hartals

During the last week, Bangladesh saw the end of Ramadan close out with three days of feasting better known as Eid. Myself and four friends decided to take this opportunity off from work to go down and explore the Sundarbans in the southwest part of the country, the mysterious jungle home to approx. 300 Bengal tigers. (no we didn't see any tigers but plenty of deer which appear to be an anomaly around here. Come the end of our trip we hear news from Dhaka that the opposition party, the Awami League, has declared a continuous hartal (strike) to prove to the BNP, the ruling party in Bangladesh, that they are serious about the upcoming election in January. No hartals were declared during the month ramadan as to respect the holiday, however, the day after Ramadan proved to be the perfect time to show that the opposition party is still serious about their demands.
My friends and I were therefore stuck on a boat outside the port city Khulna, 7 hours away from our homes in Dhaka with no means of transportation. No buses, trains, cars, motorbikes were able to head to Dhaka, thousands of people were stranded and forced to find other means of subsistence for the next couple of days. On the third day of imobility, we decamped and made our way back to Dhaka thanks to a temporary break in the 'continuous hartal'. The situation is shaky, but Bangladeshis seem to believe that the situation will work itself out in the next week. As for myself I am home at my appt. again and in the highly guarded district of Bonani, the diplomatic enclave, where policemen and RAB (special forces) guard its streets day and night. Now we just wait and see!