Week 1 - feels like a month has passed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY H! I hope you had a wonderful time in Hong Kong.x

(Friday afternoon – 23rd October)
I’m sitting in the garden of our hotel listening to one of my friends play guitar, the sun is shining there’s a cool(ish) breeze blowing (every now and then!) and birds chirping. I just went down to the internet café to try and email everyone with my new number and stuff but after half an hour of trying to load the “compose” page I gave up and decided to come back to the hotel and write this instead. I’m hoping that I can just bring my laptop down to the café, plug it in and use my computer email account – that will make life a whole lot easier! (Hence the new email address - it is much easier to do it that way - susiemaggie80@gmail.com)

On the way back from the internet café I passed men selling phone recharge vouchers, boys selling pineapples they’re carrying across their shoulders, guys hanging out doing not much, security guards (lots of security guards) working around the place, dogs, cats and pigs running up the street, lots and lots of NGO 4 wheel drives speeding down the dusty back streets narrowly avoiding pedestrians (they’re crazy!), kids hanging out, people selling fish…among other things. Dili is quite lovely in a way. It's hard to believe that this will be my life for the next 12 months.

I met some young girls today and was able to practiced a bit of my Tetum with them. My lessons are going ok – I was feeling very frustrated yesterday as I was able to follow what was happening and what others were saying but when it came to speaking I was completely lost! It’s only normal I guess but it was very frustrating. I had a minor break through today with one of my teachers today. I realised that she came from Suai which is kind of near Maliana. I was asking her about the languages she speaks and that I was heading to Maliana in a few weeks to live and work and was wondering what language they speak up there. The conversation lasted for less than a minute, but it was great! It wasn’t until after I had finished that I realised what I had done! Then I organised for our Mikrolet driver to come back later and take us somewhere at a specific time. I was riding on such a high I headed to the market to do a bit of shopping (which was mostly about practicing Tetum). It seems that I am mastering the basics (the very basic of basics!)!!

(Saturday morning 24th October)
I had a little sleep in this morning – 7am. I guess I’m still adjusting to the time difference a little, but also getting into the habit of rising early. Most mornings I’ve been up at 6 or so, so it is nice to have be able to make some of my own decisions – it feels a bit like we have been being ferried around since arriving, which is a little trying at times, although I have to say that I think our group is really great. There are 11 of us that have arrived all together, and while we are all very different personalities we seem to get along and compliment each other well. I have started to connect with a few of them especially. It is a little strange at the moment as the 8 who will be living in Dili are running around looking for housing and wanting to start getting settled, however I won’t be going to Maliana until around the 14th of November.

We have also met quite a few of the other AYADs from previous intake, most of whom have been lovely and very helpful. Today we are heading out to the beach for a swim and snorkel and tomorrow we have an “Amazing Race” around Dili.

I hope you’re all keeping well and I’m sorry about the length of this post!! I will put up some photo's soon.

I'm here!

So I'm finally here in Dili! Monday was a looooong day starting 5am and finishing somewhere around 10pm Dili time (I think midnight in Melbourne). It was great to see the other AYADs on the plane, and to have the chance to catch up with my cousin Amy who took me out on the town in Darwin. It was a nice distraction during the 4 hour lay over to Dili.

Monday was a funny day...it was a real mix of emotions - sad to say good-bye to my lovely parents who had come to Melbourne to see me off, impatience to get going and surprise that the day had actually arrived. At no time did it not feel right though. I have no idea what lies ahead, but I am so glad to be here.

We (the 11 AYADs - Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development) flew into Dili at around 4.30 and were met at the airport. We threw our gear in the back of a truck, jumped in a mikrolet (like a tarago) and headed into town to our Hotel...Dili is pretty much like I remember it from my brief time here: busy, dusty, lots of movement and colour, cars and motorbikes everywhere, roosters, goats, cows, well manicured memorials and parks dotted along the esplanade and lots and lots of people.

We dumped our stuff and were taken straight out to dinner at a restaurant on the beach (I mean literally on the beach) to meet AYADs who have been in Dili for anywhere between 3 and 9 months. It was nice to meet them, and mostly be reassured and encouraged by them, although it was a little overhwhelming to suddenly be surrounded by so many people.

Incredibly I slept like a log on Monday night - and even used a blanket! Yesterday we started out Tetum lessons at Dili Institute of Technology. We will have lessons every morning this week and next - so hopefully I will be able to speak little when I head out to Maliana in a few weeks time.

While the lessons have taken up most of our days, the rest of the time has been spent trying to wrap my brain around the fact that this will be my home for the next 12 months or so. I am slowly getting used to the idea, and am looking forward to being able to understand some Tetum so that I can understand more of what is going on around me.

The weather is of course hot, and it is coming into the rainy season so the build up is beginning. Hopefully as I am in Maliana it will be a little less humid and disgusting and a little cooler. I really have no idea, and everyone tells me something different about Maliana! "It's hot there", "it's cold there", "it rains a lot there", "it's beautiful there" and my personal favorite..."Maliana at its best, is boring". Nice - sounds like a fun place to be! I am trying to take everything that is said with a grain of salt and not have too many expectations. I want to take it as it comes, (some might say PIBE it).

