Today proved to be a momentous day in Thai history and politics. Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok made headline news around the world. The Thai military stormed the Red Shirt blockade and intense shooting, bombs, and fires ensued in central Bangkok. Eventually the Red Shirts surrendered, but there is evidence that violence may take place in other cities around Thailand.
Peace Corps continues to keep us up to date on the events as they unfold with text message alerts, e-mails, and US Embassy information. Peace Corps staff even made phone contact with every volunteer today in order to confirm our safety and evaluate our security. So far no one has reported any change in our villages, which is good.
I am safe in my village, nothing about my day has changed. However, this afternoon as the violence played out, I was able to follow along online via Twitter and other online news sources. It was surreal to get minute by minute updates from journalists and other people on the streets of Bangkok, to see photos of fires and gunshot occurring near places I usually hang out at in Bangkok. Throughout my PC service, Bangkok has always been this oasis of air conditioned hotels, foreign grocery stores, pizza, and hanging out with other volunteers. But now, it's a scary, violent mess and it makes me so sad. As the violence has escalated in the past week, I realized for the first time how much Thailand really means to me. This is my home, this is where I live, and it pains me to see such violence in my home. I know this may seem a little strange juxtaposed against a few blog posts ago as I lamented about homesickness and culture shock. Those feelings still exist, but I also know no matter how homesick, lonely, or out of sorts I feel here, this is my home; I belong in Thailand right now. I can say with confidence I genuinely want to be in Thailand, living in this heat, eating strange and sometimes downright gross foods, hanging out with Grandma Next Door, and teaching funny songs to the preschoolers.
That's my update for today. Hopefully this very complicated political issue can come to some sort of resolution where the violence ends and both sides can feel empowered and able to move on.
If you would like to read up on what's happening, here are a few links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10124369.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/world/asia/20thai.html?hp
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/index.php (Thai news source in English)
Thanks for the update.
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