Cockfight shootout

No razor blades this time...

 

Servisu, Servisu. Sempre servisu...

But work huh? Well it’s interesting. It’s great to be away from the corporate engineering role and i’m finding that extremely refreshing. I won’t be going back anytime soon. It took 10 years of mind numbing work to get to be outdoors doing interesting stuff so i intend to make it last!! Feeling useful? Hmm, yeah, i am. I think i’m lucky with the role that i managed to get into. I was pretty strategic about looking for a role in Timor-Leste and one that supported by a larger INGO. The plan was to slip into a role that had significance to my local region so that it makes it more likely that I’ll keep being involved post 2012; so it doesn’t just become a sabbatical.  Being a recent convert to the Northern Territory means that ‘home’ is pretty close; a short 1hr flight from Dili! Plus it means that I should start to have some skills in both Tetum and Bahasa Indonesian languages by the end of the year!

Mauvedara - excellent location for a site office, ka?

Plan International are a child’s rights based organisation who have been active in Timor-Leste for over 10 years (as PlanTL). The program that I am involved with is part of a 5 year grant from the European Commission (EC) to run Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs in two districts in Timor-Leste (there are about 12 districts in total); Lautem and Aileu. PlanTL don’t implement the programs directly instead using local NGO’s to undertake the ground work.

Add them on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Plan.TimorLeste

I am working predominately in Lautem which is the district at the very eastern tip of Timor-Leste. The district capital and my new home town is Los Palos which has a population of around 16,000 with around 60,000 in the whole district. It’s a bumpy but stunning coastal ride of 6-7 hours ride back into Dili from home, so it’s pretty remote...

PlanTL implement their WASH program in Lautem through NGO Fraterna who are undertaking community lead sanitation programs, rehabilitating existing water supply systems, constructing new wells and new gravity/pressure water supply systems. My role through Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) is to work as a member of PlanTL (Lautem) and provide technical support to NGO Fraterna to boost the technical capacity of the Technical Officers (TO) in relation to the water supply component of their work. 

This translates into accompanying the Fraterna TO’s during the site inspections to the Aldeia’s (village in Tetun), reviewing hydraulic designs, running training sessions where gaps are noticed in the skills, reviewing the organisational systems to run construction programs and acting as a general conduit to the larger PlanTL program.

Riding to site crossing 1 of 3 rivers. My bike skills are on the up but the condition of my bike is on the down!

The guys from Fraterna are really motivated, enthusiastic and great at community mobilisation. They have completed a similar construction program but their technical design ability is minimal and as it is the community who provide the construction labour (PlanTL provide materials and NGO Fraterna guidance/superintendent type roles) the quality of the construction works can vary. This will likely the biggest challenge; how to improve the quality of the works so that the systems can be easily managed by the community and provide adequate water for the 10 year design life...

Fraterna undertaking a technical survey in aldeia Moro (using measuring tape and an abney level)

It’s early days yet. The program only really started up in January therefore NGO Fraterna are still undertaking site inspections and documenting the designs. Construction works won’t be occurring until the end of this dry season... that’s when it will really kick into gear.

Mauvedara; well in the foho