8 -14 September 2013
Several milestones
have been achieved this week:
- Move into my house
- Got my motorbike
- Been able to make a cup of tea.
Out of the above,
who would have thought that making a simple cup of tea would represent the
culmination of what feels like a very long journey thus far? Unfortunately I cannot share a cuppa with the
missus but that is only a matter of time before we will able to (sigh!). I have now had many cuppas and it feels just
great! Although one of the other
volunteers, Derry, has warned me about the long term performance of kettles
sold in TL – they only reach double digits before blowing up, shorting the
house or making me jump. I will need to get some 100%
rubber thongs to protect myself from possible electric shocks in the future (electrical safety TL style).
I have moved into a
one bedroom apartment which is across the road from the former United Nations
compound near the Obrigada Barracks. The
road and open drain in front is being upgraded so hopefully there is less dust
in the long term. It is interesting to
compare how civil works are done in Timor-Leste and Australia. In Australia there is all this hoopla about
building a new road, planting a tree etc, anything that involves cutting a
ribbon by an esteemed person or that a repair to any road is done within a day after
it is reported (well most of the time).
In TL, the roads
are left to deteriorate to such a state that the asphalt (if laid) has
disappeared before something is done. The
poor roads make a great speed management system, everyone has to drive slowly
unless they want to trash their car’s suspension or wheel bearing (or both). This even happens on the country roads, the
road to Baucau is considered one of the best in the country, you can be zooming
along 90-100 km/h and then slam the brakes on as the seal is completely gone with
two foot deep potholes or that repairs have started but each step of the repair
takes at least two days so the road fails even further. If only they did… (patience my friend,
patience…). I will make a video of a typical
motorbike ride in the future.
Ahhh the motorbike,
what a relief to have the means to go anywhere at any time. Since getting back from Baucau on Tuesday, I
have been ripping up and down the streets of Dili on the Azúl
Azmátiku (blue asthmatic), which is an appropriate name for a bike that is
difficult to start first thing in the morning.
I was shown later where the choke is located in an awkward spot in the
engine block, not on the handlebars, I can now start it first time.
The apartment is
basic by Australian standards but after seeing the varying quality vs price
options here, this is a veritable palácio.
To celebrate my moving in, I stumbled across dragon fruit for $1/kilo
and apples grown in NZ in one of the supermarkets. There must have been several containers
arrive earlier this week for this bounty to appear. It may be several months before these items
appear again on the shelves.
One of the more
interesting things is there are no addresses to assist in locating where
someone lives. So my address here is:
head past the Obrigada Barracks around the bend and turn right into a driveway
across the road to some cannons about 500m away. I might have to check the cannons out as they
might be Portuguese relics.
We are all
(relatively) familiar with the recent history of TL but did you know that
according some historians, Kaupang and Dili were used as re-supply ports for
the Portuguese explorations in late 1400’s and early 1500’s of the Asian and
Australian coastlines? One historian (whose
name I escapes me at the moment) hypothesises the west and east coasts of
Australia were mapped about 1505-15 AD, unfortunately this cannot be
definitively verified in the Portuguese records as they were notoriously
secretive with this information and were burnt long ago. So who did the Spanish, French (Vallard Map),
Dutch and English get their information from?
Interestingly, fisherman from Eden, NSW have trawled Portuguese wine
urns somewhere near Gabo Island dated to this period. It is an interesting question to ponder.
For most of the
week I have been getting my head around about what I can do at BESIK in the
relatively short time I am here. It been
interesting to learn the differences between what is a successful project here
relative to home. Simple things such as
spare parts can render a whole water supply unusable for many weeks/months. I will keep you posted on any updates in this
area.
I had a quiet
weekend where I cruised around on the Azúl Azmátiku, mainly getting stuff for
the house, namely food for the week. So
in some ways it is no different to what I would be doing in Australia on the
weekend….
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