Reality

I talked last time about how I'm writing goals going forward. Unfortunately, the reality that I see for the near future is that I'm going to be doing a fair amount of work that I find tedious and boring. I'm actually blogging right now because I don't feel like doing that work, but I will get back to it shortly and try to hammer away at it. I just have to keep in mind the larger picture of what I'm doing here. I think I might have mentioned before that many of the things that I end up doing here are either boring or are only interesting to me (meaning I can't tell others about them because they would find it boring). On top of that, most of the interesting stuff I do isn't stuff I feel is appropriate to share publicly. The big picture, as I have been realizing more and more lately, is that by helping out in getting the mundane things done, I am able to give our program here more and more ability to think about what it means to do things the "MCC way". That ends up meaning that we do more and more things in a way that is purposeful rather than just a way that gets tasks done. That, to me, is the ultimate excitement. I mean, we are already helping poor people who are very much worthy of being loved, which is exciting in and of itself, but as I've been reminded often lately, we need to be mindful that what we are doing isn't just vanity.

One of these days...

This last week I was stuck in a meeting (one of several). Only in this meeting I did something abnormal; I made a list. On this list I started writing down things I wanted to do during my remaining time in Bangladesh. I'm not normally a list person but in recent months I've found that having a list helps me get stuff done. It gives me goals to achieve and that, I think, is something I really need to do in my life.

Then later in the week, we had some visitors from MCC here writing stories. I helped to take them around to a couple of our projects and got to see some new interesting stuff myself. As we walked around I reminisced about how much I love being around farming and sharing stories. I think that is why I still consider working at Weldon Mast's grain elevator my favorite job of all time but that is besides the point. Now that I'm back and reflecting on my time out in the field, I've been thinking about making goals for life beyond Bangladesh.

Given the week, I think it is only fair to myself to set my first goal as:

1. Be a successful farmer.

I don't know how long I'm going to make this list and I doubt much of it will be public. I'm also quite sure I'll pursue and achieve other goals before this one, but this is a beginning. My first, "one of these days..."

Choices

I completely missed out on posting last week, sorry to those who check for updates regularly (probably just my parents).

Some of you may know that I've been considering an extension of my term her for the last several months. It has been a bit of a challenging process for me. When I was home this past summer I was pretty set on the fact that I didn't feel like I should extend even if that meant I didn't know what I would do when I got back. Unfortunately, when I was eventually offered an extension, I felt a leap in my gut saying, "take it!" I've been praying about what all this means and talking to family about it. I don't feel like I've received any particular feedback from God and my family has been nothing but understanding and supportive either way. All that has left me in limbo for awhile. I struggled with what it means since this is no small matter. Eventually I decided that maybe God wasn't giving more feedback because God already put that leap in my gut. Admittedly, I'm not Elizabeth and it wasn't John the baptist leaping down there, but I like to try and listen when I think God is speaking. With that in mind, I decided to do a one year extension on the end of my term which means I'll be here until Oct. 2012.

I'm actually happy about it. I am viewing this time as a transition time for me to take steps towards doing some things that I have been wanting to do but haven't committed myself to doing previously. I'm excited about the possibilities. At the same time, I doubt I'll be extending beyond the 1 year I already have. It could certainly happen, but I'm thinking it will take an act of God to make me believe I should. Speaking of which, those of you who would like to may contact my mother who will probably be organizing a committee to pray that such an act of God doesn't occur.

Elections

It is local election time in Bangladesh and I figure that is worth a post. For national elections in Bangladesh you really do essentially have 2 main parties (or to be more precise, two main coalitions) much like in America but the real difference is in the local elections. I know this because it is everywhere and very obvious right now. I used to think that political advertisements in America were annoying (still do) but now I know how much more annoying they could be. In Bangladesh the 25 different parties (more or less, this is my rough estimate based on the posters I've seen) plaster black and white posters (color posters were made illegal by the last government to save politicians from wasting their money) everywhere. This isn't so bad, it almost feels like a ticker-tape parade as they hang over the street and being that it is just paper, they biodegrade eventually. What makes them worse than American politicians is the next step they take. All these political parties hire rickshaws to pull around loudspeakers blaring their slogans at levels that often hurt to hear. It ends up meaning that all afternoon and evening you hear one go by about every 15 minutes or so. You hear them coming, you hear them going but unlike the various American media mediums like tv, radio, and newspaper; you can't shut them off or close them. You just have to sit there and take it. Yesterday, I tried to convince my coworkers that they should revolt against this injustice that is being forced upon them by organizing an overthrow of these things but then they correctly pointed out that I was suggesting a violent response which they wanted no part in. Don't you hate it when things you preach get turned around on you?

