Sunday 22 September 2013

Horiseik hau haan hudi ho semana oin hau haan hudi...

16-22 September 2013

Yesterday I ate a banana and tomorrow I will eat a banana 

There is a lot of bananas for sale in the markets here and I reckon I am about to turn into a monkey given how many of them I have eaten and there are many more to go.  There are monkeys in TL and quite often see one in the street harnessed because somebody owns them.  Trust me, they are only cute from a distance and they have the potential to steal your lunch.

Just like home, the food choices have turned into a certain level of monotony, I wonder if this only a developed country phenomenon.  It is funny when I go out for something to eat, the local choice of chicken and rice is about 2-3 dollars, depending where you go, and sometimes it is a pleasant surprise to find one that sells a variation on the theme, an omelette perhaps.  Just watch out for the chilli sauce, it is hot!  The malae (a term of respect for westerners) choices are varied, however the prices tend to be about 6-9 dollars and pretty well anything is available, burger and chips (and variations), pizzas, Japanese, Thai etc.  

I have developed a routine of sorts that aids in making this journey a little more comfortable.  One aspect that is getting worse as the dry continues is the dust.  Everything is acquiring a certain dirt colour about at the moment as it has not rained for several months.  The locals overcome this by spraying their patch of dirt with water and in some of the poorer areas water from the open drains, which is effectively septic tank effluent (raw sewage).  I have been here long enough to not even worry about that anymore, just slow down on my Azúl Azmátiku (blue asthmatic).

It is hard to believe that I have been in TL for a month on the 23rd, it feels much longer than that.  What better way to celebrate the milestone than to finally be learning Tetun.  Tetun and Portuguese are the official languages of the country, while English and Bahasa Indonesian are widely spoken.  It is certainly a hassle when at the markets where the numbers are given in a variety of languages, Tetun for dollars, Bahasa/Portuguese for the cent(avos).  It is interesting to note, that the older generations speak Portuguese and Tetun, middle generation mainly speak Tetun and Bahasa, while the younger seem to be able to speak well in all four languages.

I have another week of learning Tetun and hopefully by the end of week I can at least string a sentence together, rather than just key words such as hira nee (how much) and obrigado barak (thanks very much).  I hope that over time I will be able to join in the conversation and be able to relate more stories about miscommunication and mispronunciation that invariably happen.

Both Tetun and Bahasa have borrowed a number of words from the Portuguese and now English, given the large aid presence in the country.  Cement is a very common material throughout the world and they certainly sell it here, but it is known by another name.  When we first saw the signs, we thought there was a serious artificial insemination program for farm animals given the price for a kilo…


Adeus Rob

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