Somewhere between March and now, time for April’s entry was lost. Rather then continuing to run late, we’ve cut our losses and gone straight to May. Don’t worry - we won’t leave any juicy parts out. This is an especially long entry so feel free to come back to finish it later if you fall asleep.

The trainees are here! The trainees are here!

The new recruits arrived on April 17; these trainees that will be sworn in as TL02 volunteers (Timor Leste’s second volunteer class) after their 11 weeks of training. Although all the hard work and long hours Patti has put in since she arrived was in preparation for this new crew, she hasn’t worked with them much yet. After a week in Dili, they were whisked off to nearby villages where they are living with host families (NOT their actual volunteer sites yet). A separate staff of trainers (including current volunteers) are responsible for teaching them Tetun and introducing them to the customs and culture of E. Timor, as well as the basics of Health and Governance (the two “programs” the agency now has in E. Timor).

We did spend Easter Sunday with them at the “Secret Garden,” a nice snorkeling beach about 30 minutes east of Dili. It was their first weekend in E. Timor and their first trip out of Dili….cleverly disguised as a water safety training session. Our first impressions of this new group were quite entertaining. They are quite a diverse group - one husband-wife pair; two other married people who are here without their spouses; one older woman who’s had a long career as a lawyer; and a handful just out of college. And there’s nothing that binds them together; no commonality. Our only perspective of agency volunteers is the 14 current volunteers. The glue that makes them one is obviously their year together in E. Timor. This TL-1 group is different in that they are all third or forth year, “extended” volunteers - road hardened, culturally savvy, quite easy going. It will take a while for this new group to grow on us.

Patti asked Olivio, her Program Assistant, what he thought of the newbees and his response summed it all up: “la hanesan.” Just not the same.

Funny recruit quotes.
"Where can I buy a cell phone? I have to call home at least every other week."
Naturally, Patti will place this volunteer in a site that doesn’t have cell phone reception (which is still much of the country).

"Well, I’ll be back in Dili two or three times a month, right?"
It’s likely this recruit will be placed in a village that takes a two day bus ride and a 4 hour hike to get to from Dili - not a trek to be taken more than 2 or 3 times a year.

"Can I get the staff to drive me to the beach on Sunday?"
Funny how little they know…. And how much we have to teach them.

"How come you haven’t invited us over for dinner yet?"
Spoken by a trainee who will be lucky to get an invitation in his first year of service. Patti’s response was "You’re not even Volunteers yet. Just be patient."

Saying Goodbye to TL-1
Predictably, part of the difficulty in adjusting to the TL-2 group lies in the fact that we don’t really want to say “goodbye” to any of the existing Volunteers. TL-1 is a special group, in all senses of that word! We’ve grown incredibly attached to their quirky ways - the “out” San Franciscan who ranks PFK (PeaceKeeping Forces) soldiers according to the cut of the uniforms; the birdwatching government Volunteer who has started a head-shaving fad in his village; the fourth-year Volunteer who beams as he describes his experience planting rice with his host family; the “Queen of Tetun,” a Volunteer who was mistaken for a local Timorese by the Minister of Health; the Brazilian-educated Volunteer who made it her personal crusade to bargain hard every time she shopped…..hoping to teach people that not every malae has money falling out of their pockets; the health Volunteer who shamed the First Lady (An Australian-born woman who used to serve as a translator for Xanana Gusmao) into speaking Bahasa, because the Volunteer’s Tetun was so good; …and all the rest.

Both of us have spent more time with them than agency staff would normally be able to. This is because the group is small and also because they have all been so actively involved in helping the agency to get ready for the TL-2 group - getting involved in site development, technical training, and almost everything else. Fortunately, we were both able to attend the Close of Service (COS) workshop with them at the beginning of May. The workshop was part retreat, part career-planning seminar, and part Foosball tournament. It was held in Maubisse, a spectacularly beautiful sub-district capital that is smack dab in the middle of the country.

