she is the only one

So, while I was on my trip to Country Bordering Thailand,* I was lucky enough to have access to a car and driver. (I might never have found the music school, left to my own wits!) The driver is an employee of the woman I was staying with, who is also the owner of the car. He washes the car at least twice a day, either because he's really proud to drive it, or because his job is really boring when there's nowhere to go.

He's about my age and he looks like most of the other men I met: very clean-cut, no facial hair or shaggy haircut, neatly tied sarong instead of pants, red-stained teeth from betel. His father is also a driver for a white family.

On the last full day of my trip he came to work in the morning and pulled the car up to the door, and when my hostess saw him she exclaimed and applauded. It seems he was wearing a jacket (a freaking JACKET! do you have any idea how hot it was?) in the color that is associated with Opposition Party Whose Members Get Arrested All The Time. My hostess was wearing the same color; it turns out that that day was the anniversary of the founding of the OPWMGAATT.

We got going towards the school, and I noticed that he'd taken off his jacket and laid it carefully on the floor of the car. Not long after we'd left the house, we encountered the only traffic jam I ever saw in this country: it seems that on this occasion, the government decided the usual roadblocks and unpaved street (on what seems to be a main road) near Nobel Laureate's house just weren't enough for their peace of mind. They set up additional roadblocks, closing off the street completely, and fortified their position with soldiers. Guys with really big guns. So everyone in the city had to take a detour.

We went by the headquarters of OPWMGAATT (which the driver had pointed out to me the previous day--I think he took "the long way" just so he could show me). On this day, it was surrounded by a small group of people: those brave enough to come out and publicly declare their support for the opposition. He turned to me and started on the longest speech I'd ever heard from him at one time (usually he talked to me in single, staccato sentences that took him a little time to think out in English--this must have taken him a while to translate).

I am not [OPWMGAATT]. For [Country Bordering Thailand], she is the only one. She has such power. She is the only one.

I asked him if he'd ever heard her speak. You know, before they stopped letting her even stand outside her house and talk. He said yes, and the same look came over his face that Thai people get when they talk about the King. He repeated, "She has such power." Then he repeated his statement that he's not a member of the opposition.

That night, I played a concert with my hostess. We were the entertainment at a reception for the OPWMGAATT, presented by the U.S. Embassy on the occasion of the anniversary of the movement's founding. As I think I mentioned before, the guests of honor were not in attendance because they'd been arrested.

My hostess had given the driver the night off--she thought she'd drive us there herself, both so that he could go home to his family, and so that he wouldn't have to be associated with such a politically charged event. Well, he didn't stand for that. He absolutely insisted on driving us there. After a conversation in This Country's Language, my hostess turned to me and shrugged. "He wants to go."

*Yeah, I know, this blog is on no one's radar and it probably doesn't matter if I shout out names, places, and dates, but...well, these people think freaking Yahoo! and hotmail are subversive...I think I'm going to keep being circumspect, if only to remind me (and my readers, if any) just how bizarre this place is.