Im in Nam!

Thats Nam Khem to be precise, a small town settlement in southern Thailand, near Khoa Lak. Actually its more like reclaimed swamp land, on which we (tsunamivolunteer.net) are building some houses with the local Thai villagers. So its a bit of a work in progress, we've got about 30 houses in various stages of having the walls bricked up, one house whose foundation have just been laid, various holes for septic tanks and a blazing hot sun that beats down on us relentlessly (theres no shade for the wicked!).

I realise Ive not updated this for a while, so heres a little background on what Ive been upto. After my visa run, I returned to Thailand, and spent a few days on Phi Phi before heading north up to Khoa Lak - its about a 2hour bus drive north of Phuket. Im here because I saw an advert for tsunamivolulnteer.net aka The Tsunami Volunteer Center. They are running a number of projects here in Khoa Lak and the surrounding area, best to check their website for an indepth guide, but Im on the Nam Khem house-building project; theres also another construction project called Tap Tawaan, where they are putting 'kitchen extensions' onto existing homes; theres a longtail boat-building project at Cape Pakarang; a furniture workshop cleverly called Thaikea (that Thai+Ikea) and theres several school teaching projects here too. All in all, the (mostly) farang volunteers here are doing a damn good job of rebuilding the local community and empowering the local Thai people to sustain themselves in the future.

More later, that was just a quick update. Must upload some pics too :)