A week is a long time in politics and it feels like a month
in Timor – always something happening. Stimulating? ‘yeah!” tiring? Certainly.
Over the past couple of weeks many people I know have gone on holiday to Australia, Bali (Hash wedding) or further
afield. More volunteers have turned up to be greeted by exhaustion from the
months of rearranging their lives, long, convoluted travel itineraries to get here
from New Zealand and the confusion of a new place where the names and places
will mean little until they get the local area mapped into their heads. We
number nearly twenty now and considering there were just three of us in August
last year, this is a growth area and we might be competing with AusAid soon – probably not.
Two weeks ago on Friday, the last two sets of traffic lights
stopped working – Colmera central, by the Timor Telecom corner and the corner
by the ANZ Bank, just near Tony’s Turkish and Kamanek. I remember when all the
lights were brand new, ummm, about late 2006. At that time no one really knew
what to do when the colours changed, so they were mostly ignored. Everyone is
adaptable, so traffic is now flowing through both places without a problem. I think
road users here take their responsibilities more carefully than they do back
home where there people think it is up to the Government or the other driver
and ‘I will protect my right to drive and not give up the right of way’. Here,
there are immediate and medium term consequences for having an accident. The
other person may be unhurt enough to express themselves physically, or other
people may on their behalf, or relatives may do so later or the police may
operate in a way that I bet doesn’t appear in the law books.
One example happened some months ago when a malae
(non-Timorese) was driving along Comoro road toward the airport and a motorcyclist tried to overtake
him on the outside. Fine, except someone else was backing out from an angle
park and, with nowhere to go, the motorcyclist crunched into the rear end of
the backing car. Everyone stopped and there were only minor injuries + $400
damage to the backing car and the motorcycle wasn’t operational, so the rider couldn’t
get away. The police showed up and when the motorcyclist changed his story
several times, it was pretty clear whom was in the wrong. BUT the only one with any
money was the malae, so it went a bit like this. Police: “We have to check all
this out and it will take three months, but we can settle it now with you
paying the repair costs for the other car”. Malae: “ummm, no, I wasn’t at fault”.
Police: “We’ll have to take your vehicle into custody for the next three months
until this is resolved” Malae: “OK, I’ll pay”. Now this is a good story, but
shouldn’t be taken as firm evidence because, while I was told this by the
actual driver, I wasn’t there and this was told me over a beer.
Last Saturday I joined a select group of walkers and we
walked up the trail to Dare memorial for an official opening of said trail. A
project of Kirstie’s for the past seven years, said the representative from
Alola. We took up candles to light and leave along the way. Food was served at
the Dare café and the dignitaries sat under awnings for the nxt two hours of
speeches and dances. The school children were particularly entertaining. My
camera battery expired and then I remembered my Asus tablet (like an iPad, but
uses Android) and the cameras it has, front and rear. Fine except I hadn’t
really used them before, so there is a sequence of pictures of my face looking
increasingly annoyed because I switched the cameras from back to front and it
took a while to get them back again. Next challenge is to actually get the
images off and onto a PC. We were each presented with a certificate, so that
was nice. There was a representative for the Australian Sparrow Force (WW2) and
his father is pictured on one of the Dare Café banners along with his Timorese
helper (Credos?). The photo was taken barely eight years ago, just before both
of them died.
April 3,4 and 5th I traveled to Manatuto,
Viqueque and Lospalos to put in the new finance system PCs for the micro-finance
upgrade. We arrived in the dark each time and I dislike the bumpy roads in big
vehicles. The sound track of the driver’s was about two hours long, but I think
we listened to it about ten times. Two songs were in English; one by Bryan Adams
and the other a Rod Stewart number. The rest were Timorese or Bahasa. This
coming Monday-Wednesday we travel West to Liquica, Atabae, Maliana and Suai to
do the same again. Probably have to go over that road down to Zumalai again and
come back via Ainaro.
Road repairs here involve cutting large squares out of the
existing tar-seal and then leaving it for weeks of traffic to flow over – maybe
to compress the dirt? Finally the crew comes by late at night and dumps a load
of mixed tar+shingle on top, scrapes it off then runs a roller over the top.
Looks nice, but doesn’t appear to last very long. Speaking of roads, the
dividing barriers down Comoro road will probably be finished in a couple of
weeks. They will/are causing problems where the few gaps has traffic backed up
waiting to turn across to the other side; thus one line on other side is taken
out of use with backed up traffic.
Thursday evening was busy; firstly wine, cheese, bread and
chirizo at Pateo where I also found out the sound tracks I’d put together for
the Black Rock restaurant (Liquica) were well received. Only there for 45
minutes before off home for a shower and change then cycle to Arbiru to learn
Tango. Never done it before and everyone was kind enough to speak English
rather than Portuguese. Seems like fun, so will go again next week. Also got a
session on this evening, Hotel Timor at 7pm.
We (work) are moving to Timor Plaza soon; maybe by May. The
ceiling was dripping constantly in the unfitted office space and there was
obvious new plumbing right beside wet spot. Apparently the plumbing wasn’t part
of the original design, but we have been told this a condensation problem from
an AC unit on the floor above. I have my doubts. The repair work is proceeding
and they have dried the concrete and sprayed a sealant on it. I worry that the
sealant will be hidden by our new hanging ceiling and then start leaking again,
but be semi-contained and a bubble behind the sealant. Hopefully I am wrong.
Last Saturday Red Cross ran a wee fund raiser at Chris and
Pam’s place with singing, guitar, ukulele, flute, violin and electric organ.
Chris and Pam made about 30 pizzas in their garden oven while we 30+ sat on the
grass to listen, enjoy and occasionally join in. They raised about $850
I cycled up to Dare yesterday morning in 45 minutes, so
getting better. A local Timorese cyclist, in Tour de Timor clothing, went past and
on up the hill, after I’d stopped. He still looked fresh and fast. I do like
the idea of age-groups for the TdT.
Another volunteer + partner have moved into the same
building as me, through the wall actually. I’d never make a good secret agent,
as I was unaware that an apartment existed around the back! Rob is here to help
with bamboo furniture design and it sounds really interesting – making things
is really useful, while fixing computers doesn’t produce the same tangible
outcomes.
Fruit: Passion fruit is nearly all gone (four for $1), but
we have piles of papaya now (still $3-5 each). Bananas always appear to be in
season ($1 bunch). Avocados are rare and not ripe (4 for $2). I bought a rare
pineapple two weeks ago, but it wasn’t ripe then and hasn’t obliged after being
cut up into a plastic container in the fridge. Maybe I should have placed
bananas and apples around it first.
