I have started to learn some very basic words in the local language (which is called Tetun) – and the Bahasa Indonesian I had learned in Aceh is coming in very, very handy, since most people here also know BI since it was taught in schools when Timor-Leste was a ‘province’ of Indonesia for 25+ years.
I have started to settle into my house which, for the most part, is already furnished (although the belongings I shipped from the UK won’t arrive for at least another few months…in fact, they have not even left the UK yet, ergh!).
I am very fortunate as my house is in a really nice area of town, a 5 minute walk to the beach, has a security guard around 24 hours a day, and has ‘conveniences’ like hot running water, flush toilet, and pretty good air conditioning, which most places here in Dili are lacking. The highlight of the past week was getting a wireless internet connection (via the small local NGO next door) which works well - except for when there are power outages (we've had at least 3 this past week...)
Although the house has many amenities, settling in has also been frustrating at times – for example, when I got up for my first day of work in Timor, the water was not working, so I used a combination of charades and some key words in BI to explain to the morning security guard (Francisco) what was wrong (I think the rough translation was: ‘water not go’) and luckily he managed to get it running again. Francisco, one of my neighbours and I also did some problem solving last weekend to get the washing machine to work :-)
Speaking of the neighbours – they are very friendly and seem to be quite the partiers. My first Sunday evening in Dili they played old Kenny Rogers songs over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over again, and then switched to some sort of funky Portugese dance music; perhaps it was their way of welcoming me?! My neighbours at work also seem to have a keen interest in music, although their choice of tunes is slightly different; my office building happens to be located beside one of the brothels in Dili, so in the middle of a staff meeting last Friday, our conversation was rudely interrupted by quite a ruckus!
Although I briefly visited Dili back in July and had a general sense of what it was going to be like to live here, one thing that really struck me once again is just how EXPENSIVE things are e.g. a box of cereal is almost 9 US dollars, fruit juice is over 4 dollars, a small container of Ben and Jerry's ice cream is 17 dollars - egads!
Somehow amongst all the distractions and chaos of arriving in a new city, I did manage to do some work over the past 2 weeks – during the first week, I actually had visitors from my org’s Regional Office accompany me to Dili, to have several strategic and planning meetings – just what I needed during my 1st week at my new office! :-) The highlight of their visit (and my first week!) was a 2-day field trip to one of the rural areas where my organisation does community development – it was an absolutely amazing experience! As the new Country Program Director for Plan, I was very warmly welcomed by all of the communities we visited, and received a variety of gifts and flowers, was honoured with several dancing and singing presentations, and enjoyed special meals with the children and community members; in one community they had even sacrificed a goat for our lunch.
Although I already knew that Timor-Leste is the poorest country in Asia, it still struck me how many of the communities did not have access to running water or sanitation facilities; one of the village leaders commented that the last time they had clean water was 10 years ago, before the country was invaded by the Indonesians after the Independence Referendum. And I was worried about the risk of not having a hot shower a few days ago…being here really puts things into perspective…
Here are some photos I took of the Timorese landscape on the journey from Dili (the capital city where I live) to the Aileu district during the field trip…
PS - I’ll post some photos of the children & community members shortly…
PSS - I recently signed onto Facebook but I will also keep posting to this blog since I know many people reading this blog are not on Facebook yet…
I missed this post and just read it now. I didn't know things are so expensive there -- it's quite ironic given the economic level of the people. How is the communication infrastructure, like internet connection? What kind of options do you have?
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