Lodi students to return Sunday from Thailand

Tamira Madsen  —  12/01/2008 2:58 pm

A contingent of Lodi High School students and staff stranded in Thailand will return home Sunday -- more than one week later than expected -- after anti-government protesters forced the closure of two airports in Bangkok early last week.

Principal Laura Love said the nine students and three adult supervisors who were on a three-week exchange program were never in harm's way when protests began at Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in Bangkok last Tuesday. When the protests erupted, the group still was situated in Suphan Buri, a city located 75 miles southeast of Bangkok.

The group intended to fly out of Suvarnabhumi last Thursday and made subsequent plans to depart from Bangkok three days later. But when they realized protesters would still occupy the airport, they stalled plans further and switched departure destinations. They will fly from Phuket to Singapore Friday, take a flight from Tokyo to Chicago Saturday and return to Lodi late Sunday.

The protests were organized by the People's Alliance for Democracy, which is demanding resignation of the government and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. The protest group said the government is still being influenced by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was banished in a 2006 military coup and fled overseas to avoid corruption charges. Wongsawat is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

Love, whose children Max and Shea are on the trip, has been in constant contact with the group. Max Love, a senior at Lodi, took a laptop on the trip and communicates via Skype, a software that allows people to make telephone calls on their computer by using the Internet.

Several members of the travel party have also been updating a blog on a regular basis.

More than 300,000 travelers have been stranded since the conflict arose, and while Thai officials urge people to stay away from the airports, Laura Love said the Lodi group wants to dispel any misconceptions that Thailand is a dangerous country.

"They've been treated like royalty from the time they arrived through their stay in Suphan Buri. ... I think it's been emotional for the kids and supervisors simply because it wasn't ending the way it was planned to end and they didn't want it to ruin the opportunities for students to go there in the future," Laura Love said.

"They really wanted to stress how well they've been treated everywhere they've gone and the fact that they have not seen any violence."

While officials at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok have warned travelers that all incoming and outgoing flights have been canceled at two Bangkok airports, they also said "ultimately it is a situation that can only be resolved by those involved."

Lodi High School has had an exchange program with Sa-Nguan Ying School since 2007, and like their counterparts did in November, hosted foreign students last spring.

The Lodi travel group, which includes Lodi School District superintendent Mike Shimshak, took a 12-hour bus trip from Suphan Buri to Phuket last Friday.

They've been spending time touring Phuket and getting in a bit of homework, though Love said a couple of students are homesick.

She said several students are concerned about keeping up with course work since they're arriving home later than expected, but added that her children are taking part in the "opportunity of a lifetime."

"They're loving it," Love said. "Both of my kids have expressed an interest in going back to Thailand.

"If our family plans another trip abroad we have to consider Thailand for sure because they appreciated the graciousness of the people and how they were treated and also the things that they've been able to see and taste and feel, and the connections they made with their host families."

Tamira Madsen  —  12/01/2008 2:58 pm