My focus group project is reaching the end. My responsibility this week is to nag the slew of people responsible for transcription and translation to hustle. It's really upping my popularity. I've been trying to change up my methods to keep it exciting. A text message one day, an email the next, lots of emoticons. People looove emoticons. I'm also sorting through and analyzing a bunch of data about arrest, detention, and deportation. Yesterday I went on a community visit to a rubber plantation / shrimping part of town. We were distributing information about birth certificates for migrant children so that it is easier to enroll them in Thai schools. I did the distributing, not the explaining. The registration period for migrants recently ended, so now the govt. is sending out the goon squads to arrest and deport undocumented migrants (documentation is difficult, as some employers won't pay for it; if you don't have a current employer, you can't register). When we arrived to the village, a whole crew of men immediately fled, thinking we'd come to deport them. But why wouldn't they... us driving up at dusk in a Toyota pick-up truck.

My sunburn is peeling to a degree that makes me feel as though I am molting. It's especially pleasant when meeting new people. "So nice to meet you! Please ignore that large chunk of my arm that just fell off as you shook my hand... ." This past weekend I stayed in town, which was great. Went to the beach, played some football (of the soccer variety), talked World Cup, watched World Cup (@ 2 am in Thailand).

Pictures are of sites along my little road that leads to the beach. The top is a lagoon where people crab. On the bottom is a field where cows (and sometimes these mysterious horses) graze. Before the tsunami, it was all trees... you can see the line where the water stopped.