Last days in Dili...for now!

It feels like ages since I have updated the blog - I'm sorry it's so long...you may need a coffee break somewhere in the middle! So much seems to happen here in a relatively short time – or more probably, because everything is so new everything feels like a big event

I was lucky enough to head to Baucau for the weekend last week. I spent time with my friend Tony, who many of you know. It was lovely to see him, and to spend some time around someone I feel at home with. He and Fons welcomed me into their home, unfortunately John had needed to come back to Australia so I was unable to see him. Baucau is an exceptionally lovely place that I had spent a few days in during my trip to Timor in May. As a result, I didn’t take any photos! I’ve included some from the my last trip for you to see what it’s like. My friends Katie and Matt will be working in Maliana, so I definitely hope to be back.

TC, Tara, Lauren and Kirra at Baucau beach in May. TC, Katie, Matt and I went to the beach last weekend. Within just a few minutes of getting in the water we were surrounded by kids.

This is the old market place. It is was built during Portuguese times, but is not in use anymore. This photo is also from my trip in May - now, the side of the building is covered in murals from the Tour de Timor.

TC and I after a yummy brekky at the Pousada in Baucau last weekend.
The weekend in Baucau came at the perfect time – I was feeling a bit like a caged lion being stuck in Dili and having lived in a container for two weeks…our hotel is seriously blocks of portable containers! Containers with air con – love it. I had a chance to chill out, have some space, read lots, wander around, go to the beach, see the country, and see a good friend. It was exactly what I needed. I also got to catch up with Nat Houlihan, who I haven’t seen in years.

Baucau is much cooler than Dili, much quieter and just a generally nicer to be in than Dili! Friday night we all went to one of the local restaurants for drinks and dinner. I met some of the Aussie’s that live in Baucau, as well as some more who had come up from Dili for the weekend.

It is pretty easy to meet new people here and make friends. Most people seem willing to have a chat, at the very least, but it usually ends up with an exchange of phone numbers and plans to have a beer or a meal at some point. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and Dili has its fair share of quirky people.

Having now had 4 weeks in Dili I have spent a good deal of time with my friends in my AYAD intake, and have met lots of others. I am sure when I come back into Dili I will enjoy catching up with everyone, and will no doubt miss everyone and be more than a little envious of the choice of restaurants, latte’s at Hotel Timor, karaoke (not that I would ever sing…), and air conditioning. I will really miss the air conditioning. I mean I will REALLY miss the air conditioning...and the people. I suppose I'll miss them too!

Mana Lizzie, Mana Abi and Mana Jen at Abi and Jen's house. The house has no walls - it is an indoor outdoor place...very cool, although a few issues with rodents...

This is Mana Rachel, myself and Mana Katie. Rachel is going to be in Maliana as well, and Katie is in Baucau.

Tomorrow I am heading off to Maliana, which am both excited and nervous about. I have come to rely on my friends in the last few weeks. It is amazing how quickly friendships form in different, and sometimes very trying, circumstances. I will miss everyone, but am looking forward to finally getting to work and starting to build new relationships in Maliana. Most of the friendships I have made here have been with malae (foreigners), so I am looking forward to spending more time with Timorese people. I am also looking forward to my Tetun improving. I have found being at work this last week difficult, as the training I’ve been attending has all been conducted in Tetun. There were several occasions that I was so close to falling asleep it was embarrassing! I was trying so hard to concentrate…but the room was so warm, and I got too sleepy! I ended up having to get up and go write an email, or talk to someone to wake myself up. I was lucky though that the 4 trainers all spoke really good English, so they were able to translate different things for me, and when I got stuck trying to remember a Tetun word that could just tell me. I won’t have such a luxury in Maliana, I think only one of my colleagues speaks only a little English. I have met two of my workmates, so at least I will know some people when I arrive at the office tomorrow.

This last week I have done lots of stuff. The big challenge for me was to sort out my licence – work have supplied me with a motor bike to ride (a scooter really), but refused to give it to me until I have my licence. Apparently it would be confiscated if I ever I get pulled over. Fair enough – I can live with that.