The conference marked the beginning of the end for this group. As of this writing, two Volunteers have already left the country. The trickle will become a flood and the remaining eleven folks will all be gone by the last week of June.

Environmental Dumping and Political Intrigue
As part of his work as a volunteer advisor at the Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Investment (try to say that with marbles in your mouth), Dean got involved in an investigation that ultimately led to a private briefing with the Prime Minister, Mari Alkitiri. The specific environmental issue was the dumping of waste oil on a beach just outside of Dili.

Ultimately, the real problem was (and is) the complete lack of a legislative framework to protect the environment in Timor Lorosae. Despite the fact that it should be obvious that dumping used oil directly on to a popular snorkeling beach is less than ideal, there are no laws or regulations which specifically preclude that. To make matters worse, there really are no other waste management options in the country at this point. So….Dean and others at his office conducted an investigation and prepared a memo for the Prime Minister. Dean and the other malae advisor initially wrote the paper in English. It was then translated into Bahasa Indonesian, so that all the others in the office could comment. Then it was translated into Tetun so that other Ministries could comment (since Tetun is one of the official languages and finally from Tetun to Portuguese, since anything going to Alkitiri has to be in that language.
The upshot of all of this…..not really very different than the way that environmental issues are being handled under the Bush Administration. The parallels are really interesting. It is not unintentional that the word “investment” appears before “environment” in the title of the ministry.

Oh….but Dean did get to meet Prime Minister Alkitiri.

To Peep or Not to Peep (everybody remember that candy? Peeps?)Easter is a huge event in East Timor. It’s bigger than Christmas, and is the Christian holiday celebrated by everyone. The accompaniments for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were obvious signs. Arrangements of palm fronds and flowers decorated streets around every church, and huge palm archways were erected over the church gates. But nothing prepared us for the celebration we found ourselves a part of on Easter eve. We walked down to the church near our house (Balide Church) at dusk. Mass was still going, but people were beginning to congregate on the street - and everyone, young and old, was armed with candles and home-made votives. As mass ended, a huge procession left from the church and wound its way slowly around the city block behind the church. The procession was led by a statue of the Virgin Mary and a huge litter bearing a resting crucifix, each carried on the shoulders of church officials. Other marchers included nuns in full habit, monks and priests, the Catholic youth group, and the incense bearers. The congregation and virtually the whole neighborhood, with lit candles in hand, crowded in, around, and behind them as the procession walked the streets around the church and on to Santa Cruz cemetery. Hymns were sung in Tetun and bible verses were chanted along the way. At the cemetery, a short service was broadcast over loud speakers. You could see the candles of 100s, maybe 1000s, of people back along the route. And we were the only malaes in the crowd.

Vacation in Australia
In late April we took a vacation to Australia - a much-needed vacation for Patti. Looking for some cold weather to take the Dili heat out of our bones, we headed south to Melbourne. It’s fall there now and the high country promised the crisp days and cool nights we were looking for. Little did we know that Melbourne would be one of our favorite cities ever!

It was a bit of an epic journey to get there, due to the fact that Australia is a CONTINENT. So, we had to fly first to Darwin (sort of like starting a trip to the US in the thriving metropolis of International Falls, Minnesota). In typical Dean-and-Patti-on-vacation mode, we took full advantage of our 12-hours there by hiking, catching “In the Shadows of Motown” at the outdoor Deckchair Cinema (think DC’s “Screen on the Green but in 1940s beach chairs) and having a fancy meal at our favorite Indian/Thai restaurant there.

Next, we flew Virgin Blue Airlines (Southwest Airlines, Australian style) to Brisbane and then Melbourne. Roughly 27 hours after leaving Dili, we finally arrived to the marvelous chill and damp of a rainy Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon. It was cold! It was wet! It was glorious. During our whirlwind two days in the city, we experienced a little bit of “reverse culture shock”…..standing with our mouths agape at the wonderful Victoria Market, where vendors were selling every imaginable fruit. Strawberries! They had strawberries. We were also amazed by the incredible system of public transportation, the well-preserved Victorian architecture, and by the fact that we could sit at a café reading the paper for hours. Dean got a little bit of jazz fix and a hole-in-the-wall club. Patti especially liked the tram trip to St. Kilda, where she got her picture taken in front of Luna Park, home of a Coney Island-era wooden rollercoaster.

