Dear all,

Hello! It’s Yoshimi here. I’m typing this message in a guest house in
Chiangmai. I have come here for a few days to get away from the
tension in Bangkok. I thought to drop a note to everyone just to let you
 know about the situation in Thailand.

First of all, I am quite safe here in Chiangmai. Even in Bangkok, if
we don’t step into the mob on purpose, there is no danger.

On Saturday, the military and the red shirt group broke into violence.
As a result, up to now, 21 people have lost their life, and over 800
people got injured. They include red shirts, police, military, even
journalists. The sky train in Bangkok was stopped totally on Saturday,
and started to offer limited services at limited stations on Sunday. I
left Bangkok on Sunday evening, and don’t know the stituation at the
moment.

But I heard from the local people here in Chiangmai that the
protesters were disolved, and the stituation seems to be calming down
a bit.

Hopefully, Bangkok will be in peace again in a few days. It’s such a
shame that this 21 people had to sacrifice their life for such an
incident.

But again, please don’t worry about Thailand much. It’s not as bad as
media is covering.

All the best,

Yoshimi

This morning, Parn (my roommate) and I was about to go out to meet someone near Thong-lo station.
Then, we found out that we couldn’t open our door!
I tried, and couldn’t open.
Then Parn tried, and no success…
We call the owner of the apartment downstairs, and the couple came upstairs to rescue us.
About half an hour later, they managed to take out the lock with the door-knob, and changed to a new one.
So we thanked the owners, went outside, and lived happily ever after.
THE END

PS: What if the owners were gone back to their hometown?
So lucky of us!

PPS: Those of you who might heard about the red shirt movement against Thai government, please don’t worry coz it’s quite peaceful here in Bangkok.
We could hear some people shouting in distance, but nothing serious so far, it seems.

Finally, at long last, we managed to set up Internet connection in our room in the apartment.

The technician was supposed to come on last Saturday, but was postponed for another 4 days, which is quite natural for Thai society ^_^

It has become quite difficult to find Internet connection near my place these days, so I am so happy to be able to browse the net in our room!

Dear everyone,

Hello, this is Yoshimi. This is the first letter from Always Reading

Caravan (ARC). As ARC is called Bookworm Caravan in Thai language, I will call this letter as “Bookworm News” and tell you about the project and my life in Thailand.

As the title shows, I have reached Thailand safely on Feb. 4. Now I am living with my Thai friend in an apartment near a BTS (Sky Train)
station.

Bangkok is as busy as before. I used to live in this apartment 3 years
ago as an exchange student, with the same friend. But now, BTS has
reached this Thonburi side, and station is in a walking distance from
our apartment!

The only thing it hasn’t changed is the people here. The owner of the
apartment welcomed me as if I haven’t been away at all. The shop-owner of a noodle stand in our street said, “Oh, It’s been five years? You have advertised my noodle in Japan, right?” as he packed a tom-yam noodle for me.

My work has just started, and the caravan hasn’t hit the road yet, but I feel that I am in the right place.

Wherever you are, please take care of your health, and ARC will always in contact with you!

All the best from Thailand,

Yoshimi

PS: If you want to receive “Bookworm News” as an email, please feel free to contact me at

bookworm@alwaysreadingcaravan.org

I’m at my friend’s house in Tokyo.

Finally, I have booked the airplane ticket to Thailand.

If everything goes right, I will be in Thailand in the midnight of Feb. 4.

For this one month, I have met many people in Kochi and Tokyo.

Old friends, NPO staff working in Japan and Thailand, librarians, neighbors… all of you have encouraged me greatly.

NOw that I am about to leave Japan, I am very positive about ARC more than ever.

Thank you for aveyone for sharing your idea with me and helping us to grow ARC!

Dear all,

Hi! How are you? It is quite rainy here in Kerala because monsoon has
returned to this region of the country.

I wanted to share a small happy news with you today. With the help of
creative friends, I got the name for my future project in Thailand. It’s
 called “Always Reading Caravan (ARC).” In Thai language, it’s called
“Karawan Norn Nangseuu (Bookworm Caravan).” As some of you may know, I
want to have a small bus, and load it with Braille, audio and print
books, educational toys, and tactile miniatures of various objects,
and travel around the countryside of Thailand. I want to tell children
and adults, with and without disabilities in Thailand to know that
reading is such a fun, and everyone should have this fun together no
matter who you are.

I just bought a web domain at
www.alwaysreadingcaravan.org
and planning to set up a tiny website in a few weeks.

Right now, I am writing  project proposal and five-year financial
plan. After I graduate from IISE in coming December, I will
immediately start to work. My first big step will be to register the
organization in Thailand and Japan.

So, actually, the project is just a baby, not even be able to sit on her
 own. But I just wanted to share her existence with all of you.

Thank you for taking your time to read, and have a good weekend!

All the best from Kerala, India,

Yoshimi