.

This is the sacrifice Eid. All those who can afford to purchase an animal to sacrifice are supposed to do so and then divide the meat into 3 equal parts. One third goes to the family who bought it, one third goes to friends, neighbors, and relatives, and the final third goes to the poor and needy. In Dhaka, this means the streets flow with blood in the morning because most people who own property can afford a cow or goat here. The sacrifice is followed by lots of visiting and the consumption of more meat than one should ever consider rational. The limited experience I've had with visiting a family on Eid involved every dish (including the rice) having some form of meat in it.

Eid is also the worst time for traffic in Bangladesh. Most of those who live in Dhaka are actually from various villages all over Bangladesh. Everyone wants or is expected to go home to their village for Eid. This makes the already terribly crowded roads in Bangladesh a big logjam. Today is an exceptionally bad example of how horrible things can really get. In reaction to some political issues, the opposition party to the ruling party of government called for a transportation strike. This essentially means that no motorized vehicles besides ambulances are allowed to go anywhere from dawn to dusk. Now, add in the fact that today is right smack dab in the middle of the busiest annual transportation jam and you have yourself a real difficult situation. Tomorrow you'll have all the people who wanted to go today as well as all those who want to go tomorrow. This is the kind of thing that leads to situations like last year. Last year the timing of Eid meant that everyone wanted to leave on the same day. It took some of our staff up to 26 hours to get home by bus. Think how far you could get in the US in a 26 hour time period now imagine what it would be like if it took 26 hours for you to get to another portion of the state you live in because Bangladesh is only about the size of Illinois or Iowa.

That is why we as expats stay put wherever we are when it comes to Eid time. It may make like a bit boring but we kind of prefer boring to nightmarish.

Insights or Reminders

Ever have those days where you are reminded of how strong parts of your personality are? Today was one of those days for me. I had an all day meeting where 3 of us were working out a plan for a future project. I started off the morning tired since I didn't sleep well last night which totally killed my ability to be patient. That was reminder number 1 (I have a terrible time being patient when I'm tired). Then we started working together as a group to do our long tedious job. I personally like to work in spurts. Sometimes that means that I work with reckless abandon and other times that means I think far to thoroughly about something before I do it. Unfortunately, that isn't a working style that is conducive to good group work at all times. If I'm confident on the subject, I'll often times be really pushing the tempo but if I don't feel like I grasp the subject well, I might annoy people by asking all sorts of questions. It takes a lot of energy out of me either way. After several hours of group work I always have to have some time to myself to recoup. This is the part of my personality I might guess that most people don't really always understand. I'm an extroverted, carefree, go with the flow guy but I have to have time to sit back and process things later. When I'm processing things I often go over all the events and recognize all the dumb or awkward things I've done (yes I do indeed recognize that I've done it eventually). I also spend a lot of time pondering everyone's reactions to everything. Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, I don't always turn this reflection time into wisdom later on. I suspect that I might eventually get better at this since I do seem to be trending that direction. Let's hope that holds up, I say a lot of stupid things even at 25.

On a mildly related note (since I have no clue where I was heading with that last paragraph), I did some baking the other day and that was fun! I finally managed to bake something in my pyrex dish that didn't burn. It was a chocolate chip cookie bar recipe that I got offline. It wasn't all that great but I think if I added some peanut butter to it, then it might be kind of tasty. Oh, I should probably explain that the mild relation was that I find baking to be very relaxing and therapeutic. One thing you have to watch out for in Bangladesh though is that the power goes off a lot. This can make for a lot of frustration. I avoid this as much as possible by baking late at night or early in the morning when the electricity is the most consistent, which actually explains why I'm so tired today. That reminds me, I should go home so I can go to bed.

Norom (soft)

Badminton season has returned! I love this time of the year because it is finally cooling down. In the morning it gets down to a very cold temperature of 68 or so degrees. It has however reminded me of a problem I've been having the last couple of months. I'm becoming soft. I've put a little weight back on since returning from America this summer and lost a lot of the muscle I had. This is likely due to the fact that I pretty much stopped exercising and started eating a bit too much. The last couple of nights of playing has seen me bruise my heel by playing barefoot, have sore arm muscles from swinging the racket, and my hamstring tightened up from all the squatting and lunging required. This is all combined with a bit of a nice round gut to motivate me to start taking care of myself like I was last year. Maybe I should go ahead and label this what it is, a new years resolution in October. I doubt I'll actually accomplish it but for at least the next couple of weeks I'll try.


In other news, lately I've been pondering values and ideals. As we look around us, there is reality in the present. As we look forward, I'm sure all of us could come up with visions of a better tomorrow and what we could do to get there. At the same time, these ideal futures rarely come and if we are honest with ourselves, we can probably come up with a halfway decent guess about what the future possibility really is. This guess, of course, comes from reflecting on our past experiences. The real question for me though is how does one decide what their values in the present (the only point in time you have control over) are in a way that balances the ideal visions and hope for a better tomorrow with the pragmatic realization that the dream you have is just a vague hope. (By the way, that is not meant to be a depressing thing to say since that vague hope sometimes does become reality.) For example, I'm a pacifist and I readily admit that I cling strongly to an ideal, a hope for the future that I really don't believe stands a chance at arriving before Christ returns. Should that pragmatic realization change the way I perceive my pacifist values in the present time? I try not to let it but in other areas in my life, I think there might be room for such a thing.

Physics...a tiny tidbit

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time now but I keep forgetting to do so.

It has been my observation that Bengali people thoroughly understand that objects cannot occupy the same location in time and space. The thing that they also seem to understand that the American culture doesn't put so much focus on, is that objects can occupy the same location mere seconds (or less) apart. This is particularly true of buses. They have a dance worked out and it isn't one I like them to play at high speeds. Also, being that this is Bangladesh that dance ends badly at times. I've been lucky so far.

Another observation about Americans that was pointed out to me this week is that when asked where we are from we say our State rather than saying America. This is probably both because it is a learned thing from traveling within the USA and because there really is a big difference between various regions of the US.

Hope that's enough to tide you over until I have something more interesting to say.

Durga Puja

This past weekend was the Hindu religious holiday of Durga Puja. Puja means worship. There are many different Pujas in the Hindu religion but Durga Puja is the most popular one for Bengali people. Since Durga is one of the gods of destruction and bay of Bengal is a place frequently ravaged by destruction, I think there is a correlation. It is also a reminder for us that there are more than 15 million Hindu people in Bangladesh and that while Muslims make up a vast majority, Hindus are a significant portion of the population. One of our Hindu staff invited us to come to visit his house during Durga Puja. This was just an evening visit since he lives just on the other side of Bogra.

We headed over to his house and ended up going to the local Hindu temple first. The narrow street outside the temple was draped with Christmas lights which were flashing and the sides of the street were lined with vendors selling an array of snacks and children's toys. There was loud music playing and tons of people all about. We got into the actual temple grounds where a large group of people were looking at the idols that they make fresh every year for the puja. Durga Puja lasts 5 days and they make an entire set of the idols every year. They are made from a mixture of clay and mud which are then painted with all sorts of bright colors. At the end of the 5 days of worship, the idols are then thrown into the river in a ceremony that I didn't get a chance to go see.

After being fed until we were almost bursting, we made our leave and decided to go see what some of the other idols looked like. Several of the temples that we found were quite old buildings and their idols were typically more elaborate than the ones we saw in our co-workers part of town. After seeing roughly 5 temples we decided that we were too tired to continue on and called it a night. It was definitely an interesting adventure though.

Beggars

In Bangladesh there are many beggars. Many of them are professionals and many of those are organized by and give cuts to some sort of overlord. This creates many ethical problems. You want to help people who really need it but you don't want to perpetuate a system of oppression such as that run by the overlords. I guess I should also mention the massive volume of beggars that exist. It is truly disheartening. I've been here two years now and this is an issue that never gets easier to deal with.

For the last couple of months I've tried out a new strategy that I heard about from an ex-MCC worker. I keep a wad of small (but still large compared to what beggars normally get from an individual person here) bills in my pocket. Every time I have a beggar approach me, I always give them one. This comes from my tithing money. The thing about this that has shocked me is that I haven't even once come close to going through my entire tithe in a month of doing this. It's actually quite amazing how little I go through. Of course when I give to people I try to take the time to look them in the eye or ask them a few questions about themselves which also creates a bit of connection. I may not be doing anything about the overlord thing but I do feel better that I'm at least trying something. I do still feel bad though about not doing more to help these people out.

