Asia by Hammock

Khao Lak is a town about 1 hour north of Phuket on the west coast of Thailand. They got the brunt of the tsunami in Thailand. All that is left of beachside hotels are their foundations and swimming pools and there are couple of boats washed about 2 kilometers inland. Its pretty spooky. I'm working through the Volunteer Center (www.tsunamivolunteer.net) with the Mercy Foundation (www.mercyf.org) building houses on an island called Koh Koh Kaoh (which I believe means "island island river" but my Thai isn't coming along so well - though I did work out that big is "yai" which is good for ordering Changs). The houses are conrete so we work building the rebar (nothing like bending metal for nine hours a day), framing the rebar, welding the rebar, attaching the rebar then pouring concrete. Pouring concrete one bucket at a time. But today we poured the second story of first house on the island (they are on stilts) so that was a pretty good milestone. Since I'm here for a while I've been put in charge of the rebar factory/dirt parking lot with a roof so I've already been promoted (but no increase in pay sadly). It is really neat volunteering, we're building the house for the guy who ferries us to the island and even though I can't understand a thing he says, he waves hello and goodbye at every opportunity and smiles incessantly (and lets us drive the boat which is fun).
For those of you that miss seeing my face (and I imagine thats not Ed), a tv producer from saint louis has been taping us for the last week and his footage might air on Gannet stations (thats KUSA for the Denver-ites), more info to follow. Oooh and there is a casting call for extras for the new Blackbeard movie!

Cheers!