Monday 25 November 2013

Riding the waves



11-24 November 2013

It was only a four day work week so I could spend more time with Claire.  It was nice to come home to a cooked meal after a day in the office.  Unfortunately, my knowledge of esoteric matters failed the team at Tuesday’s quiz night where we came second last.  Claire got to meet some of the EWB crew working in TL – it is always good to put faces to names.

On Wednesday night, Claire and I went to “A Guerra da Beatríz”, which is the first TL made movie about the Indonesian occupation and the eventual independence of the country as told by the main character Beatríz.  The film was well made with plenty of cultural nuances throughout the movie, we recommend its viewing when it is in Australia (or where ever you are reading this).  Funnily enough a lot of the scenes were filmed just west of Tibar where we drove around the week before.  The camera work also made the country side look considerably cooler than it really is.  The Timorese have done a remarkable job in transforming the country from essentially nothing when the Indonesian left to a bustling country of today.

It was fortunate that work did not get in the way on Friday where Claire and I went to the Beachside Hotel for breakfast.  This was the first place I came to after dropping the bags off at the hotel three months ago.  Has it been that long?  And no I am not counting the days…
 
 (breakfast, view for breakfast, Atauro Island, the destination for Sunday)

Claire arranged to meet a woman called Natalie, who has been volunteering in TL for over four years in the disability sector.  Natalie outlined what she had achieved as well as discussing some of the health-related challenges still facing TL, which interested Claire greatly.  The lunch time venue was Café Aroma which is run by an NGO that assists women survivors of domestic violence recover and develop new skills to support themselves.  Domestic violence is a major problem where it is considered acceptable to “resolve issues” in the family home.  This is yet another generational change challenge for the country.
The parading of Claire with the volunteers continued on Saturday, where we had lunch at home (Palació do Rob do Santa Cruz) with Bhavani.  Many things were talked about, laughed at etc making the afternoon pass very quickly.

Time with Claire in TL is passing quickly so we could only afford a day trip to Atauro Island on the Sunday.  There is a dedicated water taxi service to the island which is about 30 kms away.  The water taxi dropped us off at Barry’s Place which is the only beachside accommodation on the island.  The boat trip there was considered relatively quick - it only took about an hour and 20 minutes and the sea was relatively calm. 

(beach at Atauro, tuk tuk ride and not challenging land speed record to Vila)

On the island, we bought some of the local crafts made by the women on the island as well as some jewellery made by locals who are deaf, and I did some snorkelling (no diving yet, but soon) in the afternoon before heading back with seven others.  What a ride back!  Several of the passengers were sea sick – I thought being green with sea sickness was something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon - one of the passengers struggled throughout the journey.  Even seeing a dolphin feeding frenzy on the way back did not distract her from her woes.  Unfortunately we did not see any whales, apparently they are passing through the Wetar Strait before heading to Antarctica.

Two hours later, we finally get back to Dili and I would have to say that it felt like being in a washing machine for two hours, the rough roads I have complained about are smooth in comparison.  Claire was glad that I mentioned to her that the ride back will be rough as we cruised along on the leeward side of the island before we hit the rough stuff.  After making that crossing it puts William Bligh’s sail back in a boat smaller and lower in the water than the water taxi from Tahiti to Kaupang in West Timor after the mutiny all of those years ago into better perspective, it was an impressive feat.

(the morning calm of the Dili foreshore, some of the shaken and stirred passengers returning from Atauro and water taxi skipper and crew mate (not Gilligan))

Claire reckons the St Christopher medallion I have been given might have had something to do with our good fortune on the way back, Claire thought that we were going to capsize and drown (and she said that all she could think about was “at least we will perish together”)!  Maybe the good fortune can be attributed our friend, Richard.  Richard left me the St Christopher medallion, the patron saint of travellers, as Richard unfortunately died from cancer 2 weeks before I left for TL.  I was deeply moved when his partner, and our dear friend, Boris handed me the medallion at the celebration of Richard’s life (he was very clear that he didn’t want a funeral); this is the story behind the medallion:

Richard saw and bought the medallion on a whim at flea market of sort in London in the 1960s.  Soon after, Richard, his travelling partner, Warwick, and the medallion started a long journey, driving an ordinary station wagon (long before the show Top Gear was created) overland from London to South East Asia via Europe, the Middle East and India, en route meeting at parties, luminaries such as Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. In India they swam in the ocean and had dinner with Vivien Leigh, who had gone to India, her birthplace, one last time before she died, together with her publisher Hamish Hamilton.

The journey took them nearly two years to complete and they saw a very different world to the one we know today.  Richard’s passing has left a big hole in all that loved him and being far away in TL makes the pain feel at times harder to bear.  I am sure he was watching over us on the ride back from Atauro…

Sunday 17 November 2013

Demarcation Dispute



11-17 October 2013

I felt a certain level of vindication when Claire arrived on Monday night that she managed to experience in day all of the challenges I have encountered over the past 11 weeks:

  • The heat (goes without saying, but she did repeatedly and has not stopped saying something about it)
  • The dust and now has the “Welcome to Dili Sore Throat”
  • No shower at night
  • No water to flush the toilet throughout the day
  • The discomfort of being a pillion passenger on a motorbike with a helmet that is too small
  • And a new one – blocking the toilet within 12 hours arrival!

It brought a tear to Claire’s eyes when these challenges brought back fond memories of her year in India, in particular Bulsar.  So I heard many times, “it’s just like Bulsar in the 1980’s!”  

We have spent the rest of the week catching up on news, gossip and other things that have happened since I left Australia 11 weeks ago. 