The other interesting thought I had this morning was about what beggars are. Beggars are just people asking for something which they've done nothing to earn and receive what they are asking for as an act of compassion from the one who gives. Remind you of anything? As Christians are we not all beggars desiring God's forgiveness and grace? Strangely enough, that thought came from reading Mark 9:33-37 in Jesus tells the disciples who the greatest amongst them is. His answer was that a child was the greatest and that whoever seeks to be the greatest must first submit to being the least. Which got me thinking of who the very least in the world is and the beggars came to mind.

Dancing for Joy

Have you ever experienced the true joy of finishing a project that was complicated and taking up tons of your time? That is what I felt this past Wednesday evening at around 7pm as I finished up some paperwork and sent it as an attachment to an email. I didn't actually dance though, that part of the title is much more symbolic of the feeling in my heart at the time than the actions I took. I might have done a fist pump though (which, now that I think about it, is a habit I picked up from my father who does that when the Colts do something good like score a touchdown or get an interception...I imagine anything more overtly celebratory would draw our Mennoniteness into question).

Moving on though, I got to spend some good time with a co-worker Austin before he leaves permanently. After he is gone Nate and I will be the ones here the longest. That is just weird but I guess it has been 2 years as of the end of this month. That ends up meaning that I only have 1 year left but I'm trying not to think about that. I've got enough stuff on my plate for the next couple of months to keep me occupied. There is my milk cow study that I'm going to try to finish before the end of this month so I can give the report. Beyond that, my boss wants me to do a review of the way we measure the income of our farmers and try to come up with a better way. Since we are also starting a trial agriculture education program in a couple of schools next year, he also wants me to come up with a way to compare that to our normal activities. Those both need to be done by January which sounds like a long way away until you think about the fact that I'm going to be working on the milk cow survey for the next couple of weeks, then there are several major holidays in Bangladesh next month, and then I'll be vacationing in India in December.

The MCC Nepal/India/Afghanistan expats invited the MCC Bangladesh expats to join them for a retreat in India. It looks like we'll be somewhere in Goa, India in the middle of December and then it also sounds like I'll be getting together with some friends to head up to the Delhi area after that. I know a couple of the Nepal people and even went to college with one of the SALT workers, so it will be good to see familiar faces again. It is my plan to spend Christmas in India this year. Living in Bangladesh is tough sometimes (for instance I got sick again this week) but some parts of my job really should make everyone else jealous. I think a trip to India qualifies.

Back to Reality

So it seems that last week's optimistic post was just a cruel joke. Remember that shaken part, well some of it shook off on me and I got sick. In the middle of this, all the work I was doing in Dhaka followed me back home. Not all was bad, I did get to work at the Cow data but even that was missing enough that I can't see any clear results yet. I should get the rest of that today. Then I hop on the bus to Dhaka tomorrow morning because the work that followed me home is dragging me back to Dhaka. Not all is bad in this because I'll get to see Austin for the first time in several months. Basically though, there is a lot on my plate and I'm feeling it. I caught myself actually getting stressed out this morning. The defining characteristics of this side of my personality are extremely short patience and a bit of a contentious nature. My family knows this side of me very well where as I probably do a decent job of hiding it from most of the rest of the world. It is typically brought on by a situation (that is urgent in my mind) in which I feel like I should have some amount of control. If it is absolute chaos, no problem, but if I've got a little bit of a sense of control I turn into a nut job at times. I've recovered as I'm apt to do and intend to apologize to someone I had a work related phone conversation with. They didn't do anything to deserve my crappy attitude. Now I'm on to working with urgency to solve the problem without the attitude in tow!

In other news, I saw a Bengali man with the funkiest looking teeth ever this morning on my ride to work. Imagine the "billy bob" teeth that you can buy for costumes, only his over bite was off-center which made it even more pronounced. To his credit though, he still had all of his teeth.

I'll be sleeping at the office tonight. This is partly because I have a 5:15 a.m. bus in the morning and partly so I can make sure to listen to both the Atlanta Braves game (Brandon Beachy is pitching!) and the Colts game (I don't know any of them but I'm a complete addict). I just need to make sure that I behave emotionally and production-wise tomorrow despite my lack of sleep. I really probably shouldn't put this kind of stress on myself each week but it's only for 16 weeks and it really does give me a sense of connection to home. Connection to home certainly trumps 3 hours of sleep right?

Back to Balance and Joy

Oh the joys of being home! I get to sleep in my own bed and ride my bicycle. I also get to see my co-workers and hear about how someone in their family was sick at some point during the holidays. (Seriously, take 160 million people, shake violently aka. make them go home [where they will visit lots of friends and family] at the same time, add in 1 part of lots of rain to increase water born illness, and you get tons of sick people.) I also get to ride my bicycle by two dogs casually having "fun" on the road. This of course made me think of my brothers because all of us would have laughed at this random happenstance. It also brought back some good memories of the time when my brother and dad visited. Of course, I'm also back to having children scream at me as I ride my bicycle by and wondering if they'll ever realize that I can hear them just fine if they talk normally. Still, I like it much better here than in Dhaka. I have friends and am able to get exercise easily which are two things that really help me keep my life in balance. Now if I can just leverage that balance into getting additional work done...

Speaking of work, I've got a 2 inc thick stack of surveys sitting on my desk just waiting for me to parse through them and find out all the magical secrets that our dairy cow project holds. The several hours it will take to enter the data won't be all that fun but I am really looking forward to digging through the data afterward! I know that excitement may be somewhat strange on my part but if you think of the discoveries as an adventure to unravel the mysteries of the data, then you might start to understand. As an added bonus to the adventure, I get to help poor farmers! Yeah, my job is cool like that.

I'm proud to be an American?

Ramadan is officially over now which means I can eat or drink whatever I want on the streets again! However, given the history of street food making me sick, I think I'll stick with being selective in that regard.

I'm still in Dhaka working on various bits of paperwork but am hoping to get back to Bogra this weekend. I spent a little time this weekend talking to our director about this and found out that it is going to take more work than I had originally anticipated. :-(

I had a realization the other day. That whole Qur'an burning idea really could have put me in danger. I don't hide the fact that I'm American when I'm traveling around and I'm sure a lot of people know at least that much about me. That said, everyone I have met has been incredibly nice. Unfortunately, it isn't the people that I have met that I worry about, it is the people who I haven't met who hear through the grape vine that there is an American around that worry me. The people I have met generally see me as a person and appreciate that I'm something different than what they hear about Americans in the news. I can't be so certain that others recognize this and have been warned by very kind people that I meet in various places that these people do exist. For the most part though, this has never crossed my mind because to be frank, it is one of the few problems that most people in Bangladesh seem to want to root out. The government is pouring extra scrutiny on NGO's like MCC to try and make sure we aren't being devious. Now, I never heard from anyone in MCC that the whole Qur'an burning idea might endanger me but everyone was certainly very aware of the issue for quite obvious reasons. The thing that I just don't think American Christians really have a good concept of in general is how sacred or vile certain things are. There are very few things in American culture that you could do that would be so disrespectful that they would incite universal rage from everyone in the culture. In an Islamic culture, any kind of disrespectful treatment of the Qur'an would do this. The closest explanation I can come up with as to why this is this way is to point out that the Qur'an is the word of god and as such it is god. As my co-workers were pointing out, if Americans burn a bunch of English translations of the Qur'an it would be insulting but because these are not the exact words of god, it would remain at just the "I'm going to protest for my faith" level. If Americans burn a Islamic version of the Qur'an, suddenly I get the impression that we've crossed into the, "I'm defending god" level. All of that said, I could be wrong. These are just my personal understandings and are based off of a limited experience of two years in Bangladesh. I have certainly never heard anyone within MCC advocate these ideas (I only wish to say this so that I might be clear that my personal views should not be correlated to those of MCC). The point I'm really trying to make is that we should think and be aware of what our actions mean. Others interpret them in completely different lights because they have different experiences and you can't just ignore that in our modern, globalized world.

Oh the Journeys

I've talked about Ramadan quite a bit recently, but I don't recall if I mentioned what comes at the end of Ramadan. If I'm repeating myself, forgive me. At the end of Ramadan is Eid-ul-Fitre (pronounced more like Eed, ool, fit-ur). The two Eids are the some of the largest holidays in the Islamic calendar. Eid-ul-Fitre is when they celebrate and buy lots of new stuff. Eid-ul-Azha is when they sacrifice animals in the streets. Both are times when Bengali people take extended holidays to be with family. In the states, I've often heard the Memorial Day weekend is a big travel weekend in America, it has nothing on Bangladesh. Imagine somewhere around 10 million people trying to leave 1 city to return to various smaller towns throughout the country. Now imagine that combined with a transportation infrastructure that is already pretty bad. What you end up getting is gridlock in pretty much every town in Bangladesh but especially so within about 30 miles of the capital. At the same time, it also speaks volumes about families in Bangladesh. One could either argue that it is an amazing act of love for their family that people are willing to deal with all this trouble to see them or that it is an amazing act of power that their family exerts on them that the consequences of not joining their family is actually worse than the trouble the traffic causes. Either way, amongst the ex-pat crowd it is common sense that the "smart" people avoid the logjam.

