Thursday, November 17, 2011

After A Storm Comes A Calm


It's hard to believe that all this commotion had started just a few months ago, and that within these few months so much damage had been done and so many lives had been lost that it has been a tragic event for all of us.
When something this devastating happens, you begin to notice that everyone has their own way of coping. Some people will panic, others will keep relatively calm, maybe some of us went out to 7/11 and bought out as much water and Mama noodles as we could, or sat at home and watched the news all day. My mom was one of those few who didn't feel that it was necessary to stock up on any items, as she believed that we would be fine. My aunt on the other hand went as mad as a hatter preparing for the worst. Within weeks after the flood every supermarket and grocery store in Bangkok ran out of water. High raised parking lots around Bangkok were always full. After hearing about all this even my mom couldn't help but get scared at how bad things were getting, she began stocking up on supplies too. The anticipation ate us up. We live right in the middle of Bangkok, and quite a few klongs and rivers run through us. Day after day someone would tell us that Bangkok should be flooding any day now, and we waited for something to happen. We stayed in for weeks just incase if it started flooding we wouldn't be in danger. But nothing happened. I found it extremely frustrating that in times of crisis like this we couldn't get the proper guidance and information that we needed.
Everyday for the past two months now I've heard news about the floods pouring in from everywhere. It was on TV 24 hours a day, on the newspaper every morning, and whenever I turned on the radio there was a man talking about how much worse everything was getting. The strange thing was that I never found out what had really caused the floods. A lot of us blamed it on Prime Minister Yingluck and her government. Some meteorologists said it was because of the unusual monsoons and the terrible water management. Whatever had caused it brought our country a lot of greif. While school was closed organizations were accepting help from kids who's schools were closed. I went with my friends to help put together EM (Effective microorganism) balls that will help with cleansing the polluted water. Literally thousands of people were there helping out. It was nice to see that so many people cared about their country. I helped my grandmother pack and donate supplies to the people in Don Muang. The flood had caused people there to live waist deep in water for weeks. Many of them had evacuated to higher ground away from their homes and didn't have any way to get the everyday supplies that they needed. Where ever we're living in the country right now the flood has somehow affected our lives.
It'll take a lot of time and money to build back our country. I chose the picture of this monk because through all the trouble that he has been in he still manages to muster up a smile. The flood water in many parts of the country has resided now, and many people who had been affected are recovering well. We will have to put in a tremendous amount of efforts to help with flood relief to bring our country back. We can take this misfortune as a learning experience and learn to respect nature as it is.

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