Bikes, sport, words, busted, broken or blocked

2012-08-09

• · Watching the sports channels at the Dili Beach Hotel
• · Bike repairs and Tetun lessons at DIT
• · Tour de Timor
• · Scrabble and my first seven-letter word!
• · Smidgens of the Olympic games
• · Which side of a locked door (broken) do you really want to be?
• · Blocked drains

Nothing much happened the week ending on the 9th, so the above will have to do.

Sunday was a nice slow day and it didn’t really take off, apart from the 06:30 walk over the hill, back over ‘Crista Rae’ and breakfast on the beach at 08:30, until 16:00 (4pm) when I met Elmo outside the NZ Embassy and we walked on down Beach road to… the Dili Beach Hotel, where we grabbed a table on the second floor balcony. No need for walls or windows there, so there were great views, over the road to the beach and beyond to Atauro Island in the distance.

We made it there just before the Super 15 final between the Chiefs and the Sharks. Lots of vocal support for the Chiefs, but the few South Africans kept rather quiet. Four bottles of ‘Bintang’ beer kept us and the bar owner happy for a couple of hours. NB: while the local brew is cheap and sold in clear, recycled water bottles by the side of the road in a range of interesting colours – bright blue and dark green seem to be common, unless they are something else??, I think it is probably wiser to stick with a more expensive, yet consistent product.

Language is important and here it is ‘Tetun’, yet the necessity doesn’t make the learning any easier for me. This was the finish of week one of lessons at the Dili Institute of Technology. Being four hours every morning in a modified shipping container with four others. I have struggled due to my consistent history of never successfully learning another language. This is slow work, yet I can pick out a word or two from the advertising around town now and say good morning: “Diak ka lae?” Literally it means ‘Good or bad?’ or ‘How are you?’

· The Tour de Timor sounded like an exciting event to turn up for except for:

• · My bike is really only suitable for a 10-15 minute trundle around the streets and no further
• · The entry for the race is US$1,000
• · Entries are closed because the event is sold out
• · The tour takes place next month and I have not trained properly and not at all in the tropics

Hmmm, maybe next year, along with better equipment, training and dosh for an entry?

Every 2^nd Monday evening, alternating weeks to the Tuesday quiz, a few of us meet at a café to play scrabble. Some players are very good and know many odd, legal words. Anyway, I started one game and got my first ever seven letter word! This is pretty good, as I was suddenly well out in front as I not only got the double word score + 50 more points as well for using all the letters J. I think the word was something like ‘Placing’.

My scrabble nemesis got a seven-letter word herself later on and beat me in the end by about 10 points L C’est la vie

I got to see some of the Kiwi team do their show jumping (Dili Beach Hotel) and then nothing more, as I don’t have easy access to a TV. The internet is US$1 per hour from home and the English newspaper comes out once a month. Still, I can check out www.stuff.co.nz once a day and peruse www.aldaily.com for variety.

The door to my room had its lock broken. Darned inconvenient as I + Elmo had our gear in the room and locked it in as we went off for dinner about 7pm. When we got back, the lock freely moved in strange ways. There was no change in the locking bar, so we eventually had to leave our gear there and go home. My house key was in my bag, in the room at work, so I had to go home and wait for my landlady to return and then have her husband let me in through the back door. Next day I think work got a professional locksmith in and the new assembly now looks and works quite nicely.

My drain in the tiled ‘bathroom’ (neither actual bath nor sink – just a toilet + a plastic bin filled with water and a scoop to fling the water around) got backed up and the close inspection showed that it had been cemented into the floor and could not be unscrewed or lifted. An old family trick came in use here: caustic soda (aka sodium hydroxide or NaOH). After buying some and dumping a quantity on the drain grill I added some water then quickly left while it bubbled, fizzed and turned the nasty stuff into soap-like stuff. All working properly now.

Back-dated news for week ending 9th Aug 2012

2012-08-09

• · Watching the sports channels at the Dili Beach Hotel
• · Bike repairs and Tetun lessons at DIT
• · Tour de Timor
• · Scrabble and my first seven-letter word!
• · Smidgens of the Olympic games
• · Which side of a locked door (broken) do you really want to be?
• · Blocked drains

Nothing much happened the week ending on the 9th, so the above will have to do.

Sunday was a nice slow day and it didn’t really take off, apart from the 06:30 walk over the hill, back over ‘Crista Rae’ and breakfast on the beach at 08:30, until 16:00 (4pm) when I met Elmo outside the NZ Embassy and we walked on down Beach road to… the Dili Beach Hotel, where we grabbed a table on the second floor balcony. No need for walls or windows provided great views over the road to the beach and beyond to Atauro Island in the distance.

