The Ballet of the Traffic. Sort of…

The intermittent rain adds a new Dimension to the already complex dance which is traffic in Dhaka. Here the mass of all 14+ million residents seem to be in the streets at the same time. There is a definite hierarchy here. At the “large” end are the busses and trucks. Each carries battle scars of the many impacts with other, less fortunate vehicles. Next come the taxis, private cars and SUVs. These are driven with aggression and confidence in spite of a seemingly unlikely successful outcome. Next are the baby taxies – 3-wheeled , CNG powered overgrown motorcycles with a body - sort of. Then, the ubiquitous rickshaw. With more than 600,000 of them in Dhaka, there is always a crowd wherever you look. This “personal utility vehicle” is used to carry passengers and cargo of all types. I have seen them hauling food, wares, bricks, lumber, and a lot of things I could not identity. Finally, the pedestrians weave in and out of traffic without a hint of concern for the threat posed by the substantial speed and weight differences between them and the other vehicles. The dance is orchestrated by the ongoing cacophony of car horns, bus squeals and pedestrian shouts. Frequently policemen, and more often bystanders, direct traffic with an eye toward preventing deadlock. It is just amazing to see a mass of all these vehicles and pedestrians approach an intersection and “negotiate” their way through. Rickshaws pull immediately in front of cars, and never seem to get hit. Baby taxies dart between busses and trucks without being crushed. Pedestrians jump into the line of traffic without warning. I have come to realize that the blaring horns are meant to be a polite yet insistent notice to other road users that you are there and do not want to hit or be hit, (As I type this, my bus driver is honking his horn and passing an ambulance whose light is flashing.) And the dance continues.

Armenians in Bangladesh?

Given Joyce's Armenian heritage, I felt I had no choice but to visit the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection. As you can see, this church was built in 1781. It is a quiet refuge in an otherwise bustling Old Dhaka. I did not learn how this church came to be in a predominately Muslim region. But it was interesting to see how the city grew around this structure. It only took us about 3 hours to find this church - and this with a hired car, driver, and a Dhaka resident to help. I hesitate to think what would have happened without this help! Old Dhaka is laid out with windy, narrow roads which seem to lead nowhere. Each street is lined with shops of every possible variety. There is no shortage of entrepreneurial spirit in Bangladesh! See the Bangladesh slide show for more pictures of this church.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Sights, sounds, smells. It is through all of our senses that we know where we are and what is familiar. Landing at Kuwait City Airport with ½ mile visibility due to sandstorms, I got my first taste of the new. Arabic music, men’s and women’s prayer rooms, turbans, burkas, squat toilets, …. This certainly isn’t Kansas anymore. Of course, it’s offset a bit by the Starbucks and McDonalds in the terminal. So, for now at least, it’s foreign – but not that foreign.

Runtime Errors…

When I teach computer programming to my students, I am quick to point out that it's all about the details. A misspelled variable name or a missing semicolon means the program will never work. In these simple cases you are often helped by compiler errors which prevent the program from ever executing. These often cryptic messages give the initiated a chance to determine what went wrong and fix if fairly easily. The more insidious errors are called runtime errors. These are generally logical failures and occur only after the compiler tells you that you have a perfectly valid program. The problem with runtime errors is that the computer does very little to help you track them down. Your only hope is to try as many cases as possible, observe the results, and hope you can create a fix. Oftentimes runtime errors are "cured" with a workaround – a kludge which mitigates the problem in the program. Well, I've managed to trip across a few runtime errors in my travel already. These are unanticipated problems which could not be easily detected before the trip began – at least before the first trip of this kind. Live and learn! I now know that you cannot withdraw money from an ATM using a card which expired 5 days earlier! So much for the concept of ready cash in any country! But there's always the workaround of using (expensive) cash advances from a credit card. I also know that in order to insert a new SIMM chip into your cell phone to get local service, you need to have a SIM slot! And, in order to import liquor into a country which allows it, you cannot pass through a country which does not – especially if all of your bags are carry-on! Runtime errors are the bane of software developers. They are difficult to observe, problematic to find, and oftentimes impossible to fix within the current design. This makes workarounds a necessity. It seems that in travel, it is much the same. Even with extremely diligent planning, the unforeseen will occur. Just have those workarounds ready.

