Day 3 of curfew

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August 24th 2007

Published: August 24th 2007

Blogger Bec

Good news here in Dhaka, our government imposed curfew has been lifted during daylight hours.
The trade off is that during these times, the internet and telephone lines are disconnected. (yet, we are still using the net now and it's 9:10 in the morning.)

Yesterday was a bit hairy. We got up at the usual 5:45am ready to catch our 6:40am bus from the front of the apartment block. We waited and waited but still no school van turned up. Anxiously looking between my watch and my not-working mobile phone, Paula's voice ringing in my head - "nothing stops the school being open, we haven't closed the school in the history of ISD".
What if we were the only 2 teachers that didn't grab a rickshaw and fight tooth and nail to get to school??

There were no cars on the road, except the yellow plated government official ones, ambulances or military trucks loaded with machine gun toting soldiers. Oh, and the massive open roofed trucks packed to the brim with excitable and very, very angry young, male students on their way into town to find a juicy protest site with some sizeable rocks to pelt.

Hopping from one foot to another, my head ping ponging side to side straining to get a glimpse of the van, it all got too much for me and I sent Doug up to Richard, another ISD teacher who lives above us and who drives to school.

As he had proper internet connection, Richard's email was still up and running so he discovered the email messages sent out by the senior management team saying the government has closed all shops, all schools, all roads, all everything. We were under lock and key until further notice. Stow your tray table, put your seat in the upright position and Do Not Leave Your House.

Richard invited us to lunch, but first we needed to digest this new tidbit of information on our own. We sat in the lounge room, in full school dress mode, just sort of staring at each other in wonder. We were house bound? There was no school? OMG, what have we got ourselves into??

We spent the next 3 or so hours sitting on the back porch watching the security vans hoon down Gulshan Ave, this area's arterial road. Everything begins and ends on Gulshan Ave. It runs pretty much from the airport to the centre of town.

After realising that the curfew didn’t really mean that we were housebound EXACTLY - there were a few people out and about, plus the odd rickshaw - we got over the shock and then invited friends around if they felt brave.

3 came and we played cards for about 2 hours or so before we headed up to Richard and Natalie’s for lunch and dissection of the situation. We had home made pizza and were hugely entertained by their two young boys.
Situation made much better!

We then got the call that the curfew was lifted for 3 hours so everyone could get to a shop and stock up on essentials. Gratefully, we accepted Richard’s offer of a lift to Gulshan 2 (a large roundabout where most of the local shops are).

Pretty much every single other expat and rich Bangladeshi in the area was also in one of the 2 shops open, it was pretty crazy. Mob mentality kind’ve ruled and people were just grabbing things and stocking their trolleys high! There was no panic, just a very fast, purposeful pick and drop routine. Man, those two shops must’ve made a fortnight’s worth of takings in those 3 hours!!

We headed home, dropped our stuff off in the fridge and then headed over to “the girls” (3 of our single friends live in one apartment block so we just refer to them all as the girls, bad luck if they want to assert their individuality) house for dinner. Everyone bought a dish and we needed to eat pretty quickly if we were to make it back home before the start of curfew.

We didn’t end up leaving their place until 7:30pm (half an hour after the curfew) which caused me all sorts of angst but we got home unscathed and unstopped , even though a RAB (Rapid Assault Battalion) unit drove past us with sirens blazing.

Today is the first day of the weekend and things are back to normal, at least during daylight. Unfortunately, it’s absolutely CHUCKING it down with rain and as it’s the holy day, most of the shops aren’t open anyway!! He he, looks like it’s another DVD day!

Ahh, the pleasures of living in Dhaka.

BTW, please be assured that NONE of the fighting is ANYWHERE near us. The universities are right in the heart of the city and we are well away in the affluent suburbs were peace still reigns supreme. We are all just taking the necessary precautions.

Til next time,
Bec

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