Christmas!

It's not one of those fancy Christmas card pictures with my family and pets but I figured some of you might enjoy a Christmas picture of me. I got new glasses since my last publicly released photo but the lighting makes them hard to see.

This was my second Christmas in Bangladesh and my first in which I didn't have a trip planned (some of you may remember I joined some co-workers for a trip to Cox's Bazar and St. Martin's Island last Christmas). In a sense that made it much more awkward than last Christmas. The lead up to it didn't feel much at all like Christmas other than the cookie baking day at the Miller's flat, Nate's constant playing of Christmas tunes, and some Church services referencing Christmas' coming. I did have a tree thanks to my mother sending me one last year, but without everyone being in the spirit of Christmas is just doesn't feel the same. I also remembered how much I truly enjoy Howard-Miami Mennonite Church's Christmas eve service. In spite of all that, Christmas day was about as normal of a Christmas for me as I think I'll ever have in Bangladesh. A bunch of us gathered at Jodi's house where she had cooked up a storm and served us a nice brunch. We then read the story of Christ's birth and did some hymn singing. We followed that up by lounging around, talking, watching Christmas movies, and eating lots of snack foods. At the end of the day, I called home and found out that I was wrong in speculating that someone might be up by 7:30 (I figured they would at least be getting ready to do chores by then). They all managed to wake up and chat with me despite their sleepiness. That's really all there is to say about my Christmas. It was good to have friends to share it with but I think I might want to consider going on a trip for Christmas next year. It just works better that way in my opinion.

Today is some sort of holiday (Muslim I think?) so we've had a 5 day weekend here. Other than the Christmas activities, it's really been mostly boring. No one has even been at the office to play badminton with me. I've dealt with this extra time on my hands by taking my time when I'm traveling back and forth from the house. This allows me to gawk right back at those watching me as I ride by. It's really quite a fun game to play when you are bored because bengali's are doing all sorts of stuff everywhere.

I've also done a bit of free lance cooking. I made a dish that is a rice-a-roni like dish. Or at least what I imagine a rice-a-rone dish might be like because I've never actually had rice-a-roni. I basically did some vegetable and rice mixed in with some beef but flavored taco meat style where you boil off the water. Serve it with some fresh cabbage from the garden and some nan picked up from a resturant in town. Nate and I both thought it was a tasty meal.

I have also managed to get most of the way through both books that my mother gave me for Christmas already. She sent me a couple of her copies of books from the Home to Harmony series by Philip Gulley. They are a good humorous light read. Great for lazy days like the last couple of mine.


Here is hoping that all your Christmas' were more exciting than mine! (but not in a bad way of course)

Future Plans and Christmas

I placed my order for my flights home this next summer this week. I don't have confirmation yet but I should be in the States from April 30th to June 4th this next summer. It's hard to believe that I'll be home in a little over 4 months. Speaking of which, one of my co-workers suggested that I get a suit tailored for my brother's wedding. I just chuckled at them and told them I didn't want to dress better than the groom at his own wedding. That's just tacky and inconsiderate. I am still considering having the suit made anyway and just not wearing the jacket to the wedding.

I had my first moment of it actually feeling like a real Christmas season this week. A bunch of us went to Dhaka this week as there as a national holiday (victory day, their version of independence day) and we had a big cookie baking day at the Miller's house. The massive volume of cookies reminded me of the lead up to Christmas back at home. The best moment was not the baking though. The best moment was when we had a regular meal with a huge plate of cookies as the center piece of the table. That image hit me hard as one I have extremely strong memories of family and love. Times spent at Aunt Susan's, the Birkey Christmas get togethers, at the Bond's house, and with company over at my parents place came flooding back to me. I can talk about how comfortable I am with the fact that I'm here all I want but I'd be a fool to not miss those times. To be frank, I could be ok with doing away with Christmas gifts, but never in a million years would I give away those times together with family and friends (side note to family and friends, I do realize that I don't do a good job of showing this when I don't manage to send you Christmas cards).

I don't remember if I've mentioned on here or not that a group of us international people living in Bogra have started a home church. One of the things we discussed this week (as an aside to the message) was our different traditions. My favorite one was that in South Korea they have a Christmas Eve service that ends with them going around to peoples doorsteps at 2 am singing. Could you imagine someone showing up at your doorstep at 2am on Christmas to sing to you? Though I guess some of my readers are probably old enough that they are up at 2am for one of their many nightly bathroom breaks, so it might not be so much of an out of the way thing for them. :-)

I've been wanting to...

I've been wanting to write on here. I really have. I just didn't really have good motivation behind that desire. My mother sent me an email saying I'm failing to do this. I had been thinking about that before she sent the email but likely wouldn't be writing this even now if it weren't for that email. I do have to confess that my not updating this blog has not been the only way I've failed her. I managed to forget to call her on her birthday. Somehow it got sandwiched between a Colts victory and my housemates birthday this year. That's the best reason I can come up with as to how that brain fart happened.

Lately I've been riding motorcycle or bicycle to work. Unfortunately, it's dark when I come and when I leave from work. It's also very foggy at night now. The combination of the dark and the fog make already dangerous roads all that much more dangerous. That and the 20 minutes or so that driving them affords me each way gives me way to much time to think about life. Too many serene thoughts have been thought on that ride recently.

Speaking of thoughts. I made Nate a cake for his birthday the other day. Only we didn't have enough eggs when I wanted to bake it. Daniel told me to run to the village shop to get some. I hadn't been there before and didn't know the price of eggs. It wasn't a trip that I relished making. Armed with directions on how to find it and Daniel's word that eggs weren't that expensive I headed out because I really wanted to make the cake pretty badly. I got to the shop and asked for 8 eggs. She named her price of 48 taka for them (roughly $.75). I told her I thought that was a little expensive (based off of Daniel's comment). She proceeded to get very angry with me and give me a lecture (in Bangla of course) about how this is the only shop in town and that the price is correct. Still not knowing what was up I bought the eggs and high tailed it back to the house. Unfortunately for me, all the kids who had gathered on my shopping adventure thought my not knowing the price of eggs was hilarious. They of course quickly ran home to tell their families the funny story except for one boy. He decided to ride his bicycle right next to me and tell me how dumb I had been. If you know me, I was obviously not enjoying this too much. I ended up telling him to shut up (luckily he did) and got back to my house ASAP. The cake was delicious, but I'm sure I haven't heard the end of this story yet. After I'm gone I'll probably always be remembered as the silly Bideshi that didn't know the price of eggs.

I've also recently taken up playing badminton left handed. I got tired of my right shoulder hurting so I just switched arms. I'm absolutely terrible left handed. All the losing is tearing at my competitive side but I'm committed to this.

In Nepal, again...

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

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

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

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

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

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

8lbs of coffee is a lot

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

Mufajil

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

Names I've had on Bus Tickets

Mr. Fil (Most common spelling.)

Mr. Feal

Mr. Feel

Mr. Feeel

Mr. Fiel

Mr. Fail

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

Things I saw on my way to work this morning.

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

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

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

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

Some fields of rice were beginning to be harvested.

I saw a group of nomadic gypsies starting their day.

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

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

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