We made it there just before the Super 15 final between the Chiefs and the Sharks. Lots of vocal support for the Chiefs, but the few South Africans kept rather quiet. Four bottles of ‘Bintang’ beer kept us and the bar owner happy for a couple of hours. NB: while the local brew is cheap and sold in clear, recycled water bottles by the side of the road in a range of interesting colours – bright blue and dark green seem to be common, I think it is probably wiser to stick with a more expensive, yet consistent product.

Language is important and here it is ‘Tetun’, yet the necessity doesn’t make the learning any easier for me. This was the finish of week one of lessons at the Dili Institute of Technology. Being four hours every morning in a modified shipping container with four others. I have struggled due to my consistent history of never successfully learning another language. This is slow work, yet I can pick out a word or two from the advertising around town now and say good morning: “Diak ka lae?” Literally it means ‘Good or bad?’ or ‘How are you?’

· The tour de Timor sounded like an exciting to turn up for except for:

· My bike is really only suitable for a 10-15 minute trundle around the streets and no further

· The entry for the race is US$1,000

· Entries are closed because the event is sold out

· The tour takes place next month and I have not trained properly and not at all in the tropics

Hmmm, maybe next year, along with better equipment, training and dosh for an entry.

Every 2^nd Monday evening, alternating weeks to the Tuesday quiz, a few of us meet at a café to play scrabble. Some players are very good and know many odd, legal words. Anyway, I started one game and got my first ever seven letter word! This is pretty good, as I was suddenly well out in front as I not only got the double word score + 50 more points as well for using all the letters J. I think the word was something like ‘Placing’.

My scrabble nemesis got a seven-letter word herself later on and beat me in the end by about 10 points L C’est la vie

I got to see some of the Kiwi team do their show jumping (Dili Beach Hotel) and then nothing more, as I don’t have easy access to a TV. The internet is US$1 per hour from home and the English newspaper comes out once a month. Still, I can check out www.stuff.co.nz once a day and peruse www.aldaily.com for variety.

The door to my room had its lock broken. Darned inconvenient as I + Elmo had our gear in the room and locked it in as we went off for dinner about 7pm. When we got back, the lock freely moved in strange ways. There was no change in the locking bar, so we eventually had to leave our gear there and go home. My house key was in my bag, in the room, so I had to wait for my landlady to come home and have her husband let me in through the back door. Next day I think they got a professional locksmith in and the new assembly now looks and works quite nicely.

My drain in the tiled ‘bathroom’ (neither actual bath nor sink – just a toilet + a plastic bin filled with water and a scoop to fling the water around) got backed up and the close inspection showed that it had been cemented into the floor and could not be unscrewed or lifted. An old family trick came in use here: caustic soda (aka sodium hydroxide or NaOH). After buying some and dumping a quantity on the drain opening I added some water then quickly left while it bubbled and fizzed and turned the nasty stuff into soap-like stuff. All working properly now.

got the double word score + 50 more points .

Traffic - vehicles - laptop - language

I have much to tell of this past week:

• · two traffic incidents
• · a run in the hills above the old Portuguese hospital
• · the sudden departure of the MIS guy from work
• · Timor Telecom changing everyone’s cellphone number
• · checking out the local quiz competition scene
• · one failed laptop and
• · helping out the ANZ bank with its ATMs

Last Sunday I shared a midday lunch with some Australian volunteer workers (AVIs). It was in an Indian restaurant near the Comoro road and down a side street, opposite where the President’s Palace (it looks really impressive and palatial) has been built on a section of the old heliport. After lunch I walked down to the main road (Comoro) and started strolling toward the airport (a bike or scooter would have been better, but I didn’t have either then). With the growth in the middle class(?), there has been a big increase in cars and scooters on the road, so we get rush hour morning, evening and in the weekend (compounding that situation, is this story told me by a fellow workmate: when he was passing the TL Defence HQ about 07:30, all traffic (outside on the road) was stopped while the flag was raised inside).

Anyway, this white SUV came barreling (about 80kmph+) toward me and the ‘+’ intersection I’d just left 30m behind me. Considering the heavy traffic and the general speed of other vehicles (cars, trucks and scooters) being around 30-40kmph, this was surprising. In mitigation, they did have their hazard lights flashing, but no siren. ‘Curious’ I thought, as I carefully got well to the side of the road and watched machine speed past toward the busy intersection – ‘this will be interesting’… It was.

