September 13, 2009 Sunday 9:27pm
I just had a wonderful week in the districts. I was suppose to helping with the student registration in Fuiloro but the Fathers decided that I would be more use teaching English to the masses of local children (and indeed, I wasn’t need for registration as the turn out was quite low). Thank goodness I had classroom experience from China to call upon, I used every trick in the book and really had a fulfilling week teaching English, learning tetum, and hanging out with the Fathers and local students.
The other day I noticed that when people are filling their car tanks up with gas they often rock the car. I asked a coworker why they did this and was told that they rock the car because they think that filling up the tank with gas is similar to filling up the tank with gravel or grain. When a person is filling up a bucket of gravel they shake the bucket to let the gravel settle so that they can get more in. Of course, gas is liquid therefore there is no need to settle the gas in the tank so the rocking is pointless. I wonder if there may be other reasons why they rock the cars when they are filling them up with gas because this reason really surprised me.
At school we had a wonderful debate among the student about “barlaki”. Barlaki translates to 'bride price’; it is the price a man has to pay his bride's family when he marries her. In the district of Los Palos, the barlaki is traditionally the most expensive. A man has to give the family of his potential wife 77 buffalo! Barlaki negotiations involve the entire family and often the price demanded by the bride's family is so high that couples can't afford to marry so just live together and have a family until they can save enough money (or buffalo) to be married. Once a man agrees to marry a woman for a certain price he can spend the rest of his life in debt to her family. This happens in matriarchal districts, the confusion increases when a woman from a matriarchal district marries a man from a patriarchal district (because then it's the other way around and the woman must buy into the man's family). Although most of ET is matriarchal, there are a few districts that are patriarchal. One of my coworkers has been living with a lady for quite sometime but cannot marry her because her family's barlaki price is too high (they believe that he can pay a lot because he works for an international organization). As a consequence he cannot marry her until the price decreases (perhaps as his bride-to-be ages her barlaki decreases). Both sides of the students' debate brought up interesting points. One student said that the barlaki fosters domestic violence as the husband can claim that he's not beating his wife, but the buffalo with which he paid for her.
The students had to make presentations on a short essay that they had written and then be prepared to answer questions from the class. One of the boys in the class called me over during a presentation and asked me to proof read his essay. His essay was titled, “How to Attack a Girl”. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only did this boy have the gull to call me over to proof read an essay on attacking women, but he also had a fellow female student leaning over his shoulder helping him write it. When I quickly snatched the paper from his desk and started about the importance of style and brains in choppy English, I suddenly realized that it wasn’t an essay about ‘attacking’ women rather, it was intended to be an essay about ‘attracting’ women! My darling student was preparing a presentation on ‘How to Attract a Girl”!
I was reminded once again of the importance placed on hierarchy in the TL society when I accidently wandered into lunch two minutes late. I had been told that lunch was in the mess hall at 1 o’clock and that all the student would be there eager to spend the time practicing their English with me. On my walk over to the mess hall I got a little confused and ended up getting slightly lost. I wandered into the hall a few minutes after 1 o’clock looking slightly confused. My confusion was then compounded by the arousing applause that I received from approximately 40 students that stood up to welcome me to lunch. The food was all layed out on a table in the middle of the hall but no one had touched it yet as I (the honoured English speaking malae) had not yet arrived to serve herself first. Couple with my confusion (it feels a little out of the ordinary to wander around lost looking for a dining hall and then to be greeted by a standing ovation when randomly entering one of the campus buildings) was the feeling of embarrassment as I had kept all the hungry students waiting on their lunch. As soon as I had served myself there was a rush as all the students scrambled up to fill their dishes. Needless to say, for the rest of the week I made sure I was 10 minutes early to the most important appointment of the day.
I had another wonderful memory of my week in Fuiloro. This is perhaps my favorite memory of TL thus far. After class everyday I would go for a run down a dirt road that went through the school’s cattle fields and out to neighbouring villages. As I ran down the road student who were walking home would wait for me to pass on the side of the road. Without saying a word they would join me on my run and follow along behind me. At one point I probably had 20 students thumping along behind me with their notebooks and sandals flapping about. I had to chuckle to myself as I saw our silhouette over the fields, it reminded me of the scene in Forest Gump where he’s running across the country and people are just joining in for no real reason at all.
Last weekend I went for a wonder run with an Australian friend of mine. She has been living in ET for a while now and is working with an organization that is helping create the new land law. Land ownership is a seriously complicated ordeal here. As I had previously mentioned there are issue with traditional ownership of land and ownership transfers during the Indonesian occupation. And to further complicate matters, in the last 10 years there have been two occasions where people have fled their homes to live in IDP camps. Although I am still very confused about the land title procedure, I was enlightened about some other questions I had about ET.
First, I was wondering why in 1975 Indonesia was so intent on taking control of ET. Apparently this had something to do with the fact that Australia had just given up Papa New Guinea and ET had just gain independence from Portugal. Rumor has it that the Indonesian government wasn’t keen on any of the boisterous islands that made up its territory to start thinking along the same independent lines. Thus to illustrate its strength and intolerance to any disloyalty to the Indonesian government, the Indonesian military was told to invade the then independent ET (there was about a 3 month window of ET independence between Portugal’s rein and Indonesia’s in 1975).
Prior to Indonesia’s occupation the ET population lived in the mountains, above the malaria line. They lived in small villages self sustaining villages and ate mostly mais, cassava and sweet potato, rather than rice. After Indonesia took over, the population was forced to move down to the valleys where they could be controlled and better organized. Furthermore, propaganda was used to change the diet of the ET people so that they ate more rice. Propaganda such as, “Only the uneducated don’t eat rice”. In addition to not having the correct temperate to grow rice in the quantities needed, having all the people living together on the flat land, rather than in smaller communities in the mountains, made it difficult for sufficient food production. Moreover, because ET is in a ‘rain shadow’ and thus doesn’t get as much rain as other Asian countries, in order for the people to eat mass amounts of rice they had to become dependant upon Indonesian imports.
There was also mass deforestation during the Indonesian occupation as the Indonesian military would burn forests in order to prevent people from sneaking away to provide the resistance movement with supplies. There are different feelings about the Indonesian occupation depending on whom you talk to. This past week I was travelling with two coworkers who reflected fondly on the Indonesian times. They both said that they had good jobs (although one of them is a native of Indonesia, thus he would have received benefits natives of ET would not have) and that the roads were better, small villages in the districts had electricity (now there remains only the telephone polls without any electrical cord) and that more money was spread over ET into the districts rather than all the government spending in the capital city. Currently, the government seems to have been giving the capital all its attention rather than making improvements and creating employment out in the districts. Although both of my coworkers spoke longingly of the Indonesian days, they told me that they had both voted for independence during the 1999 referendum. “Independence is better, and we are making progress” they argued as our truck drove along a semi paved road in the jet black night.