I am heading out now to meet one of my work contacts. It will be good to see her and hopefully get a few questions answered, and find out a little more of what I will be doing for the coming year.

Pull my finger

...less than 12 hours to go and I find myself in the midst of a game of "pull my finger" with my Dad. Not surprising, eh?!

Am feeling excited and ready to hit the road. I've had a lovely evening with my parents, spent some time with my good friends Alissa and Steve, Jo, Steph, Gab and H...and many many others over the last few days, not to mention the family funtimes.
It's time to go...See you in Timor-Leste

Farewell tour!

I'm currently sitting in my dear friend Jo's lounge room waiting for her to come home from night shift so that we can sit down and have brekky togethr before she heads off to bed and I head off to go off for a day of shopping and catch ups. (Hmmm, new camera - excited!)

I'm in the midst of my farewell tour (ha!), which is very weird! It's an enjoyable task, you know. Seeing people you think are marvellous, savouring those last great conversations, enjoying coffee/beer/food (or maybe all in one sitting) in the delightful city that is Melbourne.

I have spent my days since finishing work packing up my room and moving out and hanging out with cool peeps. I had a wonderful catch up with my aunt and uncle on Friday (thanks for the coffee Moss), a quick drink at the Wesley Anne on friday night, brunch at my place with Janey and Steve, drinks on Saturday night at The Pinnacle with a whole mob of mates, Sunday catch ups with Shez, Mads and Caroline and a Monday ahead of Ange, Thomas, Meredith, more Mads and Steph B, with some Jo time sprinkled throughout for good measure.

Saturday night was good fun...lots of awesome people, it was hard to say farewell. I have some cool friends. Well, I reckon they're cool anyway. I love the way my friends form different parts of my life seem to enjoy each others company too - they generally like to chat to each other as they've met each other enough times now to know each other a little. Saturday night reminded me that I will be missing some significant life moment for some of my friends, like Nick and Issy's wedding in early April. I would love to be there (a rockin party for sure), but will have to drink to them from Maliana instead, and I'll be missing a few 30ths. Anyhoo, it was great to have such a great crew there, and especially great to have a couple of kids running around! The surprise visit from Fatima, Rick and Jack Jack was lovely.

I've said it before, but it truly is feeling very odd and surreal, this process of packing up and saying "seeya in a year". There is sadness in the strangeness, although the sadness seems to hit me in waves and at very odd moments (like driving down the eastern chatting about Shez's holiday), and it's usually a good 12 hours after I've seen someone.

I've been thinking alot about some of the people I met at pre-departure training over the last week of so. Many of them were headed to Samoa, Tonga and Indonesia (mostly Jakarta). I have been thinking about the natural disasters that have occured there, and the tragedies and trauma the communities have experienced. I hope that all of these people still get to go to their respective countries to complete their AYAD assignment. Obviously the need is still there, but I am sure their assignment will be considerably different to what they may have experienced had it not been for the devastating natural disasters. I was thinking about how I would feel if something were to happen in Timor-Leste and I couldn't go...I would be at a loss I think. It feels very right to be heading there, but I hope that I have not built it up and am expecting too much out of the experience. I am trying not to have to many expectations, but I am only 'uman and it is inevitable that will happen!

I am officially in my last week now. It's taken a while to get to this point, but I reckon it will fly now. A few jobs left to do, but otherwise time to spend with some friends and a few days of hanging out in Maffra with my family, which I am looking forward to.

Bring on 4.36

This is my last day of work…it is very strange. I kind of feel like I should be sadder than I am, but I am too excited to be sad or concerned about leaving. I have certainly valued my work in my current position far more, and in different ways, than I had ever expected I would. It’s not to say this job has not been without its challenges – I have experienced significant personal and professional challenges associated with this job (as those who have lived with me or spent much time with me during this period will know), but for the most part I have worked through them, and feel that the experience has been invaluable. The bottom line is, that if I had not had the experiences and been given the opportunities through this role I would not have been successful in my application to AYAD and Timor-Leste.

I am almost constantly in a state of impatience at the moment…impatient to finish work, impatient to move out of my house so that I can enjoy my last few days in Melbourne, impatient to get back to Maffra to hang out with my family, impatient to have some fun times with my friends, but most of all – impatient to get on the plane and make this idea of Timor as my home (for a short time) a reality.

I’ve just realised that it has been exactly five months I made the decisions to apply applying to live and work in Maliana. No wonder I’m getting impatient!

I am sure there will be times in Timor Leste that I regret being so impatient – but for now…bring it on!

Things seem to be coming together (I have inherited my mothers organisational skills) and am trying to achieve a little each day. I will be ready to move out of the house by Saturday, which will be sad as I have had lots of fun times in that place over the years. But, moving is the last big job I have to do and after that I am sure the time will fly – I’ll be in Dili before I know it.

My fellow Timor AYAD’s have been very helpful, and almost everyday there is another email with an idea or a reminder (bring a surge protector, don’t forget your snorkel!). I am looking forward to getting to know these people a little. They all seem lovely (so far!).

Technically, I’m still at work – so I better get back to it. (It is almost time for a nice glass of red wine...)