It was a chilly mid-March morning in Washington, D.C., where 10 journalists from nine developing countries arrived to participate in the six-month Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship, a cultural and professional exchange program.

On the first day, we were asked to greet the person sitting next to us like we would in our home country, just as long as we would not offend anyone. This took awhile, as we quickly discovered that different cultures have different ways of saying, "Hi. Nice to meet you."

A native of Nepal, a Hindu-dominated culture, I stood up and said, "Namaste (pronounced NA-mah-stay)," a greeting usually accompanied by clasped hands and a slight bow.

The person next to me, Samuel Siringi of Kenya, said "Habari," which he translated to "How are you?" Umar Cheema, a fellow from Pakistan, said "As-Salamu Alaykum," meaning "peace be upon you." It usually is accompanied with a handshake.

When it was his turn, Sopan Joshi, from India, pointed at me and said, "He stole my thunder."

He was hinting at my greeting, which also is common in India.

Then he started to talk about his country's diversity and how there are so many different greetings, it was difficult to come up with one.

Lucia Baldomir had a different problem. She said that in her country of Uruguay, when you hug each other, you are expected to deeply embrace the other person.

She complained that with the Americans, it was just a partial or half hug. "If you want to hug, you hug," she said.

But no matter how diverse the fellows' backgrounds are, the messages of the greetings are the same. So, with clasped hands and a slight bow, I say, "Namaste" to you.