The Beginning

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The Characters
An Aesop's Fable with a Moral

The expatriate community in Bangladesh was quite small, so naturally the circles of the Noolans-with the non-government organization Symbiosis- and myself-an international school teacher- often collided. This was in Dhaka in 2009.

"I'm Jeanette, from Adelaide, Australia," Jeanette said to me, "I hear you are a Yank.

"Excuse me?" I abhor labels. "I'm from the United States, yeah, but not a Yank."

"To Australians all Americans are Yanks," she stated.

"At least she didn't tell us what state she's from, assuming we know exactly where that is," pointed out Steve.

This was my introduction to candid, direct Australian culture. The first part of my trip will be caravanning from Alice Springs to Adelaide with Jeanette and Steve Noolan,

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