After “hiring” a car and navigating the incredibly complicated, left-side driving, full of tram tracks, and crowded with many more cars than exist in the whole country of Timor, we headed out of the city, lousy map in hand. Unfortunately, our drive through suburban Melbourne made us like the city a little less. It was so suburban - and full of sprawl. We did manage to finally make our way to our destination - The Yarra Valley, a wine-producing region about an hour outside of the city.

Fall had just started in the valley and we were struck by the brilliant golds, oranges, and reds in the late afternoon sun. We were both commenting on how similar it all seemed to places back home (think Vermont, Napa, etc) when a roughly 6-foot kangaroo came hopping by! Kangaroos. In the middle of the vineyard. Then we saw a giant wombat, dead on the side of the road. Ok, it wasn’t giant but it looked that way to us. We had assumed they were raccoon-sized but they are really more like a black bear with stumpy legs. Fortunately, the wildlife was fascinating and the scenery was gorgeous because we quickly realized that winery-hopping isn’t our favorite pastime.

Choosing to pass on a second day of wine tasting and in search of a bathtub for Patti, we left the Yarra Valley after just one day and headed up to the High Country. Along the way, we visited a wildlife sanctuary and drove through a magical national forest full of Dean’s new favorite plant, the tree fern. We spent the next two nights in Beechworth, a gold-era town with well-preserved 1800s architecture, a plethora of “foodie”-inspired bistros, and a really great rails-to-trails bike path. Our B&B featured two dogs, four puppies, the floppiest cat we’ve ever seen, glasses of port and roasting chestnuts in front of the open fire, and a spa-sized bathtub for Patti.

The highlight of the trip was an all-day bike ride along the rail trail. We first biked fifteen kilometers downhill….through cow pastures, thicket, hilly outcrops, vineyards and spectacular “bush” country. We even passed a vineyard with a bike-friendly entrance. After a picnic lunch of strawberries, local cheese, and fresh bread from the nationally famous Beechworth Bakery, we began our ascent back to town. About half-way back, Dean looked at a trail map and asked “did you know we will double our altitude by the time we get back?” It certainly wasn’t the C&O Canal (our flat 4-day ride in Maryland). It was doable….we both did it but it sure was a constant push. Luckily, just about every time one of us was ready for a break, we stumbled across a “creature feature” that gave us new energy. Since the trail was converted from a railroad bed, we were usually far away from roads. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, an impressive black snake, and even the elusive echidna! At one point, a poor kangaroo tried to hide from us in a gully next to the trail. When Patti got off her bike to “pull a Ruth” (pee), he bounded away in horror! We ended the trip by visiting the bike-friendly winery, buying a couple of bottles, and soaking in that spa tub.

Our last night was spend with friends that we met during Semester at Sea, Anne and Derrick. They invited us up to their weekend house in Yea, just a couple of hours drive from Beechworth. We took the scenic route to get there. Highlights of the drive included visits to The Big Cherry (a cherry orchard where Dean exchanged stories with the owner, a man who hates cherries); a joke-telling session with a Mark Dove twin (remind us to tell you the one about the Aussie who ate the wombat “tucker”); cheese-tasting (and buying) in the Milawa Gourmet region; and a beautiful drive through the scenic King Valley.

Our evening with Anne and Derrick was great. They cooked up a real Aussie “barbie” for us – steak and prawns. And then we stayed up until past 1 am, telling stories like we were old college friends. The next morning, we saw a kangaroo from our bedroom window and took a hike on their 50-acres of former goldmine land. It was a really great ending to a very nice week.

