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

The terrible place that is Tutuala beach

Coastline looking down from the Tutuala town lookout.... 

Out towards Los Palos (my home) is a town called Tutuala, about an hours ride from home. Another 45min (about 10km) is the access point to Jaco Island and the Tutuala main beach. Fish, turtles, no people... lovely.

General niceties...

Looking over from Tutuala Beach towards Jaco Island

Terrible place

Horrible

The hero of this story

Ai ho be'e. Kontenti.

Baucau; heart attack and vine

Crocodiles riding bikes. One of the many things to be concerned about when using roads in Timor...

Baucau street gangs. To be feared...

In the middle of Old Town in Baucau is the large market that is no longer used. It's an impressive building that's almost in ruins with a spring in the gardens for kids to swim in. Graffitti on the walls and plants in the cracks, roving gangs, crocodiles on bikes and no mangoes for sale.

Old. fact.

Spring in the middle of the market feeding the fountain.

Front steps overlooking the gardens...

I heart Baucau

Ai...

Baucau is the second main city in Timor-Leste and is built into the side of a hill with numerous springs popping out everywhere. Hence the Porto's built a pool which is completely spring fed, get's drained twice a week and makes up for the lack of postal service, rail or road infrastructure. The Porto's aren't all bad...

Baucau pool. 25cents well spent.

I went for a quick splash at the beach on the ride back from Baucau. I only went thigh deep and was on high alert the whole time as everyone talks about being eaten by crocodiles. When i got out I noticed an object bobbing up and down. I watched it for a while and thought it may have been a dolphin or a dugon. But i slowly started to think it was a crocodile. By the time i got back on my bike to leave i looked back down to where i was swimming/splashing and there were 3 salt water croco's cutting laps about 30-50m from where i had been. Cheaky croco's...

This is where i nearly wrestled 3 crazy croco's at once. And it looks so peaceful.

Crocodiles are a totem animal in Timor-Leste, with locals believing that the island itself is an old crocodile. Therefore if you get taken by a crocodile it is because you did something bad. Only bad people get eaten. The Indonesians used to shoot them so the numbers were down, but now they are creeping back up and moving around a lot more so beaches that were once free of the toothy critters are now kind of dodgy. Very upsetting. Cheaky croco's...

Behind the back of Jesus

Jesus Backbeach behind Kristo Rae. 

As you arrive into the Dili you are greeted by these steep green hills charging down to the coast line. Out the window of the plane it seems the city is surrounded by amazing beaches but it's kind of lost once you get to the National Airport you see huge Russian UN helicopters parked on the tarmac, then in the streets white UN Prado’s speed around and the UNPOL (UN Police which are composed of Australians, Turkish, Nepalese, Egyptians, Mayasian...) seem to be everywhere. Everyone, locals and expats alike seem to be working for an NGO or the UN; this makes Dili a very cosmopolitan place compared to other Indonesian cities in the region... the Portuguese wine selection is huge but I'm yet to figure out what is quality.

It looks like an Indonesian city, and after 25 years of occupation and having such a close neighbour it’s not surprising, but it really is different. I guess Pontinak would be kind off similar in size... the roads are terrible, traffic annoying, footpaths unpredictable and drainage limited. It’s when you get down to the people is when you start to notice the big difference to its large neighbour; less conservative and more progressive social attitudes...

Only behind the back of Jesus would someone be bold
enough to sport hot pink and mustard in a
striking J-pop pose.

Sample of the hills that line the back of Dili. Green now; but later... not so green. Maybe charcoal.

A statue of Jesus overlooks the Dili harbour and apparently faces towards Meca. The Indonesians were kind enough to build it so i guess they had the final say in which way J was facing. Behind Jesus is the real gem of Dili though... Jesus Backbeach. The hills are lush now as it's the end of the wet season, but once the dry kicks in apparently it all get's burnt back... stunning.

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.