I had planned to enjoy a nice peaceful stay out in the village for Eid but that plan changed today. I got a phone call asking me to meet with some people to get a report done. I mentioned that it should probably be finished before Eid. My boss agreed and told me to be in Dhaka tomorrow. Unfortunately as I realized later, that will essentially mean that I'm stuck there until after Eid because all the buses will be full leaving Dhaka in the lead up to Eid. After Eid, I should have no trouble getting back to Bogra though as all the buses will be full returning to Dhaka but not leaving it. So much for having a nice peaceful time in the village.

Speaking of peaceful times in the village, I went out to another village this morning. I'm trying to interview farmers and figure out what influences how much success they have. So far, I'm not sure how good my information is, but I'm getting a great tan.

In other news, I heard that we got the first of the approvals we've been seeking. That was exciting news since we had just been hearing promises of it's eventual occurrence up until now. Please keep praying that the others will come through so that we can get our service workers and other necessary approvals!

Joy and Sorrow

But first, something that has nothing to do with the title. In continuing on with my series about Ramadan I managed to take a picture of my Iftar meal last night. That big mass of stuff in the middle is a mixture of puffed rice, lentils, and a crushed up fried thing that is pretty spicy. Along the top you'll see (from left to right) dried dates which are quite sweet, some fried thing which was somewhat akin to a fried bread, and last but not least, the jelapi which is basically some sort of deep fried sugar (incredibly tasty in my opinion). You eat this with your fingers and I was given a glass of lemonade with it. I get the idea that it is common for anyone with any kind of money to have some sort of fruit drink with the meal (the previous two nights it was mango juice). After you finish eating all of this, they bring out biriani, which is basically the greasiest rice you'll ever find with meat chunks in it. It is hands down the heaviest thing I've ever had in my life as far as how fast it fills you up. Basically, other than the lentils, dates, and puffed rice, the entire meal is nothing but grease. It is very heavy and I'm not sure how everyone's bodies can handle the shock of eating this to end a fast but somehow they manage


The joy in life lately was found upon arriving home last night. Roommate Nate was sitting outside with his guitar, singing to a group of neighbors. He's done this for the past couple of nights and they seem to love it. His broken hand is healing nicely and the return of guitar playing is a beautiful result of this. I stood out and listened to his song and then told him that if he picks a song from his book that I know, I'll sing along with him. I know I've mentioned this off hand a couple of times, but the singing is one thing I love about this culture. They could care less if you are really any good or not, just the fact that someone is willing to sing seems to always bring a smile to their faces. The other thing Nate and I agreed upon is that the best part of singing for the village is that they know incredibly little English so you can sing nonsensical things and they'll still think it was part of the song. I say all this to point out that those who know me best know that I love to sing but am quite confident that I'm not all that good at it. Suddenly, I have the option to sing in front of people and feel no pressure to perform well at all. This makes me very excited. I think I'll join Nate in the future, I can sing the melodies and he can harmonize to his hearts desire (something he is very good at). :-)

Unfortunately, with joy comes sorrow. One of our guards (a wonderful man) was telling us last night about his sick wife. From what I can gather, she had a large lump next to her eye. He called it a tumor but said the doctor pulled some sort of liquid out of it. He had to take her to Dhaka to find a doctor who could properly diagnose it and just that makes me very nervous about how bad of a situation she is in. He said they'll have an actual diagnosis of it by tonight but it is sounding like she'll need surgery which will cost about 30,000 taka which is roughly 4 months of wages for him. Basically, everything about the situation sounds horrible to me and I'm not sure I can do much to help. Please be keeping him in your prayers!

Ramadan

A little explanation of my understanding of the purpose of Ramadan. It is intended to be a month of time in which Muslims focus extra effort into following the teachings of Islam. As a result, it is my understanding that people are more likely to be honest during this time because of the strong push for purity. It is also a time of greater generosity for Muslims because it is also meant to be a practice that teaches empathy for the less fortunate. Not everyone is required to hold the fast. A few exemptions are young children, the disabled, the chronically ill, the elderly, and women who are pregnant or nursing who think the fast will be harmful to them or their child. For some of these people, such as the elderly or the chronically ill, they are expected to feed others as a penance for their inability to fast. For others, such as the women, they are expected to make up the days at a later time. Even for those who are not typically very devout Muslims in Bangladesh, there is pressure to observe the fast as it is a very public thing. Those who refuse to keep the fast do lose respect in the eyes of their fellow Muslims.

As far as what the result of this is on my life, it does cause some issues. Being that I am not a Muslim, I am obviously not keeping the fast. I previously mentioned that I have to watch what I eat in public though as it is considered rude to eat in front of those who are fasting. I also learned this past week that at sundown when the daily fast ends, everything stops and people eat their Iftar meal. This becomes something that you have to plan your evening around. In our situation, we were hoping to stop by the A&W Rootbeer restaurant for dinner only to find out that they were not serving regular food until after the Iftar meal was over. So we went to look at shops until such a time as we could get this food. Unfortunately, they kicked us out of the shops so they could eat their Iftar meal which meant that we were stuck on that side of town with nothing to do while Iftar was being eaten. We did eventually find a coffee shop that was operating through the Iftar time and sat down for a chat while we waited for things to open up again. We eventually did get our nice frost mug of rootbeer but the process did open our eyes a bit to how much the month of Ramadan does change how society operates here.

Grace

I'm a little bit late with this post, I hope you can forgive me. This past week was the start of Ramadan. For those who don't know, Ramadan is essentially the Islamic holy month of fasting. Everyone gets up at 4am, stuffs themselves full, and then don't eat or drink again until sundown (currently 6:30 or so). Some people don't keep the fast for various reasons but it is still considered very rude of them to eat or drink anything in front of others who are keeping the fast. During the day all of the street food vendors have curtains hanging up over the entrance to their shops so that people can come and eat without being seen. Other changes occur as well, our office hours are different during Ramadan. We are currently working on an 8:30-3:30 office schedule which is much shorter than the usual 8-5 schedule. This is both so that our workers are productive (you get very unproductive in the heat of the afternoon/evening when you are fasting) and so that they make it home in time for the breaking of the fast. I think I'll wait to share more in my next post.

A couple of mildly interesting things happened in my life in the most recent week. I passed my motorcycle test and will finally be driving motorcycle legally in Bangladesh once I get the actual license. They say that I should get it next month sometime. That will mean that I finally get it 11 months after I initially asked about getting it. I think that's a good indication of how fast paperwork moves around here. Speaking of motorcycles, driving motorcycle after dark is probably the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. In the dark the buses can no longer tell that I'm an expat and they treat me just like any other motorcycle, which means I get run off the road or at least onto the shoulder of the road frequently. This past week I drove my motorcycle home for some reason (not sure why, I normally choose to ride bicycle) and I saw a bus passing a truck coming at me. I didn't think much of this and just moved to the shoulder of the road like usual. The part I couldn't figure out though is that I saw another headlight coming at me on the shoulder of the road. I just couldn't fathom why a motorcycle would be trying to pass a bus that was passing a truck. Then once I got closer I realized that it wasn't a motorcycle but another bus trying to pass the other two vehicles. Luckily for me, he saw me with enough time to swerve back over behind the other bus before we reached each other but I was afraid for a second that I was going to have to into the ditch to avoid him. That would not be pleasant.

I also bought a phone. This was a very troubling decision for me. I try to live a somewhat simple lifestyle and like to limit the amount of money I spend on "toys" or frivolous things I don't actually need. I'm getting ready to do some research in a field area and it won't be with our regular farmers. It will be with whoever is available and I will need to return to these same people frequently for follow up surveys. The problem this creates is how to keep track of them and find them when I don't know the area well. The solution that came to my mind was GPS. Nathan and Daniel have this on their phones already and I've seen how convenient it is at mapping out roads as well as marking important points. I decided that this could provide extremely useful for this work but didn't want to throw a whole lot of money at the problem. I eventually decided that I could probably buy a simple GPS phone myself with the idea that I could continue using it after my MCC term is done. The only problem with this plan was that GPS phones are a little pricier than I would normally want to spend on a phone and come with other little gadgets and do-dads. I eventually found the one I would buy if I were going to buy one. It is nothing real fancy as far as phones go but it is a nice phone but I was still left deciding whether spending that much money on a phone fit with my values of simplicity. This lead to a good conversation with Nathan who brought up a couple of very good points. He pointed out to me that technology in general will usually not fit with the traditional concept of simplicity and if you start pushing the simplicity aspect really hard you start becoming legalistic with it (some might argue that the Amish are an example of this). I think his point was that we have to carefully give ourselves some grace when incorporating technology into a simple lifestyle because it will always be at odds with a "pure" simple life but is also capable of doing many wonderful things. So when the microphone on my old phone died yesterday, I didn't feel any anxiety over the decision to just go buy my new GPS phone.