My running partner also made the interesting point that a county of 1 million was able to defeat a country of 200 million which also had the support of the United States. She said that everyone contributed towards the resistance movement in whatever way they could. In such a small country, the lines where drawn in the sand, you were either for the resistance moment or against, there wasn’t much room in the middle and everyone knew where you stood.
On another note, I have two animal stories. I saw my first cock flight the other day in Fuiloro. Well, I didn’t actually see the roosters fighting, I didn’t particularly want to, but there was a huge crowd of men in the middle of a field by the side of the road. Around the crowd of men there were dozens of roosters tied up waiting for their turn to flight. The roosters have large sharpened talons attached to their feet and are trained to fight to the death. What I find particularly sad is that the roosters aren’t just birds to the ET men, they become what a pet dog would be to someone in North America. The roosters become companions more than anything else. These birds are cared for, trained, groomed and cherished by their owners until they are put in a ring and expected to fight for their lives. It sad for me to think that in addition to the bird losing its life, the ET man loses his pet.
I also saw a real horse the other day. A real live big horse! This shocked me so much because besides this one incident all I have ever seen are small rugged ponies. I don’t even think this horse was all that impressive on the whole, but to me he looked like the Black Stallion. It’s amazing how magnificent he looked in comparison to all the other small packer ponies. I was in love instantly.
The children here are simply the best. Just this past week when my two coworkers and I were in Suai we went to dinner at one of my coworker’s friend house. It was a small little shack in the middle of a farmer’s field. We only had a candle to light our faces as we all chatted and I played with the children. There were millions of stars in the sky and besides the 10 foot radius of candle light, the scenery was pitch black. But what I love about the children is how beautiful they are and how quickly they smile. Although there was a little bit of a language barrier, we were quickly all laughing and giggling during a game of hide and go seek and then laying out on the grass with out heads together staring up at the stars. It was a wonder meal and another one of those special moments where I feel like I get to taste the real ET culture. What fantastic people!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
August 31, 2009
6:45pm
I have some answers to the questions of the previous blog. First, the children have blond hair for one of two reasons. The first reason being that blond hair is one of the first signs of malnutrition and the second is that sometimes children have their hair bleached when they have lice.
As for the lack of bargaining and competition in the markets: I asked around and was told that there is animosity within the community towards people who branch away from the set standard. Tomatos are sold 4 for one dollar, the kiosks all sell the same set of goods and no one strays from the that going rate. I found this very interesting, especially in contrast to China where there is so much bargaining and competition one has to be on the ball whenever they go shopping. I also found it interesting that this strong sense of community and lack of competition seems to run along the communistic vein which ET has never experienced politically, unlike China.
Here some challenges ET faces in development. The first major difficulty within the country is that there are so many different languages that is hard to unite when the people can’t communicate. Before 1975 protugese was the official language, so all the older people and government officials know and speak protugese. Post 1975 all the schooling was in Indonesian, so the younger generation has had schooling in Bahasa Indonesian. Post 1999 the schooling system seems to be in part Bahasa Indonesian, part Protguese and part Tetum. Right now on the street people speak Tetum and Bahasa and the government has currently decided that all schooling must be in Protugese because Tetum is too simple to teach complicated terms (for example, words that you would use as a mechanic, chemist, doctor, etc.) In addition there are no books written in Tetum, all the books are in either Bahasa, Protugese or English. Currently the students are in the middle of a shift from schooling in Tetum to schooling in only Protugese. Teacher trainers from Brazil are coming over to train the Timorese teachers in Protugese. All this while the cartoons on TV are in Bahasa Indonesian. To make things more confusing, Tetum is not the only local language. In many of the districts people speak different languages that can’t be understood by native Tetum speakers. I have heard that there are over 23 different dialects and language within ET. Apparently having the people speaking many different languages was desired by the Indonesian government during their rule so that the people would have a difficult time uniting against the Indonsian government.
Very confusing? You betcha.
In addition, this year the government has decided that the schools needs to run on a southern hemisphere clock. Therefore, schools are no longer starting in September and ending in July. They now start in January and end some time in November. However, due to the fact that this is a transitional year, the students are out of school from July until January this year! I believe that the Ministry of Education is using this time to train local teachers in Protugese as they will have to teach in Protugese starting in January. This is a huge shift. It is like asking English speaking teachers to start teaching in only French after a couple of months (maybe only a couple of weeks) of French language classes. But I understand that the shift has to happen, Tetum is not developed enough for a modern day country and there is a desire for ET to be independent from Indonesia politically and culturally.
The language problem within the schooling system is not a new difficulty. I was talking with Lino, one of my coworkers, and he was saying that the first day of University he walked in to class and realized that his entire schooling was going to be in Protugese! Forunately, he is very talented with languages and stuck with it, but he said that by the end of the first month most of his classmates had dropped out. Not surprising, I would have too. Lino’s gift with languages is not all together rare among the Timorese. Many people speak Tetum (at least one of the dialects) and Bahasa (due to the fact that most the TV is in Bahasa) and many of the people mix in Portugese when the speak Tetum, especially for more complicated words.
Another thing about the schooling system that I recently learned was that during the Indonesian occupation, the Indonesian teachers that were sent to ET were intentionally not the best teachers. My housemate was telling me that often Indosenian teachers were sent to ET as a punishement. She describe it as the students having to learn chemistry by having a teacher read out of a book in front of the class. The reasoning behind the poor quality of teachers seems to be that the Indosnian thought that insure that the Timorese remained dependant.
It’s interesting driving through the districts on partly paved roads, and seeing old telephone poles that no longer have wire running through them. The roads and electricity wire are reminents from Indonesian occupation. Currently the roads are in desperate need of maintance, and many people are without electricity although they did have it during the Indonesian occupation. I have been told that the country was in better condition during the Indoneisan reign, but that in fact, the Timorese were not better off because the Indonesians had all the jobs.
But then again, approximately 50% of men ages 20 -35 are currently not employed. I wonder if the government has any plans for training programs that would enable Timorese to work construction and electrical jobs. There certainly is a need for that kind of labour, especially in the districts.
Along those lines, I was talking with an Australian friend of mine and we were discussing the oil issue in ET. Apparently there is debate over whether an oil refinery should be built in ET or in Darwin, Australia. She was saying that it would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly to built the refinery in Darwin, but there are people who are pushing for the refinery in ET because it would create jobs. However, she has argued that it would make more sense to have the Timorese working the medium skill jobs on the oil barges and in the mining process, rather than importing the medium skill labour which is what is currently happening. In addition to environmental and economical costs of building a refinery, there would also be social costs as a town would have to be built for the oil refinery workers, which would then lead to problems such as protestation, and there is only an expectation of the oil supply for the next 15 years. Overall, I hear and see a great need for medium skilled workers, so my next question is along the lines of what steps is the government taking to provide for this demand.
6:45pm
I have some answers to the questions of the previous blog. First, the children have blond hair for one of two reasons. The first reason being that blond hair is one of the first signs of malnutrition and the second is that sometimes children have their hair bleached when they have lice.
