Discontented Ramblings

If that title doesn't draw you in, I'm not sure what will...

Things in Dhaka have been what I'll call "less than ideal" for a while now.  The on-going blockade of the city and the accompanying hartals have necessitated what amounts to a lockdown inside the diplomatic enclave for quite some time.  While I might not have gone to any stores or visited around the city were this not happening, the fact that I CAN'T do those things just makes me a bit stir crazy. 

Even within the enclave, we are facing restrictions in which roads we can use at different times of the day due to the likelihood of protests involving cocktails (the equivalent of weak flash-bang grenades) and petrol bombs (similar to molotov cocktails).  I'm not usually a social butterfly by any means, but, again, these restrictions just make me antsy. 

Additionally, due to unrelated (mostly) issues, our commissary is slowly but surely running out of food.  Were the local grocery store easy to get to, this wouldn't be a huge problem.  However, it's on one of those roads that we can't be on most of the day.  They have not had dry cat food since we got here, and I've been unsuccessful so far in cracking the code on how big of a bag I can buy that will actually get shipped here.  So far, both bags I've attempted to order have been rejected and shipped back.  Awesome. 

Our car continues to give us issues.  Sometimes I wish I'd studied auto mechanics before coming overseas - I definitely wouldn't lack for customers.  So far, we've flushed the radiator, replaced the water and oil pumps, replaced the head gasket, replaced the brakes, flushed the radiator again (since they mixed antifreezes at some point creating a fine mess), and had some electrical work done since stepping on the brakes would make the headlights turn on.  All of this from a car that was in "good mechanical condition" according to the previous owner.

In local news, an arrest warrant has been issued for the leader of the opposition party (BNP) and there's no real way to know what will happen if they actually take her into custody.  Also, a few days ago, an American citizen was hacked to death with meat cleavers downtown.  He was Bangladeshi-born and well-known as an atheist blogger which some apparently felt was justification for murdering him in front of his wife.

And now my lack of cat food seems a petty concern.