Women, Men, and Bangladesh

I'm going to ramble a little bit in this post, I hope you can forgive me.

I went to Dhaka once this past week. It was just a day trip. To achieve a day trip to Dhaka you do have to put yourself through some paces. For instance, I got on the 5:15 am bus from Bogra. This meant that I needed to get up at 4:00 to get ready and go. I overslept and woke up at 4:30. Needless to say, that woke me up rather quickly and I moved fast. I got to the bus stand itself about about 5:10. I figured I'd be there for a few minutes since the buses typically run at least 15 minutes late. I was right but I saw something while waiting that I've never seen before. Two women were out jogging. They were wearing full exercise jumpsuits (think late 80's early 90's running suits)and had head/face coverings. I must admit, I stared. I couldn't help myself, it just seemed so out of place. Besides, when Jodi used to run at 5 in the morning the landlord and all our coworkers told her it wasn't safe. Speaking of women here in Bangladesh, I don't normally look at them. This mostly pertains to when I'm riding my bike. I find that if I look at them and they are looking at me, it just becomes awkward for both of us. Then by social custom they are normally forced to look away when all they really want to do is stare at me. As a result, I typically stare at the road ahead of me and give them the freedom to stare. Maybe that gives them some small amount of joy in a world that treats them pretty poorly. I also typically try not to look at men when I'm riding my bicycle but that is for different reasons. If you look at men it gives them confidence to annoy you to no end. Don't get me wrong, they are usually fairly harmless and just curious but when you have thousands of them who want to be your best friend for the vanity and prestige of being the friend of a foreigner, you tend not to want to encourage them. On the other hand, I have learned the problems of being a celebrity without ever having become one. Sometimes it is nice to have your original assumptions proved correct, I didn't think I'd like being a celebrity and I don't like the attention that I draw here. Even in the village that I have now lived in for over a year has not gotten used to me. I ride my bicycle through the village and children come and yell at me. You would think that they would eventually tire of this since I ride in and out of the village pretty much every single day, but they haven't yet. It could be that this is just a foreshadowing of what parenthood is like.

I know what else was odd this past week. When I was in Dhaka waiting for my return bus, the guy working the bus counter had a ringtone on his phone that really creeped me out. Have you ever seen Charlie the Unicorn? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus It is a fairly harmless and bizarre youtube video that was popular when I was in college. This man's ringtone was the candy mountain song where they are trying to entice him to go into the cave. Every time I heard his phone ring while I waited, I got the creepiest feeling that I was about to go into a cave (the bus) and they were going to steal my kidney. Odd but true.

Also, when I got on the bus, it looked oddly familiar. Then I realized the afternoon bus that I took back to Bogra was the exact same one I had taken at 5:30 that morning. This was later verified by the bus conductor who took my ticket and made comment on the fact that I went to Dhaka just that morning.

On a final completely unrelated note, our electricity has been crazy for the last week. Crazy in a bad way. At night it consistently goes off for about half the night. During the day, Nate said that it's been off for about 6 hours a day pretty consistently. On Friday though it was worse than usual. It went off at 8 am and was still off when I gave up on it and decided to head into the office for a bit. Later when I returned, Daniel and Nate informed me that it was only on for about 1 hour between 8 am and 6 pm. That's an ugly day. I'm not sure if this is going to continue but the amount of time it is off each night is startling and somewhat disruptive of my sleep. I guess this is life in Bangladesh.

Reading

One thing we all do quite a bit of here in Bangladesh is read. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Bogra isn't a place with much variety in the way of evening activities. This is more difficult for some people to get used to than others. Having grown up somewhat tied to the farm most evenings, this lack of variety doesn't feel terribly constraining to me. Most Bengali's deal with this same issue by spending massive amounts of time sitting around and shooting the bull (an expression that I have tried teaching some of our staff) with friends and family. I live with two introverts and since two other co-workers recently left, I have new openings for social time in the last several weeks. I've spent a chunk of that time making sure to chat with various members of the staff a little more. That doesn't fill up all the time though, so I've spent a lot more time reading lately.

I've finished off all of the Philip Gulley books my mother sent me. If you haven't read any of them, I recommend them highly as a humorous and insightful commentary on rural communities in the Mid-West. They are nice to have here because they're a connection to home. I've started a book given to me by a friend while I was home. So far it has been an excellent Christian perspective on suffering. I also started up re-reading my favorite book, "The Walking Drum" by Louis L'Amour. I had forgotten how much I love that book and have averaged close to 100 pages a day in it which means I'll probably finish it tonight. This doesn't include the reading I do at my computer before, during, and after work. It is actually quite pathetic how much I still follow sports. I also like to take breaks during the work day to read up on Bangladesh news. In addition to that I also do some reading on statistics, sociology, and agriculture. The best part about all this though, is that it seems from the collection of books MCC Bangladesh has, most people have shared this past time with me while they were here.

I remembered to put a title on this post!

I might as well continue on my streak of confession posts. I'm from rural Indiana and it runs in my blood. That isn't the confession, but it is pertinent. The confession is that I (and I think everyone else along with me) am a finicky and fickle person at times. The rural Indiana thing becomes important when thinking about what ways these traits play out in my life. For instance, I often find myself being very slow to warm up to new things (like my roommate's Swedish butter knife)and I often find myself with a very strong opinion about the most correct way to do something (for instance how toast is toasted). The two examples I listed are a source of much amusement to my roommates as they seem silly and trivial to them. Funny thing is though, if you pay attention you can catch other people in the act as well. For instance, my one roommate returned home recently and the first words out of his mouth were, "Well that's not where I would have put the table." I find this very humorous because I saw it coming. He has an artistic eye and is always seeking to satisfy that part of his nature. I on the other hand am much more concerned with pure functionality and find some of his rants amusing. My other roommate is incredibly consistent in how he approaches life as viewed through his values, except occasionally he strays from those (in minor ways, not in the "let's go binge drinking and hire prostitutes" sort of way). In one such instance recently I asked him why he did something seemingly unpractical and he replied, "I was curious." If curiosity isn't a fickle thing, then I don't know what is. That said, I'm still the one who made a big fuss over toast and butter knives which even I recognize is quite silly.

In other news, this week I went to Dhaka for a couple of days to do some quick computer work that needed faster internet than I have here in Bogra. I then proceeded to ride a bus for 15 hours in a 48 hour time span. I caught a bus back to Bogra on Tuesday afternoon. I then took a bus up to Dimla the next morning and returned from Dimla on Thursday morning. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired of buses now but my work all went really well. I started up a bit of research in Dimla. We're trying to determine if farmers will really make more of a profit if they feed better quality feed to their milk cows. That will be going one for the next month or two. I returned early enough on Thursday to go over to a friends house to watch the movie "Elf". Our rationalization for that was that we were celebrating Christmas in July. I guess that concept qualifies as a joke about American culture. Sometimes the little grasps of home have their value even if they are silly. I guess that's kind of like how our little fickle and finicky characteristics are our grasps at being ourselves which is beautiful even if it is silly.

First a bit of a progress note on my last post: I got a couple of emails from people too afraid (or wise, depending on your view) to comment on the actual post. I think I'll share a bit from one of their emails because I think they had a good point (I will leave them anonymous though).

Quote #1: My suggestion is to not think about it in terms of being right or wrong. It is your opinion. Don’t assume you are correct. There may be more than one good answer. On biblical differences, view it as an opportunity to examine your beliefs and why you believe that way. I think a lot of times we get caught up in trying to determine what is right and what is wrong on little things (although I would not necessarily call them trivial or insignificant), but we lose sight of what is really important. You quoted it, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind; love your neighbor as yourself.” Remember this always.

Quote #2: If you read the story of Jesus telling the rich man to give away all that he has, the rich man’s response is disappointment because he loves his possessions more than he loves God. There are many places in the Bible where rich men are also praised but not because they are rich but because they are faithful and lead good lives. Take the story of Job for instance. If we all lived paycheck to paycheck because we give everything beyond what we need to live to charity, who would have money to start small businesses and provide jobs for others? I heard someone say once that you are not giving enough to charity and the church until it causes you to sacrifice something in your life. I think this is a good measure of the minimum you should be doing.