As for the lack of bargaining and competition in the markets: I asked around and was told that there is animosity within the community towards people who branch away from the set standard. Tomatos are sold 4 for one dollar, the kiosks all sell the same set of goods and no one strays from the that going rate. I found this very interesting, especially in contrast to China where there is so much bargaining and competition one has to be on the ball whenever they go shopping. I also found it interesting that this strong sense of community and lack of competition seems to run along the communistic vein which ET has never experienced politically, unlike China.
Here some challenges ET faces in development. The first major difficulty within the country is that there are so many different languages that is hard to unite when the people can’t communicate. Before 1975 protugese was the official language, so all the older people and government officials know and speak protugese. Post 1975 all the schooling was in Indonesian, so the younger generation has had schooling in Bahasa Indonesian. Post 1999 the schooling system seems to be in part Bahasa Indonesian, part Protguese and part Tetum. Right now on the street people speak Tetum and Bahasa and the government has currently decided that all schooling must be in Protugese because Tetum is too simple to teach complicated terms (for example, words that you would use as a mechanic, chemist, doctor, etc.) In addition there are no books written in Tetum, all the books are in either Bahasa, Protugese or English. Currently the students are in the middle of a shift from schooling in Tetum to schooling in only Protugese. Teacher trainers from Brazil are coming over to train the Timorese teachers in Protugese. All this while the cartoons on TV are in Bahasa Indonesian. To make things more confusing, Tetum is not the only local language. In many of the districts people speak different languages that can’t be understood by native Tetum speakers. I have heard that there are over 23 different dialects and language within ET. Apparently having the people speaking many different languages was desired by the Indonesian government during their rule so that the people would have a difficult time uniting against the Indonsian government.
Very confusing? You betcha.
In addition, this year the government has decided that the schools needs to run on a southern hemisphere clock. Therefore, schools are no longer starting in September and ending in July. They now start in January and end some time in November. However, due to the fact that this is a transitional year, the students are out of school from July until January this year! I believe that the Ministry of Education is using this time to train local teachers in Protugese as they will have to teach in Protugese starting in January. This is a huge shift. It is like asking English speaking teachers to start teaching in only French after a couple of months (maybe only a couple of weeks) of French language classes. But I understand that the shift has to happen, Tetum is not developed enough for a modern day country and there is a desire for ET to be independent from Indonesia politically and culturally.
The language problem within the schooling system is not a new difficulty. I was talking with Lino, one of my coworkers, and he was saying that the first day of University he walked in to class and realized that his entire schooling was going to be in Protugese! Forunately, he is very talented with languages and stuck with it, but he said that by the end of the first month most of his classmates had dropped out. Not surprising, I would have too. Lino’s gift with languages is not all together rare among the Timorese. Many people speak Tetum (at least one of the dialects) and Bahasa (due to the fact that most the TV is in Bahasa) and many of the people mix in Portugese when the speak Tetum, especially for more complicated words.
Another thing about the schooling system that I recently learned was that during the Indonesian occupation, the Indonesian teachers that were sent to ET were intentionally not the best teachers. My housemate was telling me that often Indosenian teachers were sent to ET as a punishement. She describe it as the students having to learn chemistry by having a teacher read out of a book in front of the class. The reasoning behind the poor quality of teachers seems to be that the Indosnian thought that insure that the Timorese remained dependant.
It’s interesting driving through the districts on partly paved roads, and seeing old telephone poles that no longer have wire running through them. The roads and electricity wire are reminents from Indonesian occupation. Currently the roads are in desperate need of maintance, and many people are without electricity although they did have it during the Indonesian occupation. I have been told that the country was in better condition during the Indoneisan reign, but that in fact, the Timorese were not better off because the Indonesians had all the jobs.
But then again, approximately 50% of men ages 20 -35 are currently not employed. I wonder if the government has any plans for training programs that would enable Timorese to work construction and electrical jobs. There certainly is a need for that kind of labour, especially in the districts.
Along those lines, I was talking with an Australian friend of mine and we were discussing the oil issue in ET. Apparently there is debate over whether an oil refinery should be built in ET or in Darwin, Australia. She was saying that it would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly to built the refinery in Darwin, but there are people who are pushing for the refinery in ET because it would create jobs. However, she has argued that it would make more sense to have the Timorese working the medium skill jobs on the oil barges and in the mining process, rather than importing the medium skill labour which is what is currently happening. In addition to environmental and economical costs of building a refinery, there would also be social costs as a town would have to be built for the oil refinery workers, which would then lead to problems such as protestation, and there is only an expectation of the oil supply for the next 15 years. Overall, I hear and see a great need for medium skilled workers, so my next question is along the lines of what steps is the government taking to provide for this demand.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Guarda Kiik
August 16, 2009 8:03pm
It’s Sunday evening after a very busy and fun week. Here are some of the thoughts and observations and questions that I’ve had bouncing around my brain this week:
What would it take to get the grocery stores to stock local fruits and vegetables instead of importing everything in packages?
When I go to the local markets, everything that is sold is fairly similar from veggie stand to veggie stand. I wonder why there isn’t more competition in the market. The stand that I happen to stop in to buy tomatoes is almost completely random. There is no bargaining, and there is no added value to any of the piles of tomatoes. I always buy 4 for a dollar. That’s the going rate for all the stands and all the tomatoes look exactly the same. I wonder if there is something here that I don’t understand, for instance, the other market people would beat up a market person would sold the tomatoes at a better deal, but I’m curious as to why there isn’t more competition between the market stalls.
Everything here is very hierarchal. I noticed this when I was working with the students in Fuiloro and Maliana. As we were working on the student CVs and cover letters with the students, I would be politely interrupted in the morning and afternoon in order to inform me that morning and afternoon tea was ready. The first day I thanked the assistant kindly and told them that I was just going to finish my work on the student’s CV that I was currently working on and then I would meet up with everyone at tea. It wasn’t until later on in the week that I realized that the students couldn’t have their tea until I had mine because if they did that would be considered very disrespectful. So the teachers and the LOL staff would all leave the classroom to go to the room where tea was served and we would all drink and mingle, and then after we were finished the students were able to join us. So once I realized that it was necessary for me to have tea before the students were able, I stopped whatever work I was doing mid task and joined my coworkers for tea so that the students could then join us.
The other thing I learned while working in the districts with the students was that although it was valuable for the students to have CVs, cover letters and interview practice (we were running a job prep workshop), most of our students would be returning to their family and local farms after graduation and probably wouldn’t be applying for a job where they would need a CV. At first I didn’t understand this and was disappointed in this information, but then I was informed that this is exactly where the students need to take their knowledge after graduation. During the Indonesian occupation, from 1975 -1999, the farms were all run by Indonesians. As a consequence a generation of Timorese farmers was lost along with their agricultural knowledge. The students have been educated in farming techniques that they may have never known had they stayed on their family farms and had not gone to an agricultural technical school.
