Appellation

After three weeks in Bangladesh I have learned a few simple phrases in Bangla, where the grocery story is and how to walk there without stepping in things I'd rather not mention, and that I'm not very good about keeping in touch with family and friends back in the States. In my defense, it’s been a whirlwind of a few months packing my apartment in DC, starting a new job in Bangladesh, finding an apartment here, and hosting a team of visitors from Washington. Where did October go? So as I sat in a meeting not following the Bangla side chatter and mentally making a list of loved ones to call later on Skype, the thought crossed my mind to start a blog. As Cliff Poling says, 'just go online!' The answer to any question.

I have no idea what I'm doing. A blog? The few sentences of 'about me' to the left took enough time for my laptop to drain from 100% to 21%. The laptop's been running so long and sitting on my legs it feels like it might catch my Ohio State sweatpants on fire.

I have been traveling to Bangladesh since August 2009 to work with the Smiling Sun Franchise Program. One of my favorite Bangladesh-isms since my first trip here has been the use of the article 'the.' For example, introductions in meetings are "I am the Mozzammel Hoque." And the response to the question "who have you been working with on this?" is "I worked with the Laura and it was reviewed by the Jim." There is a part of me that smiles every time I hear the use of 'the' even though I've witnessed it for years. So I really can't explain why I was so surprised and amused when I overheard it. The Andie. I belive the exact phrase was "everyone is happy that the Andie is here."

And there you have it. I never thought I'd be referred to as TheAndie, I never thought I'd be a blogger, but I guess I always knew I would run the battery down on this laptop. Publishing before I have a first-blog-post-ever failure.