Current Happenings

Thanks to all who have expressed concern regarding the political situation here in Thailand. It's headline news that there has been a dramatic influx of political activity over the past few weeks and that the military has most recently launched a Coup D'état taking over The Government of Thailand.  Peace Corps Thailand has once again activated a nationwide "STANDFAST" which means that volunteers are to be vigilant, remain in respective communities until further notice, and make preparations to leave at a moment's notice if necessary.

Under conditions of the coup, the country has been placed on a curfew from 10pm to 5am, the constitution has been suspended (don't know the full implications of this), schools are closed, all television programming has been suspended, and political gatherings of more than five people are banned. There has been talk about censoring or even banning social media and shutting down the internet, but this has been deemed an impossible feat due to the fact that many ISP's are outside of the country and many social networks are global and easily accessible via said ISP's. Even so, there is no internet at my site, and I am currently accessing the internet from my mobile network (which is spotty, due to network overload).
  

Otherwise, things are relatively peaceful in my neck of the woods, I am twelve hours away from Bangkok, the nation's capital where all of the "big action" is taking place. There is virtually no military presence in my community and the greatest concern that I've heard is basically an annoyance of not having TV or internet. Peace Corps is sending us updates periodically, and in doing my part to remain vigilant, I am also keeping my eye on the Bangkok Post and BBC News.

Here's a quick clip from BBC about the coup:

In other news, it has been a little while since my last post and honestly, life has been a series of roller coasters the past few weeks. For a moment, I felt like things were getting on a steady track, but you know, here we are. So we'll see how this goes and how long it lasts. I hope to be back soon with another update, meanwhile, please keep us in your thoughts and pray for   the restoration of peace in this country.