I've Arrived!

The morning I left Pittsburgh, snow crunched under my feet as I hugged goodbyes to my mom and sister Elise. Nearly 32 hours later, I stepped out of a cab and into the balmy, 90 degree Bangkok night. When I first arrived at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Conference Center on the Thammasat University campus, the building appeared dark and for a moment I worried I would be unable to get inside. It was nearly 3:00am. I was exhausted and could only speak a few words of Thai. To my relief, I found a hotel employee to check me into my room. I gratefully fell asleep, remaining in that peaceful state long after the sounds of strange birds began to echo in the early dawn hours.

I’ve spent the last two days catching up on sleep, tending to piles of paperwork, completing health screenings, setting up a bank account, and trying to figure out what life will be like for the next four months. The details are slowly unraveling, though much remains a mystery to me. I think “wait and see” will have to be my motto.

I have been hired as a research associate to work on a project called “The Post-Tsunami Sustainable Livelihoods Program.” The Thai government and USAID initiated this program in response to the devastation wrought by the tsunami of 2004, a disaster that claimed thousands of lives, homes, fishing boats, and livelihoods in coastal communities throughout Southeast Asia. For the next four months I will be living in a remote part of Ranong Province on the southwest coast (see link to the Map of Thailand). My field site encompasses five small subsistence fishing villages located along Klong Na Kha inlet, where I will conduct an environmental assessment and site characterization. I will be working to help local watershed managers develop a community-based water quality monitoring plan. The inlet is a prime site for aquaculture (fish farming), a practice that presents immense economic opportunity for villagers affected by the tsunami, while simultaneously posing threats to the local environment. My goal is to help balance these competing economic and environmental influences by working with local managers to promote sustainable aquaculture. How many fish cages can we place in the water before we compromise the quality of the water? Given our limited financial and technological resources, how can we monitor water conditions in the inlet to promote long term sustainability and foster stakeholder involvement in water quality? These are just some of the questions I will be addressing. For anyone interested in learning more about the project, I will soon post a link to the draft work plan.

I’ve already been given my first assignment. I have to prepare and deliver a training workshop for villagers at the field site next week. In addition to adjusting to the 12 hour time difference and scrambling to finish all the necessary paperwork, I’m beginning to pull materials together for the workshop.