I was also talking with one of my local Timorese colleagues and he was saying that often a farming family will work for a year, save enough money to eat for a year and then take the next year off. There doesn’t seem to be much practice in financial savings. This is not a issue that is unique to Timor, it seems to be something that all poor countries struggle with as the poor discount the future at a very high rate. I can understand why someone would rather just relax for a year than slave in the hot sun, especially when they feel that there is little reason for them to save for anything more than food. I wonder even if they even think that saving to send their children to school would be worth it if they believe that their children will just be living the same life as they are. I wonder if an education in could be seen as a competitive advantage some how. For instance, family X works every year so that they can send their children to agricultural school, but family Y does not and just works a year and then takes the next year off, living day to day. If family X’s kids could come back to the farm knowing how to operate a hand tractor and were then able to increase their crop production. I wonder if family Y would see this and think to save to send their children to school. Although that would depend on family X being able to save enough to buy a hand tractor in addition to sending their children to school.
The other thing I was thinking about and talking with Jonathan and my Portuguese mother about was how being able to take care of special needs children was luxury of rich countries. My Portuguese mother’s husband works with special needs children in Portugal. It’s interesting because although there has to be special needs children here in Timor, I haven’t seen any at all. I have been told that they get locked in a room and hidden away. That is so sad, but I understand how that can happen when a family has 7 other children to feed and are working to feed those children day to day.
The other thing that I have to be careful about is not judging the intelligence of the students by how well they speak English. I found myself doing that a little bit when I was in the districts. It’s amazing though how wonderful and accepting and gracious the students are. It was a lot of fun working with them on their CVs and I understand how they must be feeling right now so close to graduation. Proud of themselves for accomplishing their schooling, but nervous that they will have to find jobs and create a life of their own and sad that they will be leaving their friends and school. I so admire how the students can leave home to go to agricultural school and many of them do not see or hear from their parents until they go home for holidays. That takes so much courage.
I have to say a little bit about our weekly soccer games. I’ve joined a soccer team of international women who work in Dili. Our numbers and skill vary and our coach is a forensic detective from Portugal. One of my favorit times during the week is on Saturdays when we play a local soccer team of Timorese girls. These Timorese girls are very skilled and have beaten us every game except one. But both teams have so much fun playing as hard as they can and the wonderful thing about sports is that the language is so simple. We also get quite a crowd. The soccer pitch is below a busy road so we get a crowd of people who are driving past (often taxi drivers) and are curious so they just pull over, get out of their cars and watch. There are also a bunch of local people who line the field and oooohh and awwee whenever either team get a good chance. They LOVE it when block shots and last Saturday I got quite a cheer when the ball came down and hit me square on the top of my head (I would like to say intentionally).
My puppy has open its eyes and the neighbours decided to name it “Guarda Kiik” which means “Small Guard”. Fittingly, their dog is named, “Guarda Boot” which means “Big Guard”. The originality cracked me up.
Much love,
mariesa
Monday, July 27, 2009
July 26, 2009 3:54pm
Re: Thought on ET
It’s Sunday, and it’s a beautiful Sunday. I’ve had quite an adventurous last couple of days. This coming week will be my second week of Tetum classes in the morning. They have been very helpful and I certainly feel more comfortable speaking tetum but I’m still have a hard time figuring out what people are saying to me when they talk quickly (and when they talk slowly). The funny thing about Tetum is that it’s the product of Bahasa Indonesian, Protégées and Tetum. Which means that people count to 100 in tetum, tell you the price of something in Bahasa, and look at you as if you’re crazy when you try to bargain despite the language you choose. In addition, you can learn a word in Tetum but depending on who you’re talking to they may or may not understand what you’re saying. However, I am making progress in some sort of language because I’ve been talking with the students that are interning at the LOL office and they seem to have a general idea what I’m saying. Often I am too quick to just agree with whatever they say in reply and then they think I understand and then we usually end up standing there looking at each other until one of us just starts laughing and we’re back to square one. One of my favorite parts of the day has been sitting down with the three students after I get back from tetum class and having a little informal language class where I practice sentences in tetum and they practice sentences in English. I have to keep in mind that although it is very important that I learn Tetum, it’s actually more important that they learn English. And I think they get as much joy out of teaching me tetum as I get out of teaching them English.
Besides tetum, I’ve learned a lot about ET in the last couple of days. On Friday I was asked if I wanted to take an overnight trip to Los Palos for the graduation ceremony of one of our interns. There are two school in Fuiloro, Los Palos that are private schools that are run by the catholic church. The Sisters run one school that has an administrative, sewing and sisterhood track and a Father runs a neighbouring school that has an agricultural track. LOL operates one of its programs out of the Father’s school. Boys and girls attend both schools although all the boy sleep at the Father’s school and all the girls sleep at the Sisters’ school. Our secretary intern was graduating from the Sister school and it was a great opportunity to travel to the country side to support her and to see the agricultural school where LOL has one of its programs. As soon as I got the text (I was at tetum class at the time) asking me if I wanted to go as soon as I got back I jumped at the opportunity. We left as soon as I got back stopping just to pick up my toothbrush and a change of clothes for the night. The drive took about 6 hours and apparently it’s the nicest time of year (the dry season) to make the trip. Although the school is the furthest away of the three LOL schools, it has the nicest road so it’s the easiest to get too. Note, that although the road was paved most of the way there were pot holes the size of our truck, hair pin and cliff hanger corners and the width of the road was not big enough for two vehicles to pass without me shutting my eyes. When my eye weren’t slammed shut they were glued to the window as the scenery was spectacular. The beach was always at our side with the hills of the country rolling out in front of us. The villages that we drove through were small but always full of children playing outside with stray dogs, wandering pigs, and roaming chickens. It was refreshing to get outside of Dili and really see ET’s stunning countryside.
During the ride up I learned a lot from my boss and coworker about the history of ET and the current economy. What is especially interesting is the land ownership situation. Currently most land ownership is done in a traditional fashion where people live on the land that their family has lived on and everyone in the community knows that its theirs because that’s the way it has always been. However, due to the 1999 conflict and again in 2006 many people had to leave their properties and live in IDP camps throughput Dili and the country side. The last of these camps is closing down now as people are being moved back to their original homes, however, there have been disputes over properties rights as some people want to go back to land that may or may not have been theirs traditionally, or may have been theirs during the Protégées rein, but then was taken away from them during the Indonesian rein and then they wanted it back now that ET is independent. My boss was saying although this is confusing and there isn’t any documentation as to who actually owns the property there is surprising few land disputes after the IDP camps were dismantled.
However, the lack of proper ownership documentation is an issue for Timorese who wish to open a bank account and borrow from the bank as they do not own any collateral. My boss was saying that in Africa small group microfinancing has been very successful as say a group of women can get together and take out a loan to start a sewing shop and each woman has to pay back her loan and the peer pressure from the rest of the group has almost guaranteed that the loans will be paid back. However, the Timorese culture doesn’t seem to support borrowing of any kind, there’s a belief that it’s almost better to do without than to borrow.