Luckily, work was able to assist with the process, and took me the Transport offices 3 or 4 times over the space of a week in order to get it all done. The third time we went 9I honestly lost count of how many times we went there) I had to follow up with a practical test for my motor bike. It would be too much to ask that you would complete your paper work and do the test at the same place, so of course I had to ride the bike out to Hera, which is about 30 minutes away to do the test. It sounds simple enough, but considering I have not really ever ridden a motorbike that much, I didn’t really know where I was going, and the chaotic nature of the motor bikes, cars, taxi’s, four wheel drives, mikrolets, buses, trucks, dogs, goats and pigs that use the roads here it was a bit of a challenge.

I managed navigate my way through town, avoid most of the potholes, not kill anyone or anything, and importantly not get killed (there were only two or three times that seemed likely to happen, which I am quite proud of). I got out to the testing ground, where the guy showed me what I needed to do, and off I went…and failed twice! Going slow around tight corners it really hard!! He told me that I wasn’t allowed to have my license, but I managed to talk my way into one more go (well, I had to have a couple of practices). Third time lucky, so I am not the proud holder of a Timor licence! (And I passed legitimately, contrary to anything any of my brothers may tell you. There was no bribe. I swear.) When I finished the test I realised that I had quite an audience – about 10 guys from the building site across the road had wandered over to watch me. I guess I was a built of a novelty – not only a malae, but a woman to boot. Oh well, what can you do?! At least I entertained them for a little while.

In the midst of my week, Thursday the 12^th November was a public holiday to commemorate the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991. My mates Zena, Lizzie and I went to the cemetery for the ceremonial part of the day. There were so many people there and as far as we could see for ages we were the only malae there. Of course, we were getting loads of looks and were just starting to question whether it was appropriate for us to be there when this lovely older gentleman came up to us, greeted us and shook our hands. It was such a lovely, moving moment. It made it clear that it was definitely ok for us to be here.

Mana Zena at Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Cemetry

Getting the licence was definitely the highlight of my week, but we had a less pleasant incident yesterday. Some friends and I went out to Dollar Beach for a swim and unfortunately the car (which was about 20 metres away) was broken into and my friends bag was stolen along with my new Digital SLR. It was pretty awful, and is a real pain but it could have been much worse. One lovely thing though, some men were out fishing just off the beach and saw the whole thing. They came onshore and ran off to try and find the guys who had done it. They were locals and spent about an hour with us trying to figure out if they knew who they the guys who had stolen our stuff were. As much as it was an awful thing to have happen, these 4 fisherman were wonderful. They didn’t hesitate to stop working and help us.

Today I have had lunch at a friends house and will soon be having dinner with some other friends (sorry Dad, that’s “tea” with some other friends). I’ve only been here for 4 weeks and I’m already saying good-bye to my friend Mohamed who is going home to Jordan after 18 months here. Tonight we’re celebrating his birthday…even though it’s not really his birthday. It’s too ridiculous to explain.

In the morning I am off to Maliana! I’m not sure when I will be back online, so I apologise for any delays in responding to emails. Sorry this has been such a long entry! There is really too much to tell you all.

I hope you’re well and doing something fun!

Stepha, I’m not sure what the temp is – I think it’s pretty consistently in the mid thirties, but it could be higher. I have no idea! The killer is the humidity, which I am sure you had your fair share of in Vientiane. Whatever it is, it’s hot. Even the locals are starting to say that it's getting hot. Hot hot hot.

Photo's as promised!

Happy Birthday Tori - I hope the par-tay was fun.xo

A little reminder of what I left behind! This is taken on the way into Tinamba, close to Maffra


This is most of our group in the Mikrolet. We're not all in the photo, as a couple of people were squeezed in the front seat, with one of the Timorese guys hanging out the door (which common and by far the coolest way to travel!). If you think it looks uncomfortable, you're right - it was so cramped in there. When we have told our new Timorese friends and colleagues about the number of "malae" (foreigners) that were in the Mikrolet (which is probably smaller than a Tarago) first their eyes nearly fally our of their heads and then they kill themselves laughing! It was so small that we couldn't even sit up straight. We were glad to say good bye to our green, bass thumping Mikrolet, although our drivers were cool!


