Now you know

Did you know that….
1. The price of gas in Dili is about 97 cents a litre
2. There are Pakistani UN soldiers guarding the road that the president lives on
3. Taxis don't run at night
4. There used to be electricity and telephones and paved roads in the districts during the Indonesian occupation but now there is not
5. People drive on the left hand side of the road
6. A pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream cost $17.00
7. In the countryside people don't fence in their livestock
8. If you hit someone while driving in your car you have to drive away as quickly as possible to the police station and send the police back to the accident so that the local people don't attack you in an attempt to deliver justice
9. The average number of children per family is 7
10. Average life expectancy is about 60 years old
11. You can buy almost anything in Dili, even Ben and Jerry's ice cream, because so much food is imported
12. Even the rice (which people eat for 2 meals a day) is imported
13. Even eggs (which are sold in the local markets) are mostly imported
14. Vegtables are not imported
15. You can buy 3 foot long green beans and they’re good!
16. There are 32 different dialects and languages spoken in ET alone
17. If you hit any animals (even a stray dog) while driving on the road you have to pay for it. For example, last week we hit a small dog and had to pay the nearest old lady $5.
18. It gets dark at about 7pm everyday throughout the year
19. There is one beach in Dili where many expats go and you can wear two piece swimsuits on most of the other beaches it is best to swear shorts and a t-shirt
20. There are traffic lights in Dili, I haven't seen any in the other small towns around ET.
21. After dark (around 7pm) the traffic lights only flash yellow for every direction
22. “Pulsa” is cell phone talking and texting minutes that are bought from venders on the side of the street in $1, $2, $5 and $10 amounts
23. The ‘Pulsa Venders’ assume that all malae (foreigners) are in desperate need of more pulsa
24. The Pulsa Venders hang out in packs and are aged anywhere from 7 to 45
Portuguese will be ET only official language soon. Although this decision makes little sense practically, it is a political decision
25. Timorese only have to pay taxes if they make over $500 a month. After that they are taxed at roughly ten percent of their income
26. It costs $30 a semester to go to UNTL, University National Timor Leste
In Dili there are Turkish, Nepalese, Japanese, American, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and many other different types of restaurants
27. Traditional houses in TL have thatched roofs and are raised about 5 feet off the ground on wooden legs (perhaps because of the flooding during rainy season)
28. ET has an enclave in WT which is Indonesia
29. There are 13 districts in ET, one of which, Oecusse, is the enclave in WT.
30. Many districts have distinct culture, traditions and languages
31. I type “TL” or “ET” because I don't want my blog posts to be picked up by the major list serve here
32. There are no beggars in TL
33. That local yell “Mister! Mister!” to foreigners as they are walking down the street, no matter the foreigner’s gender
34. The average speed of drivers on the road is approximately 20 m/hr, yet as soon as the traffic lights turn green horns start blaring and the car take off at snail’s pace
35. Many older Timorese women chew a form of nut (similar to beetle nut) that makes their teeth and mouths blood red
36. Most adolescent men have at least one outrageously creepy long finger nail (I’m talking two inches at least)
37. By the age of 11 all Timorese are considered adults
38. The UN has been in TL twice in the last ten years. The most recent mission started after the 2006 crisis and is schedule to depart by 2012
39. The 2006 crisis was a inter country conflict between the Eastern supported military and the Western support national police force
40. There isn’t any public transportation; however there are privately owned “microlettes” which are minibuses that drive around town on specific routes. A person can get on a microlette and get off a microlette where ever they want on route for 10 cents
41. That ‘cents’ are called ‘centivu’
42. Numbers from 1-10 are said in Tetum, numbers above 10 are said in Bahasa. And prices are always said in Bahasa Indonesian.
43. In some districts there is a “barlaki” which translates to “bride price”. This is the price a male has to pay his in laws when he wishes to marry.
44. The most expense barlaki is in the district of Los Palos where going price is 77 buffalo, a debt a man could end up paying for rest of his life
45. Some districts have the opposite of a barlaki, where the woman’s family has to pay their in laws. This complicates marriage that are between families from patriarchal and matriarchal districts
46. May 20th is the Timorese Independence Day.
47. This past August, TL celebrated their 10th anniversary of the referendum which was the democratic vote where 70 percent of the Timorese voted for independence
48. There was a 98 percent turn out for the 1999 referendum vote
49. After the results of the referendum vote instigated the 1999 violence
50. One of main roads in Dili is named “Hudi Laran” which mean “In Bananas” because either side of the road is lined with a forest of banana trees
51. There are two season in ET, rainy season (November – March), and dry season (April – October)
52. Approximately 98 percent of Timorese people are Catholic
53. The majority of Timorese believe in some sort of form of black magic
54. Rooster crow, dogs bark, baby cry at any odd hour at night and often all at once
55. If you don't wear a helmet while driving a motor bike you will be fined by the police
56. However, passengers don't have to wear helmets

October 7, 2009
Teacher quality is a huge problem in ET. One of the reasons is that to be qualified to teach a subject a person only has to have studied that subject in University. For example, I would be qualified to teach economic because I majored in economics in university. Therefore, although the teachers may understand the material, they are not necessarily good teachers. Furthermore, having a teacher with a university education is certainly the exception rather than the norm. Many of the 'teachers' at the agricultural high schools are simply students that have graduated from the program in previous years.

