Bridge before opening time - Hash hits the dance floor – Reading room work – Work becomes ‘interesting’ – Atauro Island: bags and bikes – Baucau music and lit-up skirts – Ultimate road map – Sunday bikers - Turkish goes Burmese

Four weeks ago, May 11^th, the Hash was out at the US Seabees compound, up the Comoro river past Timor Coffee – a darn good feed + drinks after the run/walk. A turn-out of about 80 people (biggest most of us had ever seen). Ed and I cycled back into town around 6:30 and the new bridge, while still being finished off, looked rather inviting; so over we went with our cover story ready ‘We’re engineers!’ (Well, IT engineers actually, but we were counting on no one getting that many questions in before we got past them). No problems encountered, so maybe we were the first to cycle across the new structure? Anyway, it is now officially open, but I don’t know the exact day the ribbon was cut. Yesterday (2^nd ) I went over the bridge for a practice cycle up to the first ridge on the way to Railaku; about 15km above Tibar. It took me about 1:45 to get there from the East end of Banana road. Got a sweat up and as I entered the cloud belt; got rained on. Down in time to go to Hash at the L&D pizza place behind Hotel Timor and then have the circle on the top floor where the ‘Q bar’ is, with a sound-proofed room, two poles and flashing lights. Techno music doesn’t do it for me. Nice $5, 8” pizza for afters.

I think it was around the 25^th that I dropped into the Xanana Reading room after a Dare cycle and asked them to open up, