Mob: 3 School: 0

UPDATE(Thursday 28 August): School is now canceled for the 3rd day and apparently arrest warrants have been issues for the core leaders of the PAD (the mob). Perhaps there is an end in sight, but who really knows?
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So, today is the second day that classes have been canceled due to the ongoing protest at the Government House.

I found a really good and concise ARTICLE on yahoo that summarizes the current situation.

If you're too much of a bum to read the article, this is the main scoop:

In 2006 there was a coup, run by the military and assisted by the PAD (the mob/protestors), the coup removed then Prime Minister Thaksin

January 2008 the current government was put in place.

Decisions were made since then that have convinced the PAD that the current PM Samak is really under the control of Thaksin.

Thus, the PAD is now trying to get Samak to resign and dissolve the government, so they have now taken siege of the Government house and broke into a TV station, taking control of it also.

In conclusion, the PAD maintain that they will not leave until Samak resigns and Samak maintains that he has no intention of doing so.

What does this mean for me? I have no idea. It is impossible for us to have school as long as the protesters remain there because I teach at the Palace which is located right next to the Government house. Furthermore, many of the students parents are involved with the Government that the mob is demanding to leave - so it's not the safest situation for them either.

So...I'm just trying to enjoy this holiday and ignore the sounds of impending doom because surely something's got to give - I just don't want to be around if/when it does.

Protest Part Deux

School. Canceled. Mob. Palace.

Refer back to a would-be-similar post for any possible questions.

Under Construction

"My road to success is under construction"

I was finishing up my usual stint on facebook when I came across this bumper sticker.

I paused.

Something about those seven words struck a nerve in me. Perhaps it's the fact that my facebook news-feed has been beseiged with recent news of my numerous friends beginning the next stage of their lives in medical school.

It's August and I am not there...where perhaps I ought to be...but instead I am 9,000 miles away in a country I don't understand, with people I've never known, working a job that I never prepared for.

I've justified it by saying that I'm on a great adventure - one that most of my peers will never be able to experience and one from which I will carry memories to last a lifetime. But everday, I am sieged with a fear - perhaps irrational - that those doors are closing for me. Every moment spent in Bangkok, I fear, is one that takes me further away from the future I so neatly planned out for myself at the age of 6.

In my heart of hearts I know that this is not true. I know that my life will be waiting for me whenever the time comes that I am ready to return to it. In all honesty, I think my heart is just breaking because I feel that I am just watching everyone else evolve into who they are to become, while I am here... wading in the kiddie pool entitled 'life experiences'.

There is a quote by Alan Cohen that I try to keep close to my heart when these moments of doubts and insecurities come (and they do come often...):

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

The fact is I am afraid that I am just running away because I won't cut it in that world.

I am afraid of being the one that fails.

Ratchada 42

An evening at Ratchada 42

Aey’s home, my retreat

The task at hand is dinner. Aey and I head towards her black Toyota Camry, I walk a little further down the driveway to pull back the iron wrought gate… I leave it open because the little market is just right down the street.

We arrive to get the essentials – chicken, squid, peppers, spices, tomatoes, and vanilla ice-cream (my doing of course).

We exit the car and are greeted with the laughter of the neighborhood kids gathered around the market, soccer balls in tow. I feel myself the subject of curious, timid glances; I smile back because they are not the unrelenting, impertinent gazes I am usually on the receiving end of here in Bangkok – they smile back…and scatter.

Purchases in hand, we head back to the car and back to Aey’s family home – a quiet, unassuming house draped in foliage in the midst of the cold concrete of Bangkok. We head to the kitchen. The sun hangs midway on the horizon, leaving the kitchen caught between the heavy humidity of the day and the ever-so-slight cool of the evening. My job is to wash the vegetables. I sheepishly admit to Aey that I don’t do much cooking, nor am I good at it even when I try. She holds back her laughter when I ask if I am to peel the lettuce as I try to wash it. She channels my mother when she asks me what I will do when I have a husband. Her giggles give way to a loud guffaw when I send back my now well-memorized reply,

“He will have to cook for me.”

Aside from this exchange, much of the time is spent in silence. I am concentrating as much as is humanly possible on my vegetables while Aey works her quiet magic on the chicken. Pleasant minutes pass and Aey’s friend Cam enters into the kitchen. The vegetables eventually pass Aey’s scrutiny and I am reassigned to the task of grinding the pepper seeds and garlic… with a mortar and pistle. My station overlooks the backyard and the sound of the pistle cracking against the seeds harkens back to my few kept memories of Nigeria. The sun is almost gone now and we are rewarded with a cool breeze that flows through the open windows.

The calm is broken when Cam enters into a barrage of Thai and Aey, in response, has almost doubled up in laughter. “Your butt dances while you grind the pepper” Aey manages to get out (in Thai-lish – the hybrid language that we usually engage in amongst ourselves). Cam joins in when I respond “There’s not much that I’m doing that my butt doesn’t dance to…” The silence is permanently severed but is replaced by quick whispers and cheek-spliting references to events from the night before. Cam is piling up dishes and silverware, Aey taste-tests each of her quickly prepared delicious dishes, and I have my hands wrapped around my ice-cream cone – a reward for a job well done.

