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!