Well I was wrong about the hartal - I read a later report and it was more like 500 people who were injured in the capital on that day. Still didn't hear about any deaths, though, which is good.
Yesterday three leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, an "islamic" party that is present the world, were ironically arrested on charges of offending Muslims or something like that (they said that one of their leaders was like the prophet Mohammad), although now they may go on trial for war crimes committed during the liberation war in the late 60s-early 70s - they fought to stay united with Pakistan. The Prime Minister has claimed this wasn't a political move, but it sure looks like one. Jamaat-e-Islami has now called for demonstrations against the arrests tomorrow, the holy day, which will probably start in earnest after the 12:45 prayer, as they have called for people to gather at the mosques for prayers tomorrow (the first one is supposed to be at 3:45 am, so I doubt they'll start then). So yet again, I'll be avoiding going to far in the afternoon because I'd rather not get caught up in the frenzy of silly political tiffs - there was already a rather large gathering around a man with a megaphone about a block from here when I came home. The last time this group demonstrated was 3 years ago, and I've been told that they set off a bomb in nearly every subdistrict in the country (there were 200 and some at the time). No one was killed, but it is still scary. This country is crazy sometimes!!
Yesterday was somewhat eventful - Bilqis and I visited a consultant at USAID to talk about their agricultural programs. It was a very helpful meeting, but there is plenty of follow up to do, as USAID doesn't run too many programs itself, but rather through partners like CARE and Save the Children. Then last night I had dinner with a friend of a friend who also works at the US embassy at an Indian restaurant in Banani (my neighborhood). She brought a bottle of wine, and it was amazing! It seems like soooo long since I've had a drink. We had a good chat, and it was nice to see some fellow Americans here. I haven't run into any since the first weekend!
In other news, I finally succumbed to watching Twilight tonight while avoiding the man with the megaphone crowd, and I hate to admit, I kind of enjoyed it. Some of it was ridiculous, but overall it wasn't bad. I still don't understand the fascination with Robert Pattinson, though - that forehead!
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