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.