We even ventured for a sticky beak at the local health clinic in Tibar where we met up with Bruce and Meredith on the Thursday.  I will not complain about the state of health care in Australia after viewing the quality of the medical equipment and the services available in TL.  And this was a better run facility relative to others I have seen.

(our wheels, Francesca & Rob, rehabilitation room at the Tibar Clinic)

It was a special moment to meet one of the long term residents, Francesca, who lives in a derelict shed at the clinic.  Despite the clinic staff’s attempts to locate her in one of the houses there, Francesca appears to be happy living in the shed.  She even does her own cooking outside the shed and gathers the wood for her outdoor cooking from the surrounding land.  Francesca cannot speak, so no one can really find out about her story, if only we could – Francesca was very happy to engage with us and have her photo taken with us.

Claire and I also went to Liquiçá which is about 30 mins further on from Tibar.  I had already been through the town on the way to Maliana, however it was good to take in the town slowly.  True to the Lonely Planet guide’s notes, there were a many different type of bananas for sale.  I still prefer the red ones to the usual yellow ones.  We stopped by the Black Sands resort which is perched right on the water’s edge with a good view of the nearby Indonesian Island – Alor (I think).  We also drove around sticky-beaking the old buildings and the town in general before heading back to Dili for the big move into the new house in Santa Cruz.

(Claire and I at Black Sands, a building in Liquiçá and the old gaol)

The move into Santa Cruz was painless, what would you expect considering I brought over only the minimal amount of stuff in the first place?  Needless to say, a rather large collective sigh of relief from the two of us at being able to use a shower that works when we want it! 
The house is located across from to the Santa Cruz cemetery – in Australia, I would be uncomfortable living across the road from any cemetery, but here it is quite pleasant to watch the ever changing colours and the people visiting the graves.  It hit me today that the front yard can be a place where I can grow plants that protect me from the Zombies that wander aimlessly at night looking for brains to eat, just like the computer game “Plants of Zombies”.

(actual view from balcony, the game (source: http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IMG_0097.jpg)) 

All good things must come to an end – I head back to work tomorrow and will be leaving Claire to her own devices, can Claire be trusted?  Stay posted for next week’s adventure.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Drop everything and let's go!



4-10 October 2013

I turned up to work on Monday, thinking that I will be training a number of BESIK staff in how to set up the EPANET models on their computers using the same data and processes as I described in last week’s post.  Well that did not eventuate as I found out that I will be heading to Hatuodu in the Ainaro district to survey for another water supply system scheduled for construction in 2014.

That is the way it seems to work here, which is completely different to back home where my schedule is planned up to three weeks ahead including the lunch breaks on Saturday and Sunday!  Fortunately I do not have a lot to pack in the bag although I do consistently have the heaviest bag out of the group I travel with.  But I am carrying important things such as a Sudoku puzzle book, Ulysses (I am persevering with it), laptop, first aid kit, a variety of plugs and power boards for Aus/NZ, European/Indonesian power plugs and a few clothes.  The technologically simple days are long past…

The drive to the Ainaro District is similar to the other week’s trip to Suai, except we turned at Aituto onto another road, where some road construction is underway.  This time I was also wishing for a jumper as it was getting really cold driving 1700 metres above sea level.  Have I now acclimatised to TL?  What does this mean when I return to Aus/Ballarat next year, will I cope with following winter?!?

Lukas and I completed the survey in 1.5 days where we walked about 7 kms to get about 100 survey points in the blazing sun - the heat felt manageable this time.  Hatuodo already has a number of wells with what appears to be clear and reliable water.  I was dismayed that I had only just noticed that many locals reuse 2 litre oil bottles to store their water.   Apparently they rinse these bottles with stones but I would imagine an oily aftertaste remains let alone the likely health problems from repeated ingestion of the contaminated water from these bottles.  Large empty bottles of all sizes and previous uses/lives are a feature on all buses that head to the districts from Dili, so the demand is high but the supply of appropriate bottles is low.  Sounds like yet another development issue to overcome.

One of the other guys, Luis spent all of Wednesday completing a pump test at the well site.  The pump test is pretty is easy to complete:
 
1.      measure the well’s height, width and length to determine total volume of well, 
2.      then pump as much water out of the well and, 
3.      watch and measure the time it takes to refill the well every 1 cm height increment.


The above numbers are then used to determine the maximum volume that can be sustainably extracted (pumped) from the well.  Fortunately there was no need for me to break out the water divining rods this time.

Imagine my surprise to find out the owner of the guest house I was staying in Same was from Glenloth near Charlton, Victoria.  Bruce and I spent some time chatting about all manner of things and I found out that  Bruce came here as a volunteer to improve farming practices and has never really left and that was 12 years ago.  Is this where I am heading?  It is too early to say.


The drive back was just as painless as the journey there with the exception of waiting near Aituto due to road works.  It was impressive to see the works in action, there was one excavator with a rock breaker hammering away at the side of the hill (about 70-80 degree slope), while another was rapidly making a temporary road suitable for 4WDs to pass through the work site later.  I thought that we would be waiting for about 3 hours, it turned out to be half an hour.  Ramos the driver thought it would be prudent set the 4WD before going up the hill.  That turned out to be a wise move - Ramos’ brother who happened to be in the ute in front of us did not and failed in his first attempt up the hill.  We made really good time back to Dili after surmounting that obstacle.

It was nice to return to have a weekend just pottering around town doing things such as getting the motorbike fixed (new oil seals for the suspension, bargain at $6.50), haircut (another bargain at $3.00), lunch with a friend and a farewell party (see sunset below).  I might put my feet up and read a book (another thriller) before heading to bed before it starts again on Monday…


Ate amanya.