The lack of proper proof of land ownership and a culture that does not support borrowing has contributed to the lack of economical development . Surprisingly ET imports almost all of its rice and the food in the grocery stores all imported. The vegetables that I buy from the local markets are local, however the eggs and milk are not (except in Los Palos, apparently they sell local eggs, some from the agricultural school that LOL supports), the rice is not local because the government buys it internationally and then sells it to the people at a subsidized price. As a consequence it is cheaper to sell the imported rice than to grow it locally and then sell it. There are a number of NGOs here that I know are in the ‘food security’ sector. These organizations are trying to prevent potential disaster if there is a drought or a flood and the crops are ruined. The vegetables and fruit in the market are all similar products of the weather and harvest, thus with a lack of diversity in production many people would be out of jobs and without food if the crops failed. The grocery stores target the international community so the prices are very expensive and local people never shop there.
We came home from Los Palos Saturday afternoon after attending mass in the morning then the graduation ceremony and then doing a quick tour of the Father’s agricultural school. I was very impressed with the agricultural school. The school owns about 200 acres and consists of a small milking operation, a pig breeding operation and a chicken hatchery. Currently the chicken hatchery is the only operation that is making a profit and part of the reason why is that there is a lack of confidence in the profitability of the diary operation. The pigs are currently being raised and then sold/given to the local people so that they can raise them and then possibly sell them back to the school so that the school can deport the meat.
An interesting observation in the whole operation of this part of the agricultural world is that all the pigs, chickens and chicken feed have been imported. Now that the school has pigs they will start breeding them and hopefully will have to import less and less. However, growing crops for feed, such as chicken, cow and pig feed is not part of the agricultural mind set. Because growing corn for cows/chickens rather than humans has not been pursued it is difficult for the local people to create large chicken/pork/beef/diary operations. I was talking with the head of the USAID cow fattening project and he mentioned that feeding animals, ie taking the food to the animal rather than letting the animal roam the countryside in search for nutrients, is an idea that hasn’t really developed here. Thus people have chickens, but the chicken walk around and peck at the ground and eat whatever left overs they can find. This gentleman was also saying that his cow fattening project suffers because so often the families that have the cows that are supposed to be fatten and then exported to Indonesia, are slaughter prematurely because the family needs the money at that moment in an emergency.
In addition to a missing animal feed market, there is also a missing slaughtering market. There are no formal butchering practices and as a consequence the meat that is sold is not standardized in anyway. Although meat is not eaten often among the locals, it would be an interesting experiment to have a practicing butcher that could standardized the cuts and then even sell it to the grocery stores that target the international community. There are many many pieces to this puzzle but what I really like about the LOL project is that it starts somewhere. Although these students may never own their own diary farm they will have experience caring for animals and will understand the basic operations that are needed to make a profit from farming. These are skills that they can take home to their own family farms.
We got back from Los Palos around 8pm Saturday night. Sunday morning there was the annual First Lady’s Cup funrun 10k race. Almost every expat in Dili had signed up along with a number of local timorese. I’d say there was over 400 people present, some running, some walking, some just watching. The race went from the government palace building along Beach Road for 5km and then back. The first 10 men and first 10 women received a metal and a flat of canned orange juice. LOL represented very well, my boss finished within the top 40 of the men (the race was dominated by men, many of which were in the UN armed forces) and I finished 8th out of the women. The coolest part was that after the race the actual first lady, the Prime minister’s wife, who is Australian, was the one giving out the metals and flats of orange juice. I have only been here 2 weeks and I have already kissed the first lady on the cheek! The Prime minister was there as well in his running gear, as was their child and body guard. It was such a cool experience but the best part was certainly just competing and making LOL proud.
Today is Monday and I’m back in tetum class. I did learn something interesting today, I learned that in Tetum when you tell the time you either say the hour exactly or you say the hour and a half. For example, if you wanted to meet someone at 12 o’clock you would say “tuku sanulu resin rua” but if you wanted to meet someone at any time between 12 o’clock and 1 o’clock you would simply say “tuku sanulu resin rua o’balu”. ‘O’balu’ just means ‘a half’, it doesn’t matter whether you want to meet at 12:01 or 12:59, you always just say '12 and a half’. I’m sure there are ways around this, but it certainly is not clear and our teacher kept on telling us that ‘the hour is the only thing that matters here’.
Welp, off to bed I go! Much love,
mariesa
Re: Thought on ET
It’s Sunday, and it’s a beautiful Sunday. I’ve had quite an adventurous last couple of days. This coming week will be my second week of Tetum classes in the morning. They have been very helpful and I certainly feel more comfortable speaking tetum but I’m still have a hard time figuring out what people are saying to me when they talk quickly (and when they talk slowly). The funny thing about Tetum is that it’s the product of Bahasa Indonesian, Protégées and Tetum. Which means that people count to 100 in tetum, tell you the price of something in Bahasa, and look at you as if you’re crazy when you try to bargain despite the language you choose. In addition, you can learn a word in Tetum but depending on who you’re talking to they may or may not understand what you’re saying. However, I am making progress in some sort of language because I’ve been talking with the students that are interning at the LOL office and they seem to have a general idea what I’m saying. Often I am too quick to just agree with whatever they say in reply and then they think I understand and then we usually end up standing there looking at each other until one of us just starts laughing and we’re back to square one. One of my favorite parts of the day has been sitting down with the three students after I get back from tetum class and having a little informal language class where I practice sentences in tetum and they practice sentences in English. I have to keep in mind that although it is very important that I learn Tetum, it’s actually more important that they learn English. And I think they get as much joy out of teaching me tetum as I get out of teaching them English.
Besides tetum, I’ve learned a lot about ET in the last couple of days. On Friday I was asked if I wanted to take an overnight trip to Los Palos for the graduation ceremony of one of our interns. There are two school in Fuiloro, Los Palos that are private schools that are run by the catholic church. The Sisters run one school that has an administrative, sewing and sisterhood track and a Father runs a neighbouring school that has an agricultural track. LOL operates one of its programs out of the Father’s school. Boys and girls attend both schools although all the boy sleep at the Father’s school and all the girls sleep at the Sisters’ school. Our secretary intern was graduating from the Sister school and it was a great opportunity to travel to the country side to support her and to see the agricultural school where LOL has one of its programs. As soon as I got the text (I was at tetum class at the time) asking me if I wanted to go as soon as I got back I jumped at the opportunity. We left as soon as I got back stopping just to pick up my toothbrush and a change of clothes for the night. The drive took about 6 hours and apparently it’s the nicest time of year (the dry season) to make the trip. Although the school is the furthest away of the three LOL schools, it has the nicest road so it’s the easiest to get too. Note, that although the road was paved most of the way there were pot holes the size of our truck, hair pin and cliff hanger corners and the width of the road was not big enough for two vehicles to pass without me shutting my eyes. When my eye weren’t slammed shut they were glued to the window as the scenery was spectacular. The beach was always at our side with the hills of the country rolling out in front of us. The villages that we drove through were small but always full of children playing outside with stray dogs, wandering pigs, and roaming chickens. It was refreshing to get outside of Dili and really see ET’s stunning countryside.
