I feel like Count Chocula

I've had a very relaxing weekend, but I feel a chocolate-colored cloud of guilt hanging over me. Since Thursday afternoon, I've done little else besides watching movies and shoving anything chocolate I could find into the hole in my face. I felt like a bottomless cocoa pit. My excuse is that being overseas has some kind of physiological effect that makes me crave sugar, but we all know that excuse is pretty much bollocks. I find myself talking about my veganism in the past tense these days, scoffing at my "once upon a time" refusal of Twix bars and Milano cookies. These days, it's like a race to see how much chocolate I can consume before puffing up like that girl in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, just waiting for a team of Oompa-Loompas to roll me out of the front doors of the BRAC building...

Other than the sloth and lethargy, things are going well. We had an extended weekend since Sunday (today) is national solidarity day, the start of the Bangladeshi revolution against Pakistan. On Friday there was a very moving inter-faith assembly to honor the life of Runa, the young woman at the American club who was recently killed. There was an Imam, a Buddhist monk, and an American Reverand who spoke the most beautiful Bengali I've ever heard from a foreigner. He sang a devotional song in Bengali that moved me to tears. I asked him if he knew where I might be able to buy Bangla-Christian CDs for my grandmother, a devout Methodist who loves all things musical.

I finally began moving into my other apartment in Banani with my buddy Karishma. I moved some boxes today, and my custom-made bamboo bedframe is coming in Wednesday. It's amazing how strong bamboo actually is. People even use towering stalks of it to support mechanized cranes on certain construction sites here. It's incredible.

Well, I should be off. Just had a second installment of tennis lessons here at the American Club. I think I swatted more mosquitoes than tennis balls today, but I'm a learner, right? Rachel nearly gave one of the markers a concussion. She has a powerful arm.

Take care, and keep reading my weblog!

TKP