They call me...Muad'dib

I had a great time last night. A new tenant arrived while I was at work. Currently, it is myself, Sabrina, Mr. Hu, "Bob" and now "Jim". I use "" because these are not their given names. While something similar, they anticipated my inability to remember/pronounce their actual names. They are both from China. Bob works in the cell phone industry and Jim is on business inspecting products of some sort. It was a lively conversation at dinner, most of it in Chinese, but translated by Sabrina or Jim for me to join in. Bob and I curiously got on the topic of the film/book Dune. He said he would call me "Muad'dib" (pronounced Moh-a-deeb) a name of one of the characters in the film, which translates to "desert mouse". I thought it a somewhat fitting nickname, seeing that I am still a bit frightened by the city, like a little desert mouse. It was noodles and masala chicken for dinner (my favorite so far).

The combination of Chinese and Bengali cuisine is very interesting and different than anything I have experienced before. The others eat from bowls with chop sticks. Mr. Hu always puts a plate with silverware for me to use (even when sometimes the bowl/chopstick method would be easier). Sabrina told him that when she gave me noodles in the morning I did just fine with chopsticks. I'm still not sure if he is convinced. The food is simple, but very delicious. Mr. Hu goes to the bazaar down the street for fresh produce. While sometimes a bit too spicy for my western tastes, I am getting used to it. It seems to be more a matter of balancing the combination of the not spicy noodles (or rice depending on the meal) with the very spicy main dish. I am still trying to figure out one of the dishes that seems to be served at every meal. It is carrots and some type of potato like spud/vegetable with a spicy simple syrup glaze. None of the tenants have been able to give me the English word for it but I'm sure we can work something out. Breakfast, lunch and dinner the dish is served cold and seems to be accepted in combination with anything, be it bread rice or soup.

This morning I headed back in to work, hoping for a more fruitful day. The trip there was much more enjoyable in a CNG (compressed natural gas). The rickshaws are sometimes blocked by police from entering main roads during busy hours, which led to me walking quite a distance yesterday, but the CNG was able to bring me right up to Brac HQ.

 We had a brief meeting with the interns from the other divisions at Brac. Since each division is located on a different floor it was nice to finally meet some people that I could share common ground with. When I entered the meeting I was a bit surprised to finally see another white person. Up until this point I believed my self to be the only white person in the whole of Dhaka (I realize this is somewhat ridiculous but really not drastically far from the truth). She is from New Zealand and on the tail end of her internship (much to my chagrin, because she speaks English for one and her accent is very pleasing). After tea (which I'm starting to warm back up to after a long absence from getting used to it in Ireland) we had a short discussion and were dismissed. Upon returning to my cubical, I was greeted by my boss, Mr. Mehedi, and introduced to the entire team.

After going over some of my previous work experience, Mr. Mehedi outlined a few of the projects I would be working on. It was quite a load. First off, he greatly emphasized the need for me to become extremely familiar with the enterprise division operations (including livestock, poultry, solar power, fair trade and many more). This in itself seems quite a task. Also I will be producing, recording and editing a promotional video for enterprises. This includes coming up with the overall theme and script for the interview process. I will also be working closely with the communications department, developing strategies to improve our social media content and distribution. In a few weeks, I will be giving a seminar on email etiquette, going over how to properly compose and email in a business-like manor and when it is acceptable to be less formal (apparently there have been a few mishaps with less than proper emails to business partners). On top of that I will be responsible for working with my cube mate to improve her English and she my Bengali- Needless to say, I am a bit overwhelmed.

After getting home from a pretty long day, I was pleasantly surprised to see Sabrina had cleaned my room and changed my sheets. She also had given me a new pillow case, which I found rather amusing.

It's 6:30 pm and I am already finding myself a bit drowsy. The not-so-distant sounds of the city are blending with the constant hum of my fan, lulling me into a vegetative state. Soon we will have dinner and soon after that I will snuggle up with my Hannah Montanan (maybe? not to sure) pillow to dream of wonderful distance places, about as far away from here as possible, on the other side of the world, the land of the free and the home of the brave...my home...Indiana. Good night friends.