Also, here is a list of all the political symbols I see on my way to and from work:
Apple
Thermos
Violin
Deer
Water pump
Fan
Bucket (this one has particularly loud and annoying loudspeaker advertisements)
Chicken
Light-bulb
Bus
Crescent
Soccer ball
Top (as in the children's toy)
Flower pot
TV (I thought this one was a microwave at first)
Water jug
Clock
Leaf
Flower
Drums
Kite
Anchor
Bird
Sewing machine
Camera

They certainly choose a much greater variety than elephants and donkeys.

India Part 2

I think I left off with the week in Goa. After Goa, we took a two night train ride to Delhi. It was the same train for the entire duration and it was a total of about 40 hours.

The scenery was nice.

As you can imagine, that is a lot of time on a train. It really wasn't so bad though. Trains are not like planes where you are cramped up the whole way. You can get up and walk around. You can even get off at the stops and wait until the train starts moving to hop back on. We passed our time doing things like reading, talking, watching scenery, playing card games, sleeping, eating, listening to music, and trying to combine these activities.

Once we finally got to Delhi on the 2nd morning. We spent about half the day getting hotel rooms lined up and purchasing train tickets to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We almost got swindled while attempting to get our train tickets but luckily we caught our mistake before it was too late. I did however manage to get yelled at by a very angry Indian travel agent in what was a rather embarrassing scene. After we got our stuff all lined up we decided to see a little bit of Old Delhi. To get there we decided to take the metro. For a small fee of 8 rupees (45 rupees to the dollar) we got to travel on a very nice but somewhat crowded subway. From the subway station we walked about 10 minutes to reach the Jama Masjid which was built by Shah Jahan who is the same guy who built the Taj Mahal. It is a giant Mosque which can accommodate 25,000 people for prayers. I got yelled at here as well (it wasn't a good day for me in this regards) but after I did a very over-the-top apology these guys seemed to genuinely like me. After the Jama Masjid we went to Karim's a famous Mughlai restaurant. We had nan and some various meat and vegetable dishes that were quite delicious. Afterward, we went for a walk through Old Delhi at night. Eventually we started asking for a metro station so we could get back to our hotel. We kept getting pointed along and when we finally got to the station we realized that we had walked all the way back to the part of town we were staying in! We settled in for a nice rest after two days of sleeping on the train dreaming of our adventures to the Taj Mahal soon to follow.

Jama Masjid

Explanations

Sometimes my co-workers ask me to explain things to them. Oftentimes this ends up meaning that I'm making stuff up on the fly.

Today I was asked to explain the saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

In the end, I found the best way to communicate this concept was to use the example of a saint. My logic was that saintly people are incapable of gaining absolute power because by nature, being a saintly person means constantly giving up power to others. Therefore, the process of gaining absolute power inherently requires a selfishness that will corrupt you.

Thoughts? Criticisms? (Be nice I really was making this up as I went.)

Vacation Part 1: Goa

There are a few things that I've slowly come to accept in my term with MCC in Bangladesh. One of those things is that I can only handle being in Bangladesh for roughly 5 months at a time before I get burned out. For various people that I talk to, the time frame is different but the feeling is the same. After a pretty predictable amount of time you start noticing that you no longer have the energy you once had and that you need to step away to be renewed. If you don't allow yourself to do this, you can become incredibly burned out and miserable (I once lasted 9 months). Our retreat to Goa was rather well timed for me since I was right on 6 months or so since I had come back from the states. Before the retreat I had felt all the telltale signs of burnout that I am accustomed to seeing at this point. The biggest sign being that of a lack of patience in life. I was worn out and needed this.

For our retreat this year we joined our colleagues from MCC Nepal and India for a trip to Goa. Normally Goa would be way out of our price range as MCC Service Workers but someone was friends with some Jesuit priests who have a retreat center there who gave us a really good deal. Our accommodations were simple but the location was absolutely stunning.

We stayed up in the building you see on that wooded ridge

A view from the retreat center itself.

A typical day involved worship in the morning followed by some sessions on various issues related to the work we do and taking care of ourselves as we go about doing that work. This usually lasted until mid-afternoon at which time we were free to go enjoy the beach or other various activities. I particularly loved jumping around on the rocks. Through this time we were also able to spend time getting to know our colleagues in a natural setting which is also quite useful since in our regular everyday lives, it seems that getting together is something you have to force yourself to do sometimes. Overall, this time in Goa was a week that I will treasure. I gained so much energy from it and found a lot of renewal in so many ways.