Home Sweet Home

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….