A ripe banana peel

I finally can share with you "what's next" for me because we've announced my new unit formally!  See the post I wrote on the launch of BRAC's Social Innovation Lab for details!

On October 27, we launch Making TB History in France.  After we get that our of the way, I can get onto the important business of taking a week of vacation.  This happens to correspond with "bloody" Eid here, which is when cows, goats, and even camels are killed rather publicly as part of the day's celebrations.  So I'm not already disappointed to be far away sipping on wine and walking around European cities.

My two team members and I gave the presentation at the launch event, and we were all a bit nervous.  I was less nervous than I should have been because I'd spent the two days prior shuttling between different offices to get my visa extension finalized before leaving the country.  So I didn't really have time to freak out appropriately about public speaking.  My goal for the presentation was to be funny.  Content is overrated (and see, now that I'm an author and I've even SOLD a book for tk 685 (US $8), I can say that with great confidence).  I think I made three jokes, and I heard chuckles as a result of two of them.  Note: always try to plant a few easily-amused people in the audience.

Fazle Abed, the founder of BRAC who continues to be an amazing presence in our office today, kicked off our event by telling stories of innovation at BRAC.  One involved figuring out how to make the government vaccination program effective by creating a rural distribution network of functional cold chains. One huge discovery was that a peel from a ripe banana provided a perfect environment for the vaccine during transport.  And there are plenty of bananas here!  Simple, appropriate, effective.

The perfect analogy, in my mind, for was the Social Innovation Lab should be.  It's an ap-peel-ing image for such a fruit-ful opportunity, right?  Maybe we can make a mascot and get a costume.  Or just have a constant supply of banana bread in our office.....

With huge amounts of help from several people at BRAC and an inside hero at the visa office, I was granted another 335 days (now 331) in Bangladesh, with multiple exits, meaning that I can go to France AND get back into Bangladesh (sweet!).  Looking forward to making each one count.