I scream an "AMEN!!!" to the first quote and have a lot of respect for the second one. I guess the only thing I would have to say is not that I disagree with the second quote but rather that it is my opinion that it is the minimum. Unfortunately, it is also my opinion that I am not interested in minimums and would prefer to focus all of those financial resources towards the first quote. I must also provide a disclaimer though, I of all people have never been all that great at handling money. I all to often let it handle me. This is part of why I take such a hard line stance with myself on the issue.


Ok, enough of that though. I should move on to other things. This past week wasn't all that amazingly interesting. I did however have one part of the week that stood out to me. On Saturday, I went to our home church and Tim, our host this week, let me in the gate. Tim asked how I was, to which I responded, "I'm doing pretty good, how are you." He said that he was doing pretty well and then proceeded to say that he doesn't recollect me ever saying that I'm not having a good day. This reminded me something about myself. I am (and always have been) a generally happy person who has worries (and frustrations)but trusts that God will take care of me and uses that as an excuse to stay positive. Somehow, I think I have slowly started losing that aspect of me in my time in Bangladesh. I especially see that in my musings over the past month or two since returning to Bangladesh. I've lived too much of my life worrying and fretting over things. Thanks to Tim though, I remembered and it made my day. It's a good thing too, because that night I got all the way home before I realized that I had forgotten my house key. I did what Phil Birkey does best in response to such things, I laughed at my stupidity and enjoyed the extra 4 miles of bike riding I had back to the office. I don't know if you've had the chance to re-find yourself but let me tell you, it is a great feeling.

A Rant

I realized something this morning. My anti-histamine pills for my allergy to my house are having some side effects, specifically, drowsiness. I knew that was a possible side effect but didn't think it was because I haven't noticed it during the day. This morning though as I struggled to get up at 6 despite going to bed at 9:30 the previous night, I realized that I've been doing that for several weeks now and it all came together in my mind. I had noticed it previously but assumed it was because the World cup games and power cuts were throwing off my sleep schedule. I'm not really sure what I can do about it though. I need the pills to not break out in hives but they are ruining my favorite part of the day. :-(

This past week I have also noticed something of an issue in my life. I am young and inexperienced. This hurts my confidence in standing up and making certain arguments. This is both in work and belief situations. (be prepared this next part gets a bit long but should be an interesting read for many of you)

For instance, this past week I had some friends over for dinner. These friends are from a more Baptist background and it shows. Since my background is economics, talk eventually got on the topic of money. I happened to mention that I fall closer to the beliefs of the emergent church on this topic and specifically that I don't believe in storing up safety nets of money for myself. This is when he pulled out Proverbs 13:22 (NIV) "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children..." I really wanted to go off on him for cherry picking on what I really feel is a pretty clear subject in the Bible. I didn't though because I can't quote sections of the Bible perfectly from memory and to counter-argue with him would have just pointed that out. When I read the Bible I remember concepts and flow much better than I remember phrases. Should I be so ashamed to admit that I can't (or maybe just don't) memorize it word for word? I wanted to point out to him the birds of the air and the lilies of the field who the Lord provides for or how Jesus told the rich man to give it all away or how hard it is for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle or how Jesus commanded the disciples to go and take NOTHING with them. I wanted to talk about how part of my belief comes from the fact that some of what I believe comes from the fact that when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment he replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself." (I googled it and it comes from Luke 10:27) The important thing to notice here is that he didn't stop at the most important part, but also went to say that the thing that obviously must be there if you do this properly is to "love your neighbor as yourself". Jesus then responds to the question of who one's neighbor is by telling the story of the good Samaritan. Which along with his saying "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?...whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:48-50 looked that one up too) This along with the good Samaritan example have lead me to rethink what I consider family references in the Bible to mean. I also take note that an inheritance is not necessarily money. We all inherit traits (and in my case some craziness) from our family (and friends) as well as things like history and wisdom. For instance, my Grandma Birkey didn't leave any money behind when she died but one thing that I found obvious from stories of people who came to visit her in the hospital before her death was that she was leaving behind a legacy that changed quite a few lives. In short, I view the Proverbs verse about leaving an inheritance for my children's children to be about how I should live my life in relationship to others rather than about how God blesses those who save up money for their grandkids. But instead of saying all this, I sat there and mumbled something about disagreeing with that view but respecting it.

This behavior of mine carries over into my work as well. I've recently been reviewing a project proposal for my boss and one of my criticisms is that many of his numbers aren't based off anything other than speculation. I point out how we should be getting the information on these. He agrees and then talks about the thought process that went into determining the speculative number. Eventually, he still agrees with me but doesn't act on this at all, the plan continues forward unchanged. We recently had an expert on the subject pass through the office while doing some research and we asked for his opinion on our proposal. Low and behold, he points out the same thing I was just pointing out, and then tells them to completely drop it from the budget, which they promptly do. Que the rolling of my eyes.

I guess what I'm trying to point out with all of this is not that I'm right. I'm mostly trying to point out that even in situations where I may be right or just believe strongly that I'm right, I have very little confidence to push the issue. Part of this is probably because something about my mannerisms when pushing an issue makes me come across as arrogant (something I've had pointed out to me numerous times). Part of it is probably because I am to willing to admit that I'm not an expert and could be wrong (as I have also been countless times). In the end it seems to me that there are two solutions to this problem. I can either just push my opinions as truth until proven wrong (thus really going far into the arrogance spectrum) or I can just slowly work towards discerning when my opinions are worth pushing and when I should drop the issue because I'm being foolish (maybe underselling my potential contributions in the mean time). Is this an accurate perception of the options available to me? I've chosen the latter option for most of my life. Maybe I should pursue the first option more while looking for ways to make it sound less arrogant than it currently comes across? Also, how closely are arrogance and stubbornness to each other? I'm definitely pretty stubborn.

I should probably wrap this up, I've got more to write but I just went on a fairly long rant so I'll quit before I risk making myself look more the fool.

The Big Bang Strikes Again

Forgot to post last week...oops. So this is a talk about the pondering and happenings of the past two weeks.

It has dried up considerably since my last post. The road is no longer inches of pure mud. It has rained the last two days in a row but they were morning showers and everything dries out fast after those. I'm still amazed at how much water this country can hold.

This past week we said goodbye to Jodi for the final time. That involved going to Dhaka and spending some time hanging out as a group. It's never a joyous occasion to see some one leave but since she lives in Ohio, I'm sure I'll see here again. That makes saying goodbye easier. Her leaving will definitely change the dynamic in Bogra. Social life has pretty much revolved around her for most of the last 2 years. Part of this is due to her jubilant personality and part of it is due to her house being strategically located. It will be interesting to see how we compensate for that. Bangladesh did give her a going away present. She got sick for the final days before she left.

Speaking of sickness, health has been a real issue around these parts. Ben was also sick last week and it seems I've got some sort of cold this week. Then on top of that, Nate had a motorcycle accident and broke his hand. He ended up having surgery on it to make sure it is set properly. I guess they told him that if he was 60 or a construction worker, it wouldn't need surgery, but because he is both young and a computer worker, he needed it. That makes me the only person in our household to have not broken an extremity in Bangladesh. I hope it stays that way.

I planned on having guests over for dinner last night but I had to postpone that due to electricity issues. As in, there wasn't any the night before. I got home in the evening and the power was off. I'm so used to this by now that I thought nothing of it, so I started mixing up brownies to pop in the oven when the power returned. Then I sat down to wait on the electricity to return. Only, it never did. I napped on the couch for awhile knowing that if the power came back on the lights and fans would wake me up. Then at about 12:30 the small battery powered fan I was using to make things bearable, died. So I grabbed Nate's battery powered fan and moved to my bed. At about 2:30 his fan also died. That left me sitting there sweating (literally and figuratively) with the knowledge that if the power hasn't come on in 5 hours, it isn't likely to do so soon. So I moved my sheet to the floor and slept on the concrete for the rest of the night because it is cooler than my bed. They said the electricity finally came back on sometime late yesterday morning but by then I had already rescheduled for fear that it wouldn't. I was finally able to bake my brownies last night. :-) I'm still working on the timing when using my new pyrex dish though and I might have burned them a bit.

Mud, rashes, and English

This past week has been an interesting one from my perspective.

I finally settled back down into my normal work in my normal office and slept in my own bed. Unfortunately, it seems that my own bed is causing me some sort of allergic reaction. It started with itchy arms. Then my legs and body joined in. Finally, I woke up yesterday morning and the right side of my mouth was puffy (fun fact for you, I almost always sleep facing my left). I wasn't too concerned until the lips started puffing up. Today it was the same problem. We are pretty sure it is a reaction to something in our house because many people who have stayed at our place recently have gotten itchy. The most recent suspicion is that maybe some sort of chemical in our roof or ceiling is floating down in dust and slowly builds up over time. All I know is that if it gets any worse, this guy will be refusing to stay in my own home because puffy lips is a really freaky feeling.