The familiar and the new...

It is the new in life that drives us to grow. It is the new that stimulates us and excites us. Is this the new that we spend our lives preparing for. It is the new that we choose to pursue. However, it is the familiar that makes us sane. The familiar keeps us grounded. The familiar is that safe place we go when life gets too hectic for us. I took a trip to the familiar today. Joyce and I hiked to an area we have hiked for 30+ years in Horsetooth Mountain Park. We took our picture at the very place we have so many time before. We have 30 years of pictures and memories from this spot. Memories with the two of us. Memories with our children. This hike reminded us of the rattlesnakes found along the trail. It reminded us of the infamous Father's Day hike in a hailstorm. It reminded us of all the conditions we have ever encountered in this place - sun, heat, rain, hail, snow, and mud. This familiar grounds me as I prepare to leave for Bangladesh tomorrow morning. I am always tense just before a big trip - anticipating the new, but dreading the loss of the familiar. I know that as I board my plan tomorrow I will surrender my control to others until I arrive at my destination. Then I will enter the new. I am so excited!

Patience, Reward, and Customer Service...

The last few weeks have been a significant trial for an impatient person like me. The biggest issue has been my ongoing battle with the Embassy of Kazakhstan to get my passport returned in time to start my travels. Of the three visa trips my passport made to DC, this was the only one I elected to send by Express Mail figuring that although I had 3 full weeks ("usual processing time up to 5 days") I might be a bit tight. The striking characteristic of my 3 times per day phone calls to the embassy to move the process forward was the overall pleasantness of the people involved. While the people were not really doing anything to help me, they were very nice and "sounded helpful." The urgency on my part never translated into action on their part. During the same weeks I struggled to get a jacket repaired under warranty. In a similar manner, the people were uniformly nice and always acted concerned about my problem. They sometimes even called back when they said they would. Yet nothing ever happened - it seems that "Nate" was on vacation, and he was the only one who knew anything. Then, the company was acquired and not allowed to order any new jackets until mid June when the ordering systems were merged. In both cases, caring and concerned employees were thwarted by business systems which prevented them from helping the customer. My final example was a "quick stop" to replace a custom made battery pack. Here I got the "it should take a day - we'll call you." Since they didn't call, I did! And somehow they seemed frustrated that I didn't just wait for them to call me. The key was expectations - had they told me it would take "up to a week," I would not have even thought about it. All of these reminded my of the adage to "under promise and over deliver" to ensure customer satisfaction. Setting realistic expectations, and then meeting or beating them is the best way to ensure customer loyalty. And the message for me for my upcoming trip? Be patient - it'll work out in the end!

Hello CSU...

As a two-time graduate of Colorado State University (CSU,) I am excited to return to my alma matter as an Instructor in the College of Business teaching Computer Information Systems. I taught my first class in the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprises (GSSE) program in the Spring Semester of 2008. I felt lucky to be able to teach the first cohort of this innovative program. The GSSE program is described in more depth at http://www.biz.colostate.edu/ms/gsse/. The most unique portion of this program are the summer experiential learning opportunities. This summer I have the pleasure of joining two teams who have already begun their in-country experiences. First I will travel to Bangladesh with the Small Engines team to explore the opportunities for a low cost, 1-HP, biodiesel engine being developed at CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory (http://www.eecl.colostate.edu/) used for farm irrigation. For updates on this program read the excellent blog by student Mitesh Gala at http://entersection.blogspot.com/. After a week in Bangladesh, I will travel on to India to explore the market potential for hydraulic hybrid retrofit kits to be used on buses and trucks to reduce fuel consumption and hence lower pollution. You can learn more about this project by visiting http://www.czero-solutions.com/. Finally, I will be teaching in the Executive MBA program at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management (KIMEP http://www.kimep.kz/.) My wife will join me for this leg of the trip starting in early July. This should prove to be an exciting summer for us - please join me for the journey.