With darkness to our backs, the beckoning voice of Damien Rice lulls our company into the dining room. We set our creations on the table and glance back and forth towards one another, thankful. As we each take our seats, before I set my mind and mouth on the first of many dishes, I think out a quick make-shift prayer – I pray for you my friends, my family, my loved-ones. I pray that I am on your heart as much as you are on mine, and I hope that God is so graciously blessing your lives as he does mine…everyday…as I am so blessed and lucky for the people He so wonderfully brings into my life. I pray for you, I miss you.

Amen.

Mindscrew

It's 11:49 pm BKK time and I'd really like to take this time to write a wonderful, meaningful post about my life over the past week.

But...

I just saw THE DARK KNIGHT and Christopher Nolan has destroyed my brain and left me with just enough to get home and get to bed, so I'm going to do that now.

Update later...perhaps much later. :D

In other words, go see that movie right now!

Busy Busy Busy

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry that my posting has been lax as of late, but I truly have not had the spare minutes to sit and write a meaningful post. Even now, I am writing amidst the mountain of work I have to prepare today for the days ahead. We are in the throes of midterm season; preparing tests, putting together grades, and the like. As such, my days are fully devoted to school and my evenings are spent running around Bangkok taking care of menial things like buying tissue paper, but then also trying to spend times with my growing number of Thai friends whom I obviously do not have the enjoyment of seeing during the daytime.

This past weekend (4th of July), me and some other teachers - Nick, Kim, and Marisa - went to Koh Samet; one of the plentiful and beautiful Thai islands. Moreover, the cost of the entire trip (transportation, hotel stay, food and drinks) was the equivalent of 60 USD. So, I think you should all come visit me and we shall go island-hopping okay?? :D Koh Samet is very close by, only a 2 hour van ride and a ferry to leave the grey, polluted skies of Bangkok for the white sands and blue water of Koh Samet island. I had an amazing time and I daresay I had greater shock going from Koh Samet back to Bangkok than from the USA to Thailand. :D This computer isn't allowing me to put up pictures right now, so I will do so another time.

Ah well... as I said, we are in the throes of midterms. I am so looking forward to next week because we have a four-day weekend! Plus, I don't teach on Wednesdays, so I will only be teaching on Monday because my students will be taking a listening test on Tuesday... whoo! :D I am excited about the four-day weekend because I am going with my same beach-group to Koh Chang (Elephant Island), it's renowned for it's beautiful waterfalls!

But, till then I must suffer under the strain of school work. I seriously have been averaging 4 hours a night these days, like college life but not... lol. I'm still waiting to get letters/postcards/anything-snail-mail-related from someone (thanks to dear Tom who sent me a web cam last month)... so get on it people! :D

Miss you all!

A month in review...

Dear Readers,

I can hardly believe that I have been here in Thailand for a month now. It feels like the days have simply flown by. During the past week, it has been quite difficult for me to update given the ever increasing preparation and grading for classes as well as my constantly fluctuating illnesses. My recent bout as of late has been with my asthma; in the US my asthma was confined to overexertion due to exercise or random problems with breathing. However, Bangkok's permeating pollution has made everyday breathing a task in itself. It got to the point where I woke up once in the middle of the night simply unable to catch my breath for what seemed like unbearable minutes. I went to the palace clinic a few days ago where I was given a cornucopia of medicine - 1. Ventolin Evohaler - contains 100 micrograms salbutamol 2. Symbicort Turbuhaler 3. NAC long Acetylcysteine4. Lolergy 5. Diphenyl Expectorant Syrup... the first day on the medications was wretched and I wondered if I had not made a worse decision in taking the meds than in simply suffering through. However, I have now been on the meds for 3 days and am happy to note that I am almost able to take a deep breath without chest pains or succumbing to a coughing fit.

After all this, the sicknesses and the craziness of Bangkok, a month into it I can say that it's one of the best decisions I think I have made. There are moments of extreme homesickness (more the loss of a general surrounding of friends and family rather than any particular home or city), but these are farther and fewer between. There is something to be learned about myself here in Bangkok and I do believe that I am beginning to see that. I think, for now, my greatest challenge to be learned here is to be still. Ever since I can remember, my life has been a series of tasks after the other. My time at Baylor was spent flitting from classes to jobs to meetings to social events on repeat 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It got to the point where the simple, few hours on a Sunday afternoon - when I did not have much to do - became unbearable to my restless spirit. This past semester I managed to juggle 19 upperclassmen hours, 2 jobs, friends, and a number of extracurricular commitments and eked out straight As. It was a great accomplishment, but...

I think I kept myself so busy because I did not know how to be me when no one else was around, when I wasn't teaching, or helping, or running around, or being the crazy Star that everyone was so familiar with. I lost track of the Star who used to be content to sit in a corner, with a good book, or a piece of paper and pen, and let her mind run free. I am finding her here again in Bangkok. Amid this bustling, crowded city, this chance to be farang (foreigner) is giving me another chance to find the familiar that is somewhere within me.

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. ~K.T. Jong