I've also been editing a project proposal. This has led me to an insight. When you don't grow up with English as a first language, the simple words are sometimes the hardest to understand the complexities of. For instance, how do decide whether to use "in" or "on"? For example, we would say that you use pesticides on vegetables but also say that you use pesticides in vegetable cultivation. It is a little thing but it applies to a lot of different words and different situations. I've also noticed that filler words like "the" and "a" are difficult as well. Just an observation.

Finally, it rained a bunch here the past couple of days. That means that our dirt road has turned into a mud one. This is especially true near our house where it is very difficult to keep my bicycle upright in several inches of mud. So far I have managed to navigate it successfully but keep posted, if I do fall I'm sure I'll have a nice muddy picture of me to share!

Prayer Requests

This is a new thing for my blog and I hope to make it something you'll find regularly. My goal is to be a little more connected to those who would like to know what things could use prayer in the lives of those I interact with here. This comes out of being reminded while I was at home that each of us has different gifts and unless we open ourselves up to allowing others to use their gifts, we won't see them.

One thing that could be prayed for is the upcoming Vision and Values Training that a couple of co-workers are partnering with an organization called Food for the Hungry to give to our staff.

I'd also ask for prayers for both MCC's ex-pat workers and many of our ex-pat friends. Many of our workers are finishing up the final month or so of their term with MCC and that means a big transition is coming for them. I also add our friends to that list because it seems like all of them are traveling a lot lately and one in particular is back in the USA right now having hip replacement surgery.

As always, prayers for the people of Bangladesh are appreciated. There are not a lot of crops in the fields right now as harvest just happened this past month but this is storm season and natural disasters that result in a loss of life are a real possibility.

I think I should probably end this with a prayer of thanksgiving. It sounds like all of the MCC staff in Bangladesh fared well while I was gone. One co-worker even celebrated the wedding of his daughter!

High Definition

Ever since returning to Bangladesh a week ago, one thing has really stood out to me. It feels like when I left Bangladesh in April, everything was in analog TV mode but since returning it is like everything is in high definition. Maybe that is just the difference the rains make in cleaning up all the dust and dirt. Maybe it is just the result of having returned from the States where colors are very bland compared to Bengali tastes. Regardless, I find myself in just pure awe of it at times.

I also noticed that my Bangla pronunciations where terrible when I returned. A week later I'm starting to gain some of my confidence back again and finding that I'm able to start adding a bit more complexity to my sentences. It's all a good reminder that I need to practice and study Bangla more.

I've spent a grand total of about 15 minutes at my house since coming back. I spent most of the last week doing work in Dhaka and saying farewell to the Miller family. It is saddening to see them go but like I previously noted, I'm not one for being too caught up in such things. I trust God has a purpose for them and this move in their lives. I finally returned to Bogra last Thursday which is the end of the work week. I got back to the office in time to have a late lunch. After that I had an hour long talk with my boss. He then invited me to come with him to his parent's house for the weekend. Having vowed to do more of those types of things, I took him up on it. So I went home, threw my dirty clothes in the laundry, grabbed some clean clothes, and took off with him right after work.

He is from a part of Bangladesh that is famous for its mangoes and it happens to be mango harvest season. I had a great time hanging out with him and his family. The mangoes were everything they were billed to be (I didn't like mango last year but love them this year, funny how tastes change huh?). The only thing that didn't go so well was that they found out that a bunch of their mangoes got stolen. Having crops stolen is a real issue in Bangladesh which is why most people hire help to watch the crop as harvest nears. Fortunately, my boss, while sad and frustrated at this news, isn't some poor Bengali who will starve as a result of losing $15 worth of mangoes. I also had a new kind of flat bread while I was there. It was made from a brown rice flour, very delicious. His mother even made the best tasting beef dish I've had in Bangladesh. Overall, I think that part of Bangladesh is one of my favorites so far. We traveled through the 4th largest city in Bangladesh there and it felt more like a giant village than a city. That appeals to me.

I got back from this trip last night about 7 but since his wife and child were off visiting family and my roommates are both out of town right now, he invited me to his place to watch World Cup games for the night. I was hesitant to accept since I was out of clean clothes at this point but the draw of watching the England vs. USA game trumped those hesitations. In retrospect, it was very much worth losing sleep and wearing dirty clothes to work today. Seriously everyone, watch the World Cup games. They're amazing and kind of a big deal. I'll try to post later about how the Bengali people celebrate it all.

The Return

I could probably write about 30 posts right now. I won't, but I could. :-)

I guess the place to start then is to talk about my return and highlight where I'm at.

I returned to Bangladesh yesterday morning. The airport was a friendly reminder that I was "home" as 5 flights came in around the same time and apparently only 1 of 3 baggage cart unloaders was in working condition. Seeing the familiar face of the driver as I walked out of the airport was pleasant. Then I on the drive back to the apartment I started feeling real excitement. I think for some reason most people expected me to feel some sort of sense of dread or sadness that I have returned but this isn't the case. I'm not really sure why this is. Perhaps it is because I am very aware of what I'm getting myself into. I get the impression that this is why people normally dread coming back to Bangladesh. For me, it actually is more comforting than scary though because there is direction and understand this time around. I know what 1.5 years in Bangladesh is like. I know approximately what I'll be doing. I know what things are going to bother me. I know what things I need to work on. I know that this will help me grow as a person.

Another perspective some might throw out is that one would expect that I'd be sad to leave my family and friends behind again. The biggest reason this isn't such an issue for me is that I know for sure at this point that distance is no match for a foundation of love. I have that foundation with many people back in America and, while being in Bangladesh definitely changes the buildings that are on those foundations, I know I can trust in those foundations to remain strong or even be stronger as a result of my being here. On top of that, I have a real sense that this is where I'm supposed to be. I don't talk about that too much, but it is something I have a lot of faith in. I feel like God placed this path in front of me for a reason and trusting in that is more comforting than I could have ever imagined.

That said, here I am starting up again. I know that in the coming days and months it will be easier for me to be excited about new challenges than to actually accomplish them. I think that is the real test I am facing at this point in my life. Can I be a detail oriented finisher at even an acceptable level? I must admit, I'm somewhat apprehensive to learn the answer to that question. Other than that, I view life as beautiful at this point.

To those of you in the States, thank you. Thank you for being wonderful.

The journey begins

I'm on my way home for my younger brother's wedding!

A Shameless Plug

Here in MCC we have a project that I like a lot. This project produces handmade natural soap bars. It's called Sacred Mark. The important thing about Sacred Mark isn't that it produces soap. The important thing about Sacred Mark is that it was developed to give women who were forced into prostitution a second chance at life (It reminds me very much of John 8: 1-11). The women who work for Sacred Mark have left behind their old life and are shown that they are a beautiful creation, loved by God. Making soap is more than just a way of life for these women. The crisp clean packaging along with the Sacred Mark signature thumb print seal which adorn every bar are wonderful reminders to me of how much a little cleaning from God can do.

I bring this up because I'm going to be bringing home some of this soap. My reasoning for this is two-fold; I want to support Sacred Mark in any way that I can and to help pay for some of my travels in the states (I figure most people can appreciate that I have no money). If anyone is interested or knows someone else who might be, I'll be doing this on a donation basis (for legal reasons which I have no clue about but someone told me to do). The suggested donation is $5 (buy 2, get 1 free) and I will be giving $2 of that towards Pobitra which is the MCC project which actually prepares the women for the transaction to a new life and a normal workplace.

For the purposes of even more disclosure, that I am aware of, Sacred Mark soap is already being distributed by two businesses in the US. Ten Thousand Village stores and Global Girlfriend (https://www.globalgirlfriend.com/gifts/item.do?itemId=36843&siteId=344). My intent is not to take business from these organizations but rather promote awareness that the soap is there.

Quote

I like this quote by Francis Chan.

'But you know what? I didn't bother to ask if they would modify the rules for me so I could run less, and maybe do fewer push-ups. That would've been pointless and stupid, and I knew it. Everyone knows that if you sign up for the Marines, you have to do whatever they tell you. They own you.

Somehow this realization does not cross over to our thinking about the Christian life. Jesus didn't say that if you wanted to follow Him you could do it in a lukewarm manner. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”'

Additional culture talk...