One of the AVIs I had just lunched with, was slowly driving/nosing into the intersection (local way of getting somewhere). We now have 'fast' meets 'slow' at right angles… The fast vehicle, no registration plates I noticed, only put on the brakes at the last second and it skidded, around the front of the 2^nd SUV, to a stop in the middle of the road. An armed local(?) soldier, wearing camouflage gear + armalite, with attached magazine, got out and approached the 2^nd SUV. He got to within 5m, stopped walking, had a good look at the driver, then turned and got back in to his SUV and they took off again at the same speed.

It appears that hazard lights do mean just that, but probably in a different way to that intended by the manufacturer.

The other traffic incident occurred when four work colleagues returned to town from a work assignment in a town to the east. Their driver had been asked to drive more slowly, but chose to drive faster than the passengers wanted. After some remonstration there was an altercation that caused the passengers to get out and walk until they could arrange alternate transport. This was, apparently, the same driver I described in an earlier blog. For the full story, you’ll have to buy me a few beers ;-)

Every Saturday there is a Hash run (Hash House Harriers) and on Saturday it was from an old, no longer used, Portuguese Hospital in the hills to the south side of Dili. I borrowed a bicycle that requires lots of TLC and gears that need to be held in place. Still, it is a quicker way to get to any venue than walking!

A ‘hare’ had set the course with sprinkles of flour, just as well I wasn’t first to run off, as I thought it was quite novel of him to use ‘flowers’. Lots of hills, up and down, with some great views. Part way round I stopped by a power pole, painted a smart black colour and rested my hands on it to do some stretching. My hands stuck to the pole as it had just been painted barely two minutes prior. The painter was further up the hillside and came back down to put another coat on while I pondered how to get my one off. In the end I rubbed both palms in the dust and that was sufficient until I got home to use some detergent.

It has been barely two weeks since I arrived and the work MIS manager parted ways with the organization and then departed the country next day – very sudden and I hadn’t picked up many pieces of info from him other than confirmation that there is no IT documentation on anything, so I’ve begun writing some. More beers required for that story.

Everybody’s favourite phone provider, Timor Telecom, moved from seven to eight digits on the 31^st July. There were some large advertising posters around town with the number ‘7’ prominently displayed along with a long message in Tetun. the English message was finally posted on the website, about 3 days prior. It turned out that all the cellphone numbers would have an extra ‘7’ added to the front of them, just after midnight, July 30^th/31^st. Easy eh? If you didn’t sit down and change all the contacts on your phone, then you couldn’t dial them anymore and their names would not be displayed when they rang you.

After three years of quiz competitions in NZ, I was keen to check out the local scene but all the usual team were not around so I walked to Dili Beach and joined up with a couple of Australian teachers. The local questions on the ‘Tour de Timor’ cycle race caught us out and the answers were a bit curious sometimes. The lesson appears to be that we’re there for the experience. I am keen to run one in the future, but it only happens every two weeks and someone else is running the next one – I’m determined to lift the standard a bit :-p

Surgeon heal thyself – my laptop has died a death, on my desk and it is in ‘Norwegian Blue’ territory. The lights went out and it stopped, so I've removed the hard drive and will plug it into another machine. Work has got me another laptop, so I’m not stuck, just inconvenienced a bit. Just as well I have backups ;-)

I went to the ANZ bank to collect my new ATM card and then found both ATM machines outside were non-operational: one would not accept any cards and the other had run out of money – it just took a while until you actually requested the money before it announced this. I went inside and tracked down a staff member to fix it. He went through the access door for 5minutes before returning and announcing the machines were now working. So they were, I just had to join the queue of local, expats & UN personnel extracting their $$ now that it was all ‘Go’ – people had been repeatedly attempting to use the ATMs the whole time I had been in the bank organising the repairs.

Thanks to a returning volunteer, I now have the use of a bicycle, the one mentioned above, and I’ll be using to get to my language (Tetun) lessons that begin next week.

Getting cleaned up & walking, driving and hopefully cycling

Dili has a lot of dust; so many people are out early in the morning, with hoses or buckets, to spread water outside houses and businesses, so it looks as though a mini shower has hit the area. Within an hour or so the moisture has evaporated, allowing the passing cars, trucks, scooters, bicycles and feet to start their daily stir-up.

