19 - 26 January 2014
This week saw me starting the training of new water supply
systems design process with my counterparts here at BESIK. I have set the lessons so that it is only
about 2 hours a day to enable them to practice afterwards (known as reflective
practice). It is an interesting
experience to be teaching the Timorese counterparts, especially considering
their underlying learning experience is by rote learning. It is a challenge for me to teach in such a
way that they understand the content as well knowing how to find the solution
off their own bat after I finish my placement.
I wonder sometimes if this is a too high ideal to be
imparting here Timor-Leste. I say this
not as a criticism of the Timorese people, there are really nice people to work
with, but it does highlight endemic problems with the education system, the
teaching methods used, poor nutrition in relation to brain development and the
hand to mouth existence most Timorese live by.
I am only cataloguing the challenges not criticising the people
themselves who are products of the system(or lack of) but there are times where
their ingenuity is simply priceless as well as a source for chuckle.
I have heard of anecdotes where school children are taught
only by repeating what has been written by an unqualified or poorly qualified
teacher off a blackboard. This was my
mother’s experience back in the not-so distant past, no wonder she left at 15
to work (I know there are only reasons too).
It hardly helps that a lack of books and considering the national
languages are Tetun and Portuguese (English and Bahasa Indonesian is spoken
too) this makes it very difficult and costly to source texts for the
students. This is hardly the way to
inspire students about learning at large; their parents are also a product of
this system too, compounding the problem further, where their education has
been disrupted several times too.
It just makes my challenge seem small in comparison and the
changes I have seem already have given me hope that it will not be wasted….
Onto more superficial matters, I was invited to Heather’s
place in Atabae to celebrate Australia Day (AKA Invasion Day). Atabae is a hard 2-3 hour motorbike ride west
of Dili, towards West (Indonesian) Timor.
It is good fun to be on a bike riding down this road considering the
number of work-related trips to Maliana, which is another 2 hours drive past
Atabae. Steve (who was a fellow
traveller on the Baucau trip) and I met at Papa John’s (Pope John Paul II
statue) mid-afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the day (but we got rained
on). I am envious of Steve’s trail bike
as it can take lumps and bumps of the road whereas my bike (now known as the
Durango 95) makes funny noises when taking a big hit.
(Atabae is towards the bottom left of map)
But the Durango 95 purred away real horror show to Liquiça
and Maubara, making Maubara in just over the hour. The section of road between Liquiça and
Maubara is almost freeway standard making it almost a tourist attraction in its
own right to the expats here who labour their way around the country’s other
roads, I just wished it kept going. The
road deteriorates rapidly after Maubara where a trail bike/4WD is better suited
however I managed to make it as smooth as possible finding the best lines
through some pretty crappy sections of road.
It certainly makes for an interesting time when the road has been
stripped back to sub-base level leaving massive puddles to drive through, the
Timorese just whizz past me through these sections as they are much lighter,
there are times when I drive right next to 30 ton excavators as there are that
moving the earth around….
(there is a 1.5 m gap and please
excuse the picture angle, I did not realise the helmet camera mount was coming
loose)
Steve and I got to Atabae by late afternoon and was warmly
welcomed by Heather and the rest of the Atabae residents (expats and local
alike) for the Australia Day party.
There was even beach cricket – it was nice to get the sand between the
toes but the water was not safe enough to swim in (waves/current not crocs). A lot was said back Heather’s place into the
wee hours of the morning before hitting the tiles to get some sleep, no we did
not drink that much booze! I had to
smile that I had to spray insect repellent before sleeping, the mosquitos were
not bad, but a mosquito net just makes it too damn hot to sleep without a
fan/air con.
(Perfect beach cricket pitch conditions, catch
Heather!, life’s pretty good here)
Steve and I said our thank you and goodbyes to all at about
midday to get back to Dili, I was disappointed to discover that my bike had been
dropped several times by the neighbours as they had to for reasons unknown to
me move the bike in the front yard. I
now have no mirrors and a bent handlebar that needs to be fixed, I just got other
parts of the bike fixed from a similar incident several weeks ago. A bike’s roadworthiness here is based on
whether it still goes forward and is not based on whether the indicators are
working or still having round wheels … It
is one of things here where I have to go with the flow, I quite often find my
bike has moved during the night at home (it has been dropped there too) or when
I have been out to meet friends.
Needless to say that Steve and I got back to Dili safely
otherwise I would not be writing this post.
It looks like I need to go to work for a rest.
It will be a little light on for TL news as I will be
heading to Oz for two weeks for a well-deserved break next week.