Speaking of culture. I've got an example of when things just don't combine well. Bengali's have worldwide renown for being the worst people as far as airplane etiquette. I've heard over and over that flights to and from Dhaka are considered the worst flight assignment a steward or stewardess could get. I was reminded of this when I flew back from Malaysia. As soon as you get to your boarding gate you are reminded that you are returning to Bangladesh by the fact that all the Bengali's are pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line. This is regardless of whether there is significance to being at the front of the line. They just seem to want to be there. We sat in our boarding area for about 20 minutes and a group of Bengali's stood the entire time at the door waiting to be allowed to get on a plane that they already had assigned seat for.

When we got on the plane there were all sorts of guys (oh and just for the record, you hardly ever see a woman on any of these flights) playing with cell phones and cameras despite the fact that they've been told to turn them off. While we were in the air the smoke alarm kept going off because people kept trying to smoke in the bathrooms. Finally, after about 5-6 times of this occurring, a Bengali man got up and really spelled it out clearly for them which seemed to mostly fix the problem. My favorites though were as we were landing. On our decent the guy across the aisle from us was trying to make phone calls and another guy about 4 rows ahead of us was literally standing up, leaning over his neighbor, looking out the window. I think he did manage to sit down before we actually hit the ground but I was just amazed at the fact that he was doing that. As we hit the tarmac there was the typical clicking of seat-belts coming unlatched immediately. Then about a half-a-dozen men stood up and tried getting their carry on luggage while we were still half a mile from the terminal. I was sitting in the middle seat and the guy on the window seat tried being one of these people, but I told him to sit down and refused to let him get past me. I didn't go to the bathroom during this flight but I've heard that is quite the experience on any of these flights as Bengali airplane bathroom etiquette is the worst of the worst. I might have to go on the way back from the states just to have a story to share myself.

Culture shock

To be honest with you, I'm somewhat afraid to be going home. Culture shock is a very real thing that happens going both ways. I've heard it's actually worse going back to your own culture. I think most of this has to do with the fact that I don't know what to expect. I'd like to think that it will all feel natural being that I have spent far more of my life in the states than I have in Bangladesh but wonder if things will just feel awkward or off at times. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Less than two weeks from now to be exact.

A list of things I'm afraid I'll mess up:
-Driving of the wrong side of the road.
-Spitting in an inappropriate setting.
-Asking a question that it isn't culturally appropriate to ask.
-Messing up personal space distances.
-Responding "heh" instead of "yeah" on accident.

On the other hand, I'm extremely excited because I like meeting face to face with people. I'll get to do a whole lot of that while I'm in the states. I'm also really excited about who those faces will be. All you wonderful people make it worth the cultural issues.

Even more boring than usual...

I don't have that much to say. Life is back to being its typical boring self this past week or so. I even managed to keep Easter low key because no one was in Bogra with me. The only thing interesting I did on Easter was take a 2.5 hour bike ride. I've got some interesting projects on my plate but they're all in the beginning stages and not really worth discussing yet. I guess it is worth noting that I'll be coming home in just 20 days now. I really should polish off my schedule a bit this next week.

I did start up exercising a bit this past week. I figure I want to be in good enough shape to play some sports while I'm back in the states. I say this only to point out that this is about the worst possible time to take up exercise in Bangladesh. On any given day it is generally in the upper 80's by 7:30 in the morning. By the afternoon it is in the mid-90's. Another thing that doesn't help is that the backup power supply at our house is broken, which means that, on any given day, we don't have electricity from about 6pm till about 9:30 or so. So pretty we pretty much just sit there and sweat for 3 hours in the dark. I've taken to going to bed with a towel over my pillow to soak up the sweat. I've also gone from being able to wear a pair of clothes for most of a week to having to change every day. I still haven't seen rain in Bangladesh in months. We got rained on in Cambodia and Malaysia but it hasn't come within miles of me in Bangladesh. I can't wait until the rain gets here and cools things off a bit.

I also went to Ben's house with Jodi tonight. We've been pestering him for months to have us over to meet his family and he finally got around to it. We're going to visit their neighbor tomorrow night as a result since many invitations come after the first. They seem like a really nice family. They have a small boy like Dave's family did but this one is much better behaved (I don't think he pees in the sink or wears girls clothing at all).

That last one is probably a good place to leave this.

Proof

Sometimes I catch myself saying things and realize that they are exactly why many people view me as strange. Tonight I had one of those moments, it was in the context of telling someone about Cambodia and I said, "It's really quite beautiful and the people giggle in a really cute way."

Bicycle Tales

I think I might make the thoughts I have while riding my bicycle a blog post more often (I love how Canadians pronounce the word often).

This morning my thoughts actually revolved around the bicycle and how it relates to people. When I got my bicycle this morning the guard pointed out that my front tire was flat. You may recall my last difficulties with a flat tire and how the experience was not so pleasant. So I prepared for the 2.5km walk to the nearest bicycle stand. On my way I passed through the village I live in and decided just to say hi to people as I passed. I saw one particularly old man and gave him a very respectful "A salam walaykum" which is a Muslim greeting which translates as "I wish you peace." He then asked me what was wrong with my bicycle. I told him the front tire was flat and showed him by pressing it down. He then told me to follow him and lead me to a house. They brought me a pump and I pumped my tire up. I then offered to pay the lady of the house for the use of the pump but she wouldn't take it. So put shortly, one polite greeting saved me a long walk and saved me 2 taka. I thanked both people profusely and then went on my way to work.

Later on my way to work I realized another fascinating thing about my bicycle. How cultures view their personal space changes how you ride a bicycle and how other people on the street treat you. In Bangladesh you constantly ride within a few feet or even inches (if at a slow speed) of people or other traffic. No one flinches or feels violated by this. If I tried doing this in the US I'd have people yelling at me for being crazy and trying to kill them even if it was at slow speeds people would at least flinch. It is recognized here that as long as you don't hit people, there is no harm done and all you are trying to do is get where you are going. Even more compelling for my argument is that often times people will purposely give you no more room than you need to get through here. It forces you to get somewhat comfortable with the system. I kind of like that aspect when I'm on a bicycle in Bangladesh but I must admit that I don't particularly like the fact that it applies for buses as well.

Cambodia

I'm back. Did you miss me?

Cambodia is an interesting place. We flew in to Phnom Penh (the capital) on the afternoon of the 20th after a 1 night layover in Malaysia. We took off from there straight to Sihanoukville which is a city on the coast. The first things I noticed were how much people use motorcycles in Cambodia and that they drive on the same side of the road as Americans. It was also very obvious how few people live in Cambodia as compared to Bangladesh. I just looked up the numbers and it appears that about 15 million people live in Cambodia. That is just slightly more than the number of people who live in Dhaka alone. Cambodia is also slightly bigger than Bangladesh.

Our bus broke down on the way to Sihanoukville and so we had to wait 2 hours for another one to come get us. Andy and Lana (the leaders of MCC in Cambodia) joked with us about the fact that none of us even came close to complaining about this inconvenience. The said that we would probably have complained if things had actually gone as planned. What ended up happening was that once Daniel realized that there were Mangoes outside at the stands he went out and started bartering despite the fact that he didn't know the language or have any local currency. Somehow he still managed to work out a good deal and got some money from Any and Lana. Then of course he wanted to eat it but didn't have a knife. Luckily the shop people were really nice and cut it up for him. We ended up exchanging some language lessons with them before they brought us some chairs to sit in. We then spent the next bit of time chatting and enjoying the evening.

The next 4 days or so were spent at the Orchidee Guest House. The days started out with a continental breakfast at the guest house. This is complete with fresh baked bread every morning. That's a good way to start the morning. We followed that up with a worship time led by Nate. We then finished off the mornings with Andy and Lana leading us in a journey of reflection and learning. We talked about what experiences have shaped us and made us who we are. Then we talked about our Myers-Briggs types. This lead into how we deal with each other and how we deal with our environment around us. It was very helpful but also led us to some challenging questions. We followed up those sessions with a lunch of traditional Cambodian food. It turns out that Cambodians don't use much spice in their foods. Instead they tend to have a lot of fruit flavorings. Lots of lemon, pineapple, and coconut. This is mixed in with a variety of meats like pork, chicken, and all sorts of fish. I thought it was all pretty good but actually prefer spicy foods to fruity foods. In the afternoons we had free time to do as we please. For me this meant a trip to the market, kayaking, snorkeling around a coral reef, and some frisbee on the beach. Then each evening we got together for supper at local restaurants. We varied the foods up and had things like grilled seafood, pancakes, and local cuisine. The pancakes were absolutely amazing. Supper would usually last a couple of hours due to chatting and then we would all go back and hang out at the hotel for a bit before bed.

