Tsunami Relief...kind of

North Andaman Tsunami Relief - this is the volunteer agency based in Kuraburi, Thailand (read, a collection of shops built around the highway) where Philip and I spent some time volunteering two weeks ago. We heard of NATR through the Rotary Club of Ko Samui, a random connection Philip made through his Rotary higher-ups and dignitaries. In short, Rotary foots the bill for the projects of NATR and thought it would be a great stop on our whirwind trip of SE Asia.

On our bus to Kuraburi, it was only our second day in Thailand and we were definitely struggling with the language barrier. Unlike Malaysia where anyone under 30 grew up with bilingual (Malay and English) education, many Thais actually only speak Thai. We blundered through our phrase book and made it off the bus at the right mudpuddle only to find that no one within twenty meters of the bus station spoke english and no one had ever heard of NATR (weird, in a town this small). Luckily, a volunteer with NATR that actually spoke Thai happened upon us and gave us a crash course intro to the town, polite Thai phrases, and where we could buy the best roti (roti (n) - a delightful Thai specialty now coined "thai pancake" so that foreigners can remember how to say it - it's basically thin dough fried in coconut oil and coconut butter then filled with anything from vegetables and curry to bananas and nutella, in a word, delicious).

Okay, back to saving the world as a tsunami volunteer. Well, not exactly. Philip and I sat at computers and translated pages and pages of documents into Spanish. How does that have anythind to do with a tsunami? Well....

since the tsunami in December 2004, millions of dollars have been poured into this region to replace boats, homes, trees, etc and in many villages their standard of living has actually drastically improved since the disaster. NATR has built new housing on islands, evacuation towers, and a water tower to supply fresh drinking water to one of the most devastated islands (it was actually ripped in half into two islands during the tsunami - a harrowing sight when you look out to sea). Additionally, the tsunami affected the local economy of the area as many families chose to move inland from their traditional fishing villages due to a mixture of fear and respect for the ocean's power. Now, NATR is working to develop ecotourism in the region to provide an altnernative to traditional forms of labor (mostly fishing for the men and peeling cashew nuts for the women). They also promote local handicrafts such as soap making and greeting card construction to supplement their incomes.

Whew, that sounds like a blurb I translated at some point, but it's a quick overview of NATR's current big projects. NATR is always looking for partners and people to help them fund projects, and some of their prospective connections are now in Spain - hence the need for Spanish translation of their official documents and reports (enter Philip and Carmen). It wasn't much, but we did what we could and hope that they'll put our work to good use.

We hit the road after our work was done to try and escape the southwest monsoon season that was currently pelting us in Kuraburi day in and day out (not so fun when all of your transporation consists of the back of a truck). Nevertheles, I'm extremely glad for our time in Kuraburi and will always remember the bright attitudes of triumph from the tsunami survivors we spoke with. These people have endured an unthinkable disaster and have somehow come out on top. Increible.