We’ve been thinking it would be fun to describe the kinds of things we are starting to take for granted so we put together a list of….

Random People and Mental Images from Timor and Australia
The “Northern Territory Man”- typically dressed in tight short shorts, black work boots worn through the soles, sporting a scraggly beard and often with a long ponytail, a big beer gut, and often seen having a liquid lunch of Australian beer. East Timor is the “last frontier” for many of these guys. Most of them are tradesmen (carpenters, plumbers, electricians) and many of them are still living in freight containers that have been converted into apartments. (When prompted, our Anne and Derrick referred to them as “rednecks”…. Although you’d have to mix a little Crocodile Dundee with our own image of a redneck to get it quite right.)

The Traveling Minstrel who walks his goat through Dili - Patti first saw this guy getting out of a dump truck in a District several hours outside of Dili. A Volunteer who was with her described him as looking like “a traveling minstrel who got lost about 20 years ago.” He was wearing polyester plaid pants, a leather vest, and a goofy hat! We later find out that he is a hairdresser at a snooty salon in Dili. He is also known as the malae-who-walks-his-goat, apparently an animal that he adopted to prevent it from becoming dinner.

Baby Joey in a Shopping Cart - About three hours after we left Dili, we made the mistake of wandering into the largest shopping mall in Darwin, Australia. We were completely overwhelmed by the shops, the shoppers, the cars in the parking lot, and the food court. They had ice cream. As we were walking through the airconditioned mall, Patti did a double-take as a couple (see description of “Northern Territory Man” above and imagine accompanying “Northern Territory Female”) walked by with a baby wallaby in their shopping cart! After regaining her composure, Patti gestured for Dean to follow her to get a closer look. He did and they were both amazed to see a tiny baby joey inside a man-made pouch (with eucalyptus leaves inside), riding in the child seat of the cart.

Blinker-Happy Cab Driver - We may have already alluded to the fact that it is somewhat challenging driving in a country where a). there are no traffic laws, traffic signs, or even rough ideas about traffic rules and b) where no one who is currently on the road had ever driven before 1999 (a nation of 15 year-olds when it comes to driving, really). However, we’re happy to report that some drivers are obviously learning about driving rules. A couple of weeks ago, Dean encountered a cab driver who had clearly learned that he was supposed to use his blinker whenever he passed another car. For the entire length of the coastal road, Dean followed behind this cabbie as he dutifully put his blinker on before every car and turned it off after he had passed them. They were all parked and none of the cars were in the roadway, so the driver didn’t even need to change lanes to avoid them. But he did use his blinker.

Malae Runners - Most afternoons, Dean has been going for a run along the coastal road to Christo Rei (The Jesus Statue at the eastern end of town). Starting at about 5:00 pm, the road is taken over by runners, joggers, bike riders, and walkers from the international community. Some run on the left, some on the right, and some right up the middle. Some pass on the right and others on the left. Most speak Portuguese, English, or Australian…. But you often hear Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, or any number of other languages as people race by.

Portuguese PKF (PeaceKeeping Forces)- Easily recognizable due to the Portuguese flag on one shoulder and the big chip on the other, these soldiers (mostly men) are stationed all over Timor. Patti frequently encounters them in her trips in to the interior, where she relishes the opportunity to pretend she doesn't speak Portuguese. This means that she not only is unable to help them with translation (none of them have bothered to study Tetun) but also that she can enjoy the jokes that the locals are telling about them. They are mostly young and colonialist in their outlook. They tend to think that the general rules of courtesy and good manners do not apply to them. They also think anyone who doesn’t speak the Portuguese language is an inferior, uneducated brute.

Agency Staff Spouse/ Fire God - Now that our sea freight has finally arrived, we are a little better prepared for power outages! Here Dean fixes a dinner of homemade goat cheese ravioli over the camp stove on the floor of our kitchen. If we could just figure out how to store water so that we would have that too….we’d be all set!

Site Copyright 2003 MityMo Design and hosted by hostDNA