Finally we returned to Phnom Penh to see the MCC office and meet the staff. We had lunch with all the expats working in Cambodia. One of the older workers was a guy I took one look at and just knew he had to be from central Illinios. There was something about his ears and facial structure that I recognized. Of course I was right. He had even gone to Bluffton as well where he met his wife who was from Pandora, OH. After lunch we went to visit some of MCC Cambodia's handicrafts partners and a local marketplace. I bought some gifts for some people but I won't ruin the surprise by saying who or what. That evening we had supper at a nice Cambodian restaurant which served the meal in courses. They had a very interesting tea which I'll probably post a picture of me drinking later (it looks like I've got something other than tea but I promise you it is only tea).

The next day a group of us went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. I would rate that experience as even more of a gut check than the Holocaust museum in Washington DC was. I think the thing that put it over the top was the fact that our guide talked about how half her family was killed before she and her mother escaped to a refugee camp in Vietnam. This combined with their brutal methods was pretty intense. You can read a general talk about what happened here.

After the museum trip we all got drenched by a thunderstorm. We then had lunch at Andy and Lana's house before we broke up and went our separate ways. For me this meant that I began my journey back to Bangladesh.

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip. It was my first time outside of the Bangladesh, India, Nepal region in 17 months. It was interesting to get a glimpse of western culture and how I'll respond to it when I travel to the states next month. I have developed some habits in Bangladesh and they are amusing to combat in certain situations. I'll try to follow this up with some stories of individual events that happened on the trip but won't promise that I get around to it.

MIGHTY MOUSE!!!

I finally got to go to the circus this past week. That has nothing to do with the title. It's just a statement of fact. Unfortunately, they did not have the tight rope walking goat. They did have a goat that walked up to a small platform and then turned around on it. Overall, it was worth the less than a dollar that we paid to for a 2.5 hour show but disappointed me because of its lack of use of animals. They had an elephant that kicked a soccer ball and they rolled out some cages with a small bear as well as some sort of cat for about 30 seconds. That was all the animals they ended up having. I'm pretty sure the amateur circus in Peru is better, but I can't say for sure because I've never been to it despite having grown up there.

I'll be going to Cambodia next week. I'll also be playing the Mennonite Game. It turns out that the couple who is coordinating with us to help lead our trip has family who goes to my brother's church. On top of that, the wife's mother is my brother's next door neighbor and her sister is in my brother's Sunday school class. I also have connections to meet up with Keith Graber-Miller who grew up in my home church. It should be a good time, lol. The trip itself is a 1 week retreat for those of us in Bangladesh with MCC. We are going to spend some needed time away from Bangladesh but also see a program that does some similar work. We will also do some things like swimming and probably getting sun burns as well. All this is to say, I don't know if I'll have a post up next week. I've gotten pretty irregular lately anyway so I suppose you won't be too put out.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for. Mighty Mouse. Reason #51 why I love Bangladesh. Because there are so many people here, you often see people who have faces that remind you of people you know back in the U.S. Well this morning on the way to work I saw a man who looked like Mighty Mouse. I was pretty amazed that such a man existed and thankful that I got to witness such a humorous thing. I also saw a man who slightly looked like Gomer Pyle but it wasn't as strong as Mighty Mouse was.

The simple pleasures, you need to cherish them sometimes.

Thoughts are an odd thing...

I thought I had posted once about 9 days ago. It turns out I was wrong, it was more than 9 days ago, and so I got some healthy reminders from multiple sources telling me that I need to blog. Being an appeaser, I'll fill you in on the strange and unusual life I've lived in the past couple of weeks.

I've been reading a prayer book that a friend sent me. It's been wonderful having a short but poignant something to look forward to reading every day. It has also been a wonderful thing for giving me fodder to think about on my 25-30 minute bike rides to work. Ben (the Canadian SALT'er) and I were just having a conversation about how much time we have to think about odd things on that bike ride. We had both ended up writing poems. I didn't write mine down and I'm not going to as it wasn't very good unless you have the acting that goes along with selling like one of those beat poets (by the way, I just realized that I've never actually seen a beat poet unless you count Jeff Gundy at faculty follies or some similar event). My poem was about the lorry (sp?) trucks that you see all painted up and carrying ridiculous loads here. It came about because was riding past one as it parked on the side of the road and I could hear it creaking as it settled in under it's heavy load. As is often the case, the truck in my poem crashes and the driver flees/dies (depending on the version) but, because this is Bangladesh (and therefore nothing can go to waste) the owner fixes the truck up. It goes back on the road and the whole process starts again. In retrospect, my poem is mostly depressing and makes me feel bad for the trucks. That said, I've also pondered what would happen if you tried firing a shotgun while riding a bicycle as well as how accepting diminishing marginal utility would affect how we view indifference curves. All this is to say that what I ponder on that bicycle is a strange spectrum.

Speaking of that bicycle, I've had requests that I share a story of something that happened to me this past week while I was on it.

The moon wasn't out a couple of nights this past week and as a result I couldn't see to well on those nights. On this night in particular I was riding down a dark alley with brick houses on one side and a brick wall on the other (it was really a pretty creepy setting to begin with). I saw a group of adults on the right side and another group on the left side. There was about 6 of them and the gap between them was about 4-6ft. I decided to ride between them like normal but at last second my worst nightmares were realized. No, they didn't mug me if that is what you think I was about to say, no in my opinion mugging would have been less heart rendering and unbearable because at last second a toddler came bursting out of the group on the right running towards the group on the left right in front of me. I didn't have much reaction time and the best I was able to manage was to slam on the brakes. Unfortunately, my steel bike, my laden book bag, and myself all carry a lot of momentum on a bike (especially one with poor brakes to begin with). So I hit the kid. Not just tap mind you, I've done the rough math in my head, with all that gear I was probably 6-10 times as heavy as that kid so even a small amount of speed carries a significant transfer of energy as my momentum is slammed into his. I walloped that poor child pretty solid. I don't think I actually ran him over but somehow he ended up between my tires. That was about the moment when the "banshee" yells started. By "banshee" yells I'm of course talking about the child's mother or female relative that was supposed to be watching this kid. She was soon joined in by a chorus of about 30 people who materialized out of nowhere all of whom were screaming and shouting. I have never seen so many people appear out of no where so fast in my life. It took them about 20-30 seconds to assemble. The men grabbed me to keep me from fleeing the scene (this grabbing is a customary reaction as is the customary reaction of fleeing when you do hit someone). If you kill someone and the mob manages to grab you before you get away then they basically beat you immediately on the spot which is probably why the tradition of fleeing started. Luckily, I didn't kill this child but he was crying and they didn't know the extent of the injuries because we were in a dark alley with no lights on, so they took him to a house with a light. The mob moved along with them and I with the mob. I'm lucky that I am someone that is calm under pressure. I never freaked out during all of this. While they were looking at the kid I was explaining (with my poor but adequate Bangla) to those interviewing me what happened. Once they realized that it was an accident, I wasn't lying, I was concerned about the child, and that I was foreigner they began to get a lot less hostile. They told me to wait and once they had sufficiently checked out the child and ascertained that I apparently didn't do too much damage they let me go. I wanted to see if I'd done much damage but I figured I shouldn't push my luck with an angry mother whose child was still crying around. It has been my past learning that angry mothers don't always think about everything clearly when their child is crying so I did what they said and started riding.

Not more than 100 yards down the road I was overwhelmed with a surreal experience. I had just hit a small child in a dark alley, an angry mob had formed, and here I was less than 5 minutes later and no farther than 100 yards away in a well lit intersection with a bunch of people going about normal life with no clue what had just happened or more specifically what I had done. I could extrapolate on how this same thing happens to us all the time but it is not my intention to be philosophical with this so I won't.

I haven't been back to check on the child yet. I want to go but figure it is best to give the incident some time to mend itself before returning. My boss told me that they will likely try to extort money out of me if I do go back and he advised against it. I personally feel terrible about hitting the child and think going back would help my own mental stability while helping to foster a better understanding of western mindsets for the local people. I could be wrong though, maybe I'll go back and my boss will be right. Maybe they will just see this as a chance to try to pry some money out of me. I'm resolute about the fact that I'm not giving them money but I imagine that could be a situation in which dealing with their demands is mentally tasking. This is Bangladesh though and I would suspect that everyone here has their fair share of mental burdens to deal with.

Also in relevance to this situation, I've had several people tell me that I shouldn't be allowed around small children anymore. That would be terrible thing for me to deal with. I love small children. I'm terribly mean to them (usually I stick to torturing their minds) and they usually love it (with a few exceptions such as the one above). I guess what I'm trying to say is, please give me a little grace on this one. Your child and I want to torment each other with glee. ;-)

With that, I'll leave you to deal with your own odd thoughts.