This photo is taken out the back of the Mikrolet window. It is the road into the Dili Institute of Technology - for about 7 of the 9 days (until we begged off the Mikrolet) we crammed into the Mikrolet and entertained the locals by driving through Dili and finally turning onto this road, which may look ok, but was "la diak", not good! It was bumpy and rutted and we had to drive so s-l-o-w-l-y so we didn't stir up dust for the people that lived along the road. Besides, the Mikrolet was struggling with all of us in it! It got 2 flat tyres during our time with it, one day a tyre popped while we were driving alonf Dili's busiest road! (We were all fine, and it explained why the driver kept putting his head out the window to look back at the tyre...)


This is us waiting for the Mikrolet to arrive at Dili Institute. We did a lot of waiting for the Mikrolet! By 12.30, when we finished classes it was very hot, so we would stay in the shade until we saw the Mikrolet come bouncing along the road.


Friday afternoon futebol on the beach. It might be a little hard to tell, but at sunset the light on the hills around Dili is incredible. The earth has a real richness to it, and the light makes it look stunning. We are at the end of the dry right now - apparently after the wet these hills are lush and green. I'm looking forward to seeing it!


On our first Sunday the previous intake of AYAD's organised an Amazing Race around Dili. Tori and Steph, disappointingly neither of you were available to participate, so Katie and I and some Timorese english language students had fun exploring the city. Katie will be doing the same position as me in Baucau, about 3 hours East of Melbourne. This photo was taken just after a brief visit to the Santa Cruz cemetery, which was the site of a terrible massacre on the 12 November 1991. This is a fairly typical Dili Intersection. The little booth on the right is a UN Police and local Police booth. They are not in use anymore.


This is Mana Rachel, Mana Zena and Mana Abigael getting all bohemian at our Hotel.


This is the street at the back of our Hotel. The hotel is actually a series of containers....kind of like offices on building sites! but, they've got air con, which makes them ok in my book! You can't really see it, but Mana Lizzy is having a motorbike lesson down the other end of the street.


This is Mana Lizzy on Maun Jason's bike, after her riding lesson!


The beach front around the corner from our hotel. I went for a walk during deskansa (like siesta), so there were not many people around.


This is the soccer pitch near the hotel. Again, is was deskansa, so not many people about. About 2 hours later this would have had a game pumping with lots of spectators. Mostly young boys. I'll take a picture one day and put it up. One day I stopped while they were playing to have a chat to them and practice my Tetum - so much fun! Normally this road would be streaming with motorbikes, scooters, taxi's, UN vehicles and other vehicles, but everyone was at home resting during the hottest part of the day...except me!


On the left here is a small market, and it might be a little difficult to see but there are 2 guys standing in the shade towards the right. These guys are guarding the entrance to Xanana Gusmao's house (the Prime Minister). Our hotel neighbours this house, one street back. Most afternoons we see somebody walking his horse along our street. It's kind of strange! These guards are always holding massive guns, but give you the biggest smiles and hello's when you walk past. Just passed Xanana's house is the Lita Supermarket, which comes in very handy.


Men and boys wander around town carrying these sticks with all sorts of things hanging from them - pinapples, bags of peanuts, vegetables, but my favorite is fish. Yes, fish. The fish guys usually start wandering around in the afternoon, after the catch comes in.

That's it for now! I haven't been brave enough to pull out my brand new SLR yet. I am looking forward to playing around with it, but I've felt a bit to self-conscious so far.

I have to go back to the hotel and do some preparation for my Tetum lesson. The importance of learning is becoming clearer everyday. Tomorrow I will go to work - I was meant to go today, but as there have just been two big Religious holidays most people are not at work so the government decided to make work optional today...the words "only in Timor" come to mind!

Happy Melbourne Cup day!