During the ride up I learned a lot from my boss and coworker about the history of ET and the current economy. What is especially interesting is the land ownership situation. Currently most land ownership is done in a traditional fashion where people live on the land that their family has lived on and everyone in the community knows that its theirs because that’s the way it has always been. However, due to the 1999 conflict and again in 2006 many people had to leave their properties and live in IDP camps throughput Dili and the country side. The last of these camps is closing down now as people are being moved back to their original homes, however, there have been disputes over properties rights as some people want to go back to land that may or may not have been theirs traditionally, or may have been theirs during the Protégées rein, but then was taken away from them during the Indonesian rein and then they wanted it back now that ET is independent. My boss was saying although this is confusing and there isn’t any documentation as to who actually owns the property there is surprising few land disputes after the IDP camps were dismantled.
However, the lack of proper ownership documentation is an issue for Timorese who wish to open a bank account and borrow from the bank as they do not own any collateral. My boss was saying that in Africa small group microfinancing has been very successful as say a group of women can get together and take out a loan to start a sewing shop and each woman has to pay back her loan and the peer pressure from the rest of the group has almost guaranteed that the loans will be paid back. However, the Timorese culture doesn’t seem to support borrowing of any kind, there’s a belief that it’s almost better to do without than to borrow.
The lack of proper proof of land ownership and a culture that does not support borrowing has contributed to the lack of economical development . Surprisingly ET imports almost all of its rice and the food in the grocery stores all imported. The vegetables that I buy from the local markets are local, however the eggs and milk are not (except in Los Palos, apparently they sell local eggs, some from the agricultural school that LOL supports), the rice is not local because the government buys it internationally and then sells it to the people at a subsidized price. As a consequence it is cheaper to sell the imported rice than to grow it locally and then sell it. There are a number of NGOs here that I know are in the ‘food security’ sector. These organizations are trying to prevent potential disaster if there is a drought or a flood and the crops are ruined. The vegetables and fruit in the market are all similar products of the weather and harvest, thus with a lack of diversity in production many people would be out of jobs and without food if the crops failed. The grocery stores target the international community so the prices are very expensive and local people never shop there.
We came home from Los Palos Saturday afternoon after attending mass in the morning then the graduation ceremony and then doing a quick tour of the Father’s agricultural school. I was very impressed with the agricultural school. The school owns about 200 acres and consists of a small milking operation, a pig breeding operation and a chicken hatchery. Currently the chicken hatchery is the only operation that is making a profit and part of the reason why is that there is a lack of confidence in the profitability of the diary operation. The pigs are currently being raised and then sold/given to the local people so that they can raise them and then possibly sell them back to the school so that the school can deport the meat.
An interesting observation in the whole operation of this part of the agricultural world is that all the pigs, chickens and chicken feed have been imported. Now that the school has pigs they will start breeding them and hopefully will have to import less and less. However, growing crops for feed, such as chicken, cow and pig feed is not part of the agricultural mind set. Because growing corn for cows/chickens rather than humans has not been pursued it is difficult for the local people to create large chicken/pork/beef/diary operations. I was talking with the head of the USAID cow fattening project and he mentioned that feeding animals, ie taking the food to the animal rather than letting the animal roam the countryside in search for nutrients, is an idea that hasn’t really developed here. Thus people have chickens, but the chicken walk around and peck at the ground and eat whatever left overs they can find. This gentleman was also saying that his cow fattening project suffers because so often the families that have the cows that are supposed to be fatten and then exported to Indonesia, are slaughter prematurely because the family needs the money at that moment in an emergency.
In addition to a missing animal feed market, there is also a missing slaughtering market. There are no formal butchering practices and as a consequence the meat that is sold is not standardized in anyway. Although meat is not eaten often among the locals, it would be an interesting experiment to have a practicing butcher that could standardized the cuts and then even sell it to the grocery stores that target the international community. There are many many pieces to this puzzle but what I really like about the LOL project is that it starts somewhere. Although these students may never own their own diary farm they will have experience caring for animals and will understand the basic operations that are needed to make a profit from farming. These are skills that they can take home to their own family farms.
We got back from Los Palos around 8pm Saturday night. Sunday morning there was the annual First Lady’s Cup funrun 10k race. Almost every expat in Dili had signed up along with a number of local timorese. I’d say there was over 400 people present, some running, some walking, some just watching. The race went from the government palace building along Beach Road for 5km and then back. The first 10 men and first 10 women received a metal and a flat of canned orange juice. LOL represented very well, my boss finished within the top 40 of the men (the race was dominated by men, many of which were in the UN armed forces) and I finished 8th out of the women. The coolest part was that after the race the actual first lady, the Prime minister’s wife, who is Australian, was the one giving out the metals and flats of orange juice. I have only been here 2 weeks and I have already kissed the first lady on the cheek! The Prime minister was there as well in his running gear, as was their child and body guard. It was such a cool experience but the best part was certainly just competing and making LOL proud.
Today is Monday and I’m back in tetum class. I did learn something interesting today, I learned that in Tetum when you tell the time you either say the hour exactly or you say the hour and a half. For example, if you wanted to meet someone at 12 o’clock you would say “tuku sanulu resin rua” but if you wanted to meet someone at any time between 12 o’clock and 1 o’clock you would simply say “tuku sanulu resin rua o’balu”. ‘O’balu’ just means ‘a half’, it doesn’t matter whether you want to meet at 12:01 or 12:59, you always just say '12 and a half’. I’m sure there are ways around this, but it certainly is not clear and our teacher kept on telling us that ‘the hour is the only thing that matters here’.
Welp, off to bed I go! Much love,
mariesa
Monday, July 20, 2009
Exciting weekend!
July 20, 2009 9:54pm
Wow, has it even been an interesting weekend. On Saturday I got up and went into the office and helped a colluege of mine with an application essay for a US scholarship that is only offered to five Timorese each year. The more I learned about my college who is applying the more I was convinced that if anyone deserved a college education this woman did. She is the oldest of 6 children and currently is the provider for her family. She handles all of LOL finances and is as sharp as a whistle. Not only is her English almost perfect but she can also speak Portugese and some Indonesian. She studied in a convent to become a nun for four years but then had to drop out because she needed to support her family. And to top it all off she is the most patient Tetum teacher there is and as such a wonderful happy laugh. When I talked to her about living through the revolution in 1999 and the crisis in 2006 she is very honest about her family’s story of survival. And when I look at her incrediously and ask her how she does it all her 75 pound frame just chuckles and she responds, ‘it’s a life.’ I feel so fortunate to have her as such a good friend.
