NGO workers who relax at a bar in Khao Lak swap useful ideas for projects

NATURAL DISASTER / THREE YEARS AFTER, RECONSTRUCTION CONTINUES

SWEET INSPIRATION

NGO workers who relax at a bar in Khao Lak swap useful ideas for projects

Story by APINYA WIPATAYOTIN

Looking in from the outside, the tiny bamboo bar does not look much different from the 100 or so other night spots at Khao Lak in Phangnga's Takua Pa district. But this tiny bar has something other than entertainment to offer.

Welcome to the Lazy House, where local and international NGO workers relax and think up new ways to help the victims of the 2004 tsunami.

The bar has become a small community where volunteers meet to share new ideas and talk about problems and obstacles they face while working to help tsunami victims at Khao Lak, one of the hardest-hit areas.

''Some say that NGO work and a bar business should not go together. But for me, it is different. At least I have my own place to relax and work. Here I can perfectly manage my lifestyle of being a singer and volunteer,'' said Sarit Mitalip, a 30-year-old staff member of the Mirror Foundation working at the Tsunami Volunteer Centre.

Lazy House customers can relax over their favourite drinks and listen to folk songs, both in Thai and other languages, as Mr Sarit sings and plays his guitar. Language is not a real barrier as most foreigners in the audience seem to enjoy Thai songs too, he said.

During such fun sessions many useful ideas have been brought up by some of the foreign customers.

Mr Sarit recalled the time when a foreign customer's call for a traditional Thai performance instead of western-style dancing sparked new ideas that resulted in a project for children.

The Mirror Foundation turned the idea into a project to train local children to perform a local southern dance, and now the young dancers can use their new skills to earn money.

''That suggestion inspired us to teach the local nohra dance to children living around here. They are very happy with what they have learned. And sometimes they can make money by performing the dance at hotels too,'' he said.

Many other projects also have been introduced to local communities, including forest plantation and a programme to train children to help disseminate information about tsunamis and to be part of the early disaster warning network .

These recent activities are different from those organised in the first two years after the tsunami which struck Phangnga and other Thai provinces on the Andaman coast on Dec 26, 2004.

In the first two years after the tsunami, most activities carried out by volunteers focused on house construction and occupational training. Now, the focus is on the mental rehabilitation of children and programmes to educate them on how to survive a tsunami as well as other natural catastrophes.

During his three years of residence at Khao Lak, Mr Sarit has seen many changes in the area, especially a dramatic increase in the number of bars and restaurants and the widening gap between the locals and investors who came from other areas.

Mr Sarit voiced concern over the rapid growth of tourism at Khao Lak, saying it could soon bring in the sex industry, which would destroy the community's reputation as a secluded tourist hideaway without any forms of the sex trade.

''Foreign customers always told me that they came here because there was no sex industry. It is a very clean place for tourists. Currently, there is not even one sex bar here. But this doesn't mean there won't be one in the future. If that happens, Khao Lak will definitely lose its wonderful uniqueness,'' Mr Sarit said.