Hello from Tioman

Sorry for taking so long to create a new post...I am not much of a blogger I guess. I'm working with dial up, if you can remember that and uploading pictures is most likely out of the question for now until I can return to some high speed.

I would like to start by saying that I just received terrible news that my good friend Kay Howe just lost her son to a rare disease called rat lung disease or snail lung disease. He was quit young, in his early twenties and he was on the wrestling team I coached a few years back in Concrete. In his years after highschool he travled all over the world was quit the surfer and an amazing artist. He'll be deeply missed. Godspeed Graham.

All else is going smooth on Tioman. I am falling into a nice routine of work, sleep and trying to throw in a bit of surfing. Juara is the village where I live and there are about 300 people, so things are very laid back and very friendly. Most of the work thus far has been pounding nails, pouring cement and cutting boards. I've been putting in about 10-12 hour days, so I have not had much free time to myself, but I'm working on that. At this point it feels good to be of some help and have a purpous for being here. Grunt labor. That's Ok though in payment I recieve a chalet right on the beach and excellent Malay cuisine for breaky and dinner. The turtles won't start showing up until March after the Monsoon, so that will be very exciting to witness that part of things.

The project itself is an uphill battle as are most environmental endeavors, there is very little community support as most of them have eaten the eggs for years and although the royal family showed support during a large media event last year have been very unhelpfull in drumming up support for the program. So we march on, lead by a firey british workaholic, John Amos, myself and the others here are engaged in what John likes to call, "realistic endeavors...none of this massaging our ego shit", which I can relate to after having spent three years running into that very same thing with the fisheries biz.

Anyway I digress...I am a bit flustered by the news I received today and will try hard to write more and more often...as I have much to share. Picture too.

My heart goes out to Kay and her family and too all of you really...spread the love!
Be well stay tuned and Salamat Malam.

Andy