After we worked on the application and I used the internet in the office for a bit we went back to my place and had lunch and then headed off to the beach. It was nice just to float in the water practicing my Tetum and laughing about how ‘Jesus’ must be getting hot (referring to the giant Jesus statue on top of one of the mountains). After we went home and changed I needed to head off to my soccer game so we caught a cab and made plans to meet for mass Sunday morning at the Dili cathedral.
Now, the soccer game was a blast! I hadn’t played soccer for over 12 years but it was so much fun just to get out there and run around. I’m on a team with a bunch of international girls and we played a local Timorese girls team. They kicked our butts pretty cleanly but I managed to get our team’s only goal! We had quite a crowd out watching us and they would ooohhh and ahhh over ever save, bump, crash and kick. The best part was that both teams were having so much fun that we didn’t even care about the score. There were refs and everything so there were a few rules that I had to pick up mid match. But the other team was the nicest bunch of girls and I can’t wait to play again this weekend.
Saturday night I went to a friend’s going away party. Mostly I knew the soccer girls at the party but it was nice to hang out and meet some more international folks. The hard part was getting up Sunday morning at 6:30am so that I could catch a cab to the catherdral. When I thought I was going to a catherdral I though that I would end up at a pristeen European style giant Catherdral. However, this was not exactly the case. The ‘Cathedral’ is currently underconstruction and right now looks like a empty half built cement church. The church service was actually outside in the back yard of the construction where everyone stood or sat on plastic chairs. A lot of people were there, probably around 400 who either walk or rode their motorbikes. Although the service was in Tetun and I was a little tired, it was a great experience and I think it’s a nice was to integrate myself into the local community. This weekend my college and I are going to go to an English service that she has heard about.
After going to church my next big adventure was shopping with another friend and then heading to the beach with the soccer girls. We went to “Jesus’ backside beach” which is the beach behind the Jesus statue. It was actually quite overcast and it started to pore later on in the afternoon but not before I got the chance to walk all the way up to the Jesus statue and take a look at the bay from the balcony. What a beautiful sight. The island really is stunning and the ocean goes on and on forever. You look out and feel like there’s nobody else on earth.
That evening was my last evening at Bess’ place. It was sad to leave but Monday (today) after work I moved into my new home. This place really is wonderful. It’s a beautiful home that is not far at all from the city center. I think that once I have a bike I’ll be able to go anywhere fairly easily. It felt really good to unpack all my things and set myself up. The house is right next to the biggest farmers market in Dili. It’s huge! I walked in and was the only malae (foreigner) there. I got a lot of stares but I also got a lot of smiles and a lot of veggitables and fruit that was really inexpensive. The market also sells almost anything you would want to buy in a grocery store and it also has clothes and any sort of trinket you can imagine. I am so thrilled about its location.
This week Bess and I are taking tetum language classes every morning. Tetum is fairly easy to learn and I have made pretty good progress since I got here. It really helps to have coworkers that are willing to teach you all day. And this afternoon I went with a coworker to one of the USAID projects that our students are interning at in Dili. It was really fascinating to learn about this other project that focuses on cattle fattening, coffee growing, and tree planting. It was also good to meet some of the students and ask them about their experience thus far. The idea is that these students will get some work experience and knowledge that they can take back to their own family farm or use in the agricultural sector. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other projects and being able to converse more easily with the students.
Off to bed, I’m going to walk to work in the morning and this time it may be a little bit of a hike! Bonoite!
LOVE
Mariesa
Ps. I’m having a difficult time trying to get my pictures off of my lap top and on to the internet. Soon they will come!
Wow, has it even been an interesting weekend. On Saturday I got up and went into the office and helped a colluege of mine with an application essay for a US scholarship that is only offered to five Timorese each year. The more I learned about my college who is applying the more I was convinced that if anyone deserved a college education this woman did. She is the oldest of 6 children and currently is the provider for her family. She handles all of LOL finances and is as sharp as a whistle. Not only is her English almost perfect but she can also speak Portugese and some Indonesian. She studied in a convent to become a nun for four years but then had to drop out because she needed to support her family. And to top it all off she is the most patient Tetum teacher there is and as such a wonderful happy laugh. When I talked to her about living through the revolution in 1999 and the crisis in 2006 she is very honest about her family’s story of survival. And when I look at her incrediously and ask her how she does it all her 75 pound frame just chuckles and she responds, ‘it’s a life.’ I feel so fortunate to have her as such a good friend.
After we worked on the application and I used the internet in the office for a bit we went back to my place and had lunch and then headed off to the beach. It was nice just to float in the water practicing my Tetum and laughing about how ‘Jesus’ must be getting hot (referring to the giant Jesus statue on top of one of the mountains). After we went home and changed I needed to head off to my soccer game so we caught a cab and made plans to meet for mass Sunday morning at the Dili cathedral.
Now, the soccer game was a blast! I hadn’t played soccer for over 12 years but it was so much fun just to get out there and run around. I’m on a team with a bunch of international girls and we played a local Timorese girls team. They kicked our butts pretty cleanly but I managed to get our team’s only goal! We had quite a crowd out watching us and they would ooohhh and ahhh over ever save, bump, crash and kick. The best part was that both teams were having so much fun that we didn’t even care about the score. There were refs and everything so there were a few rules that I had to pick up mid match. But the other team was the nicest bunch of girls and I can’t wait to play again this weekend.
Saturday night I went to a friend’s going away party. Mostly I knew the soccer girls at the party but it was nice to hang out and meet some more international folks. The hard part was getting up Sunday morning at 6:30am so that I could catch a cab to the catherdral. When I thought I was going to a catherdral I though that I would end up at a pristeen European style giant Catherdral. However, this was not exactly the case. The ‘Cathedral’ is currently underconstruction and right now looks like a empty half built cement church. The church service was actually outside in the back yard of the construction where everyone stood or sat on plastic chairs. A lot of people were there, probably around 400 who either walk or rode their motorbikes. Although the service was in Tetun and I was a little tired, it was a great experience and I think it’s a nice was to integrate myself into the local community. This weekend my college and I are going to go to an English service that she has heard about.
After going to church my next big adventure was shopping with another friend and then heading to the beach with the soccer girls. We went to “Jesus’ backside beach” which is the beach behind the Jesus statue. It was actually quite overcast and it started to pore later on in the afternoon but not before I got the chance to walk all the way up to the Jesus statue and take a look at the bay from the balcony. What a beautiful sight. The island really is stunning and the ocean goes on and on forever. You look out and feel like there’s nobody else on earth.
That evening was my last evening at Bess’ place. It was sad to leave but Monday (today) after work I moved into my new home. This place really is wonderful. It’s a beautiful home that is not far at all from the city center. I think that once I have a bike I’ll be able to go anywhere fairly easily. It felt really good to unpack all my things and set myself up. The house is right next to the biggest farmers market in Dili. It’s huge! I walked in and was the only malae (foreigner) there. I got a lot of stares but I also got a lot of smiles and a lot of veggitables and fruit that was really inexpensive. The market also sells almost anything you would want to buy in a grocery store and it also has clothes and any sort of trinket you can imagine. I am so thrilled about its location.
