We had a great time this morning at church with the Habitat Thailand manager Tasani as well as several of the Habitat Staff. They belong to a beautiful Catholic church here in Udon Thani. At the end of the service we were even recognized by the congregation and asked to stand up for applause.
Afterwards there were some activities related to Songkran, the Thai New Year which officially goes from Tuesday April 13 to the 15th. Songkran's serious rituals involve washing elders with perfumed water. We did this by sprinkling water over the hands of the church's priests while they blessed us. Then we got involved in the less serious ritual of Songkran, which is basically to have a huge water fight (and also to get hit with some sort of powder, today it was baby powder but we hear that flour is also popular). See pictures below of all of the above...
Some of the team is on their way to the ancient ruins of Ban Chiang. We'll post you a report from them when they return.
REGARDING BANGKOK PROTESTS: As many of you at home might have already heard, there has been some escalation of protests in the city of Bangkok. The protests have to do with internal politics as the protesting group (called "Red Shirts") are demanding the country have elections (the currently leader was not elected) that they hope will put the former prime minister back in power. In the past 24 hours clashes between protesters and the government have unfortunately become violent...
First of all, there are NO protests or any violence in Udon Thani where we currently are (in fact there are no protests/violence in any other part of the country except for Bangkok). Everyone here continues to be amazingly friendly and kind -- they are all excited about the Songkran New Year. We are in NO danger.
Our current itinerary had us returning to Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon and staying 3 nights until Saturday morning. We are monitoring the situation closely. We will not take the team into the city if we feel that there is any risk of harm or if we feel that the city will be in such a state of gridlock/lockdown that it will not be worth our time to visit. We are researching potential alternative plans in the event that the situation in Bangkok does not cool down. We will keep you all informed of our plans here on the blog as well as by email...
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