Timor-Leste. 2012.

So, I’m not completely sure what i should be writing here, but i guess i need to keep it both child and grandma friendly. This may disappoint the 2/3 people who come here to read this. Ma doesn’t know she is a Grandma yet and Brother Lulu doesn’t really understand that he is still a child and not really a returned first world war hero (don’t worry Lulu; Ma will keep you safe from the Germans...).

In theory i can keep this updated with photos and commentary and not have to worry about group emails and post cards. Post is never going to work here. I personally blame the Porto's. No rail, no postal service, bad roads, yep. The Porto's are to blame.

Infrastructure aside, I wasn’t expecting everyone to be so enthusiastic for me to go away for 12 months and had only hoped to raise around the $1500 mark, but to double that is amazing. Thankyou to all who donated to the EverydayHero page. Huge thanks. I was contacted by the finance people at EWB and given praise and as a result was the poster boy of the facebook/webpage for a month. None of the other volunteers got anywhere near it! It typically costs an organisation around $25,000 to support a volunteer through a 12 month placement (living allowance, administration, insurance, support, etc.) so any support that allows EWB to place more engineers into roles such as this is greatly appreciates. The best part is that the value of that $25,000 is magnified by the time it gets down to the local NGO’s which get the support... once again, huge thanks!

It’s going to be very hard to keep this polite and not indict myself by writing to many rubbish opinions. I’m not used to being so positive and polite and feel the strain already...  three paragraphs will do that to you.