This week Bess and I are taking tetum language classes every morning. Tetum is fairly easy to learn and I have made pretty good progress since I got here. It really helps to have coworkers that are willing to teach you all day. And this afternoon I went with a coworker to one of the USAID projects that our students are interning at in Dili. It was really fascinating to learn about this other project that focuses on cattle fattening, coffee growing, and tree planting. It was also good to meet some of the students and ask them about their experience thus far. The idea is that these students will get some work experience and knowledge that they can take back to their own family farm or use in the agricultural sector. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other projects and being able to converse more easily with the students.
Off to bed, I’m going to walk to work in the morning and this time it may be a little bit of a hike! Bonoite!
LOVE
Mariesa
Ps. I’m having a difficult time trying to get my pictures off of my lap top and on to the internet. Soon they will come!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Jesus Statue
Blog post: July 16, 2009
After work yesterday Bess and I rode bikes out to the beach and went for a run towards the tip of the island where there is a giant statue of Jesus (although he’s in scaffolding right now). This was the first of a few things for me. It was the first time that I navigated the roads on a bicycle (this was a little nerve racking but I managed to remember to stay on the left hand side of the road and Bess and I stayed close together). We were going to bike all the way to the Jesus statue but then Bess’ tire was flat so we decided to park our bike and run. This was the first time I had been that far down the beach and it was the most beautiful run I have ever been on. We were running as the sun was setting and I was lucky that I didn’t fall flat on my face because I was looking out on the ocean with the sun setting on the horizon the entire time. Breath taking. There were actually many people (both “malae”, who are internationals, and local people) running along the road. In two weekends there is a big 10km race that I’m going to try to sign up for.
I have also joined a women’s soccer team here. We practice every Tuesday and Thrusdaya nd this Saturday I have my first game. Our coach is from Sweden and is a UN police officer. Last night the two girls I’m currently sharing an apartment with and I hosted a girls’ night. There was about 6 of us in total and most were from the soccer team. I’ve never been great at ball sports but I’m excited about playing a game on Saturday with a bunch of girls that I now know. Anyway, at the girls night, we made a bean dip and we all just sat around talking and devouring delicious food.
Today I went out to lunch with a bunch of people from the UN. One of the UN guys that we were eating with is from Vancouver. Within 5 days I’ve already met 3 people from Vancouver. Usually when I meet Canadians (and that has been relatively rare in the last couple of years) they’re from Toronto. But this nice Vancouver fellow who gave me information on how to contact a NGO that has a recycling project in Dili. Apparently because there isn’t a paper recycling in Dili this organization is collecting paper from offices and is going to make them in to paper bricks that you can burn. The paper is going to be burned anyway, but at least this would decrease the number of trees that are going to cut down and it would provide jobs for Timorese who work at the paper brick making factory. I noticed that LOL separates its paper and glass bottles and my boss said we are hoping to start recycling, perhaps we could contribute to the paper brick factory!
Next week I start an intensive Tetum language course that is every morning all week. My tetum is getting a lot better (I can piece together sentences with my co-workers. They are so patient it’s unbelievable). But I was thinking about how cool it will be to actually understand what they are saying to each other. It will take a bit of time to get to that point but I have time.
Much love,
mariesa
After work yesterday Bess and I rode bikes out to the beach and went for a run towards the tip of the island where there is a giant statue of Jesus (although he’s in scaffolding right now). This was the first of a few things for me. It was the first time that I navigated the roads on a bicycle (this was a little nerve racking but I managed to remember to stay on the left hand side of the road and Bess and I stayed close together). We were going to bike all the way to the Jesus statue but then Bess’ tire was flat so we decided to park our bike and run. This was the first time I had been that far down the beach and it was the most beautiful run I have ever been on. We were running as the sun was setting and I was lucky that I didn’t fall flat on my face because I was looking out on the ocean with the sun setting on the horizon the entire time. Breath taking. There were actually many people (both “malae”, who are internationals, and local people) running along the road. In two weekends there is a big 10km race that I’m going to try to sign up for.
I have also joined a women’s soccer team here. We practice every Tuesday and Thrusdaya nd this Saturday I have my first game. Our coach is from Sweden and is a UN police officer. Last night the two girls I’m currently sharing an apartment with and I hosted a girls’ night. There was about 6 of us in total and most were from the soccer team. I’ve never been great at ball sports but I’m excited about playing a game on Saturday with a bunch of girls that I now know. Anyway, at the girls night, we made a bean dip and we all just sat around talking and devouring delicious food.
Today I went out to lunch with a bunch of people from the UN. One of the UN guys that we were eating with is from Vancouver. Within 5 days I’ve already met 3 people from Vancouver. Usually when I meet Canadians (and that has been relatively rare in the last couple of years) they’re from Toronto. But this nice Vancouver fellow who gave me information on how to contact a NGO that has a recycling project in Dili. Apparently because there isn’t a paper recycling in Dili this organization is collecting paper from offices and is going to make them in to paper bricks that you can burn. The paper is going to be burned anyway, but at least this would decrease the number of trees that are going to cut down and it would provide jobs for Timorese who work at the paper brick making factory. I noticed that LOL separates its paper and glass bottles and my boss said we are hoping to start recycling, perhaps we could contribute to the paper brick factory!
Next week I start an intensive Tetum language course that is every morning all week. My tetum is getting a lot better (I can piece together sentences with my co-workers. They are so patient it’s unbelievable). But I was thinking about how cool it will be to actually understand what they are saying to each other. It will take a bit of time to get to that point but I have time.
Much love,
mariesa
Monday, July 13, 2009
first day at work!
I just had my first day of work and it was like Tetum Language Immersion: SUPER INTENSIVE. I can walk to work from where I'm living right now which is absolutely lovely. I didn't really have any set tasks once I got to work so after meeting everyone in the office and giving them all chocolates I decided that I'd spend my time studying Tetum with a little girl who seemed to work in the office as a cleaner and cook. We practiced all morning and then at lunch I went out with one of the staff that speaks english very well because he was educated in Australia. He wanted to hear all about Bernie Madoff. We had a quick lunch and then I came back to the office and started hanging out with the local staff, all of whom were more than willing to teach me Tetum (often all at once). It was really fun hanging out with them and I asked what they had been working on in the morning. Apparently they are planning trips out the organisations where the students are doing their internships this summer. I asked if I could join in on a trip and now it looks like I'll be treking across E. T. to at least one of the districts later on this week with some of the other staff. The idea is they are checking in to get some feed back from the organisations and from the students that were getting work experience for the last couple of weeks before they graduate. I'm going to head out now to go the market before it gets dark. More is coming on the adventure stories I missed from my trip here.
much love
mariesa
much love
mariesa
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