Down at the ANZ Bank, many tellers wear facemasks, as the dust manages to filter indoors from the busy street corner. Tomorrow I will be visiting that bank to collect my new EFTPOS card; with it I can make use of the 7-8 ATMs located in town – come to think of it, that might be the total for the country.

Being on a limited budget I have to decide this week whether to buy a bicycle or a washing machine. The latter options start at US$185 and, even though it has an Indonesian design award for 2009 and it's rather tinny, in a plastic sort of way.

Installation back at the house will be interesting, as I will need to buy some extra hose to connect the water supply in my bathroom’ (no actual bath – but a good 40 litre plastic bin + scoop) to the machine.

It is an interesting series of requirements, along the lines of the challenge NASA had with Apollo13 and jury-rigging an oxygen cleaning system with some odd components.

My situation involves:

· an outside electric pump with some creative electric wiring that will be a concern in the wet season (no cover from the elements & it provides water next door as well, but goes through my power meter, hmmm)

· water supply appears inside the house (short hose over the 40 litre bin)

· washing machine will need to be positioned outside the bathroom door and extra hose purchased to provide water a way in and a way out

· Power extension cord too (secret is too keep everything dry & suspend cables on the wall)

Less drama was involved with the 06:30 morning walk last Sunday, over the hill to Kiwi Beach and back up to the Jesus statue on ‘Christa Rae’ before back done the steps (past the 12 stations of the cross – large embossed brass panels 2-3m tall, each in its own alcove) to the beach and breakfast on the beach (food and seats supplied by the Caz Bar - no relation to the larger one in Algiers).

My ‘Banana-grams’ game was played before and after the eating phase (timing is everything). It has proved popular with the Scrabble players rising to the challenge. Rather too well; still I am welcome, as I provide the game and make up the numbers :-(

With work, eight of us went out to Manatuto (about 60-70km) on Wednesday in two vehicles to discuss how a new finance system, 'Abacus', will be introduced (replacing masses of manual entries and spreadsheets). I am not a good traveler and the driver didn’t help my condition during the 90 minute drive over twisty hill roads by the coast.

He had a tape that appeared to be an Indonesian version of Country and Western. The songs all sounded the same and it was on a loop ('A Walk in the Black Forest' or Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits would have been eagerly accepted as alternatives)

The speed varied from 5km/h (no seal at all and heavily rutted) to 100km/h (seal hadn’t broken up yet).

Transitions from fast to slow were achieved by quick and heavy braking

Accelerations were done in as high a gear as possible, with low ‘gas’ so it sounded as though we were frequently about to stall.

The road frequently narrowed, so getting around some corners was only one vehicle at a time. The rule seems to be that you toot your horn to warn those going the other way and head on around…. This is a sure cure for boredom and keeps those people on motor scooters, very aware of other traffic. In our turn, there were some large trucks going about their business too - this is the main road East from Dili.

The roads are worse than last time (when I was here in 2006-7) in that there are more holes, ruts and general break up of the road edges and surface.

An indicator of how much this has slowed down traffic generally, is that the villagers along the route no longer place piles of rocks on the road to slow down the trucks, vans, SUVs and scooters – the non-flat surface appears to be doing a good job as judder bars (UK=silent policeman).

Despite missing breakfast, it took another three hours, after we stopped, for my appetite to kick back in.

The views over the sea (coastal road) were very nice and there were many local canoes pulled up with bamboo outriggers; one on each side. One of these days I’ll go out on the sea in one of them (bought my paddle from NZ, as one does).

The previous resident of this house, another VSA Chris, left a special tennis racket behind. It is a favourite of many people here, as the strings are actually metal and there are batteries in the handle; so it is really a mobile ‘buzz bar’. When those mosquitoes come visiting, I just have to press the button and do a simple fore hand/back hand swing. If my aim is good, then there is neat wee ‘bang!’ and a spark (if you are a Jaine Buddhist, then I apologise)

My Tetun language lessons start on Aug 6^th, so I’ll need to get a bike before then, as I have to get to the Dili Institute of Technology (DIT) about 3km away. The bike will also make shopping easier too, as I have bought a carrier + pannier bags with me.
Fortunately it only takes me 10minutes to walk to work and that is past the NZ Embassy.

Earlier this evening, as the Dili day moved leisurely from dusk to dark, and the mosquitoes cruised for some action; I walked out of my ‘new’ house, on a mission to get another 20 litres of drinking water. Many of my neighbours were out in the street, with children in tow, walking and talking with each other. Orlando called out to me to go to a shop barely 30m away in someone’s courtyard.

For the price of US$1 I had my water and also 3 Timorese bread rolls @ 10cents each.