On the other hand, the life expectancy for Timorese is about 60 years old and the average age in TL is around 20. Therefore, not only is TL a young country, but it's population is also very young. As a consequence, youth are given the responsibilities that a middle aged North American would receive. For example, my best teachers were the ones with the most experience, most of which were over the age of 40. However, the minority of the population in ET is over the age of 40 and those that are the minority are most likely grandparents. I have to keep on reminding myself that the students that graduate from out program are approximately my age, and our expectations for these students is to go out and create small farming cooperatives and businesses, a task that I would find very daunting, even with a steller education.

The other challenge that our young graduates face is simply invisioning what their cooperative/agribusiness could be like. I have to remind myself that in North America we have people and stories like Bill Gates that shape our dreams, where as in TL (unless they have access to TV and movies) the youth look around and they see a lot small vegetable stands, a few private shops, many decrepid buildings, and most of the profitable stores and restaurants owned by internationals. I imagine that this can dampen the creativity and imagination needed for young entrepreneurals.

There are no beggers in TL. I have only seen one old lady who was once sitting on the steps to a shop, she wasn't begging, but I quitely took the money that I gave her. When I talked with my coworkers about this they told me that there is a lot of shame associated with begging and only old people who cannot do jobs such as selling fruit off of wagons or dusting off parked cars in exchange for a dollar, lower themselves to begging. However, just because there are no beggers, doesn't mean that there aren't people who desperately need money and are without a job. My coworker was telling me that he often gives money to people that he knows and asks him. It is expected that families support each other. I believe that all of my Timorese coworkers live with extended family and they are paying for their brothers' and sisters' education. The story that this reminds me of is about a Timorese man who opened a bar in Dili that was quite successful but he had a hard time making a profit because his family and extended family would walk behind the counter and take money out of the cash regrister. They did not believe that they were stealing, only taking what was also belonged to them.

On another note, the LOL USAID project recently had representatives from USAID in Washington come and evaluate our program. I believe that the evaluation went well and that the main concern was the quality of teachers for our program. I had an interesting conversation with the USAID representative who was telling me that most USAID projects get funding for 2- 5 years. This came as a surprise to me because one would think that after a couple of year a project would be most efficient and that in fact development projects should have longer term funding because development takes time. However, I was reminded that congress determines which projects USAID will fund and it's possible that after a couple of years they get tired of supplying money to one project. Therefore, in order for a USAID project such as LOL to get funding for more than 5 years the program has to keep on changing its 'pitch' to congress. For example, there is a coffee growing USAID funded NGO that is ten years old. However, during the last ten years it has broaden its focus from coffee plantation to cow fattening projects and other agricultural development. Although the expansion of the program is great, expansion doesn't necessarly mean that more people are help. What is more often the case is that the farmers who initicially received NGO assistance with coffee production are the same farmers that are receiving assistance with the cow fattening project (this project organises farmers to fatten their cattle and then export the cattle to West Timor, Indonesia). So there's a bit of a catch: for an NGO to continue to receive funding from USAID their pitch to congress has to have new bells and whistles. However, perhaps more local farmers may benefit if a project maintained a single focus for over 5 years rather than having fewer farmers continuing to benefit in different ways.

Although I doubt it's that black and white, I do find it very interesting that development projects usually only receive 2 years of funding with possible extension to 5 years when you would think that a program in it's fifth year would be a lot more effective than another new program.

As we were driving through the districts last week a coworker of mine pointed out a coffee bean planation. The coffee bean plants were very mature and it looked more like a forest than a farm. My coworker was telling me that the government had tried to convince the local farmers that production would increase if the farmers pruned their coffee bean plants. However, the farmers were not willing to do so because they could not afford to lose the year of production that would result from the pruning. I asked my boss why the farmers didn't just prune 25 percent of their crops over 4 years. He said that the farmers or the government officials may have just not thought of that or that maybe the farmers were so close to having nothing that they couldn't afford to lose a quarter of their crops even if it was only for a few years.

This is something interesting that occurs when a county changes its national language: as we were driving home, over the national radio station (which normally plays a variety of English and Bahasa Indonesian music) an audio language course came on. There was a lady's voice that would say something in Tetum and then a man's voice would repeat it in Portuguese and then there would be a pause for the listener to repeat the Portuguese out loud! So all over Timor for a couple of hours a day people are practicing Portuguese!
Finally, I got a small look into some of the traditional beliefs of the local Timorese when we were having lunch at a fish stand one afternoon. The family that own the fish stand was warning us not to swim in the ocean because there were crocodiles (TL is one of two places in the world where there are salt water crocodiles). She went on to tell us that not to long ago a man had killed a crocodile and they had to skin it and then wrapped its skin in black clothe and then through it into the ocean so that they would have rain this year. She was very serious and so cool to listen to.

Alright, I'm off!
mariesa