I am stuck at home again due to a very rainy day. I was supposed to go to a neighboring district to work with my drama group today. We planned to paint a world map for one of the backdrops for our play. However, the rain kept the students (and ultimately me) at home. To make things worse, the teacher I work with contracted pink eye (or "red eye" here as it causes bleeding in the eye - slightly different strain) this weekend, so he's sick in bed.

Quite honestly, I don't mind too much. I was in Bangkok all weekend and had a very long day of travel yesterday. Hopefully I can continue with plans tomorrow.

In recent news, yesterday General Surayud Chulanont was named the new interum prime minister of Thailand. When I was in Bangkok this past weekend, there was still a heavy military presence - including soldiers and tanks on the streets. This will probably continue to be the case, though General Surayud has been appointed, until national popular elections.

I thought I would share some of my recent "entertainment"

Last month I read the book Woman, An Intimate Geography. This has been the "hot" book being passed around between the female volunteers in Thailand recently. Though parts of it are a bit too overly feminist (in a preachy sort of way) for my taste, overall this is a very interesting book. Natalie Angier explores emotional, physical, sexual and anthropological sides of the human female. I learned a lot about my body and myself and developed some questions of my own. I"m not sure that I buy everything she presented (and it is about 6 years old at this point anyway) but it was a great read.




I am now in the middle of reading First They Killed My Father. Though the title initially made me hesitant to read this book, it is a valuable read. The author, Loung Ung was a child during the Khmer Rouge communist years in Cambodia. She was five years old and the 6th child of a wealthy family in Phnom Penh when everyone was forced out of the cities and into communist villages. This book describes her families trials and journeys through the years of the Khmer Rouge rule. She is an amazingly strong and resiliant woman. This has really increased my historical knowledge as well as given me an emotional association with all the terrors of that time. It is definately worth reading.







Lastly, I saw the World Trade Center movie in Bangkok this past weekend. I was a little nervous about seeing it, but I'm glad I did. I was happy that it was not politically charged, but rather a true telling of the stories of two of the NYC Police officers who went into the building and were trapped once it collapsed. I saw the movie with another volunteer (who is a native New Yorker) and we were both crying like crazy. However, I thought the movie was well done and I'm glad I saw it. The rest of the theatre was filled with Thais. I couldn't read how they felt afterwards, but I thought it was interensting that they saw the movie.


I hope everyone is having a nice fall day. Start arranging those cornacopias and carving up those pumpkins! :)