So, what has happened in the last week?

My early morning flights to (departing Christchurch 06:00) and from Melbourne (departing 01:45) avoided the crowds & in Melbourne’s case, a large power cut about 7 hours later à http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/7300972/Melbourne-airport-plunged-into-darkness

My visit to Melbourne included some great hosting from Gaye and Andrew and the chance to experience the metro and city trams (pedestrians really DO need to look both ways when crossing the streets, because a tram ‘argument’ can be rather conclusive and not require an ambulance)

Another highlight was an exhibition of Napoleon era artifacts followed by a tour of classic computer games (all free to play, I am still lousy at playing 'Asteroids') 

My evaluation of the displayed games is that the current creators of games no longer have the daringness of the 1980’s – now they are nearly all about shooting/destroying. Two exceptions were 'The Sims' & 'Machinarium', for about $5 it has to be excellent value for money and it works on the PC, iPad and Android platforms à http://machinarium.net/demo/

Darwin airport wasn’t too bad and I found a handy plug for my laptop. Like Melbourne, Darwin had a wireless network; unlike Melbourne, this one was free. Dili has free wireless in front of the Parliament area, just off the beach (so I am told). This is a recently developed area and has new awnings over the tables & alcoves. New signs have also been erected nearby, saying ‘Visit Timor Leste in 2012’

My house doesn’t have a number, so the address (not for mail) is:

Succo Palapasu, Farol, Dili,  Timor Leste.

(Travelling on Comorro Road towards the airport, take the first Right turn past the Tiger Fuel station. Turn second right down a small lane, head to the end of the lane and before the junction, the house is on the right (opposite a 2 story house) ß There, how could you go wrong?

Since I have bought a GPS with me, I can say I am also located:

S 08.553 and E 125.546

Everybody travels at about 30-35kmph and no one appears to have a problem with letting others come in off the side roads to join the daily ‘rush’.

While I don’t have a motor vehicle, I have found a bike shop and will be getting a purchase sorted out pretty quick, since my 50kg of unaccompanied luggage arrived today and I now have bike tools, tyres, carrier, panniers, lights, reflective gear and bar-ends for the handle bars.

Karen, the country manager has been briefing me on the politics (there is still some activity going on – a legacy from the elections on July 7^th) and my schedule for the next few weeks: meeting my partner organisation and taking 2-3 weeks of Tetun lessons.

NB: I have found my old blog from 5-6 years ago: http://present-events.blogspot.com/

In case you were wondering, I used two different email accounts and confused myself, thought I’d lost the first blog, created a 2^nd and then found the 1^st one again

I had a good sleep last night, as the night was cooler than in summer and the fan made conditions ideal for me - just another 731 to go.

In two days time I'll be headed for Australia and then on to Dili, East Timor (Timor Leste to the locals) for a two year assignment.
Right now I am enjoying a view of Lyttleton Harbour, 20m from the shore and it is a sunny, still morning. The down side being that New Zealand is in winter and everyone is noticing that this is winter and the temperature is 5 degrees right now, with an expected high of 15.
Dili will be much warmer and humid - all the year round.

Why am I headed for Dili again? (my last visit was 2006-7 when times were 'exciting')
Well, there is work to be done and I really wanted to see the country and people again, to check on the changes and show a bit of commitment.
The bigger picture is that I am doing voluntary work for (www.morisrasik.com) via VSA (vsa.org.nz).
Moris Rasik need IT help and that is where I can do a couple of things for them.
While I have two years up my sleeve, that time is probably going to pass fairly quickly, as there will be lots of things to do work-wise and elsewhere.
Moris Rasik are a micro-finance group and have operated across TL since 2002.
If you are keen on finding out more about microfinance, then have a look at: www.kiva.org 

Goals:

1. See the country by bicycle (panniers, tyres and gear are on their way - just got to buy a bike)
2. See if I can get a Toastmasters group going
3. Check out the state of chess playing - maybe a chess ladder? (I can wow everyone with my 1340 level)
4. Do quiz competition once a week (either competing or running it)
5. Quietly promote good 'Record keeping' via PARBICA (search for that)
6. See if anyone wants to do paddling races (am taking my out rigger / waka ama paddle with me) 
7. Go scuba diving once a month (only did it once last time)
8. Read a book or two
9. Enjoy island life, meet the people and learn the language, 'Tetun' (this last item is out of my comfort zone, as I have never yet managed to pick up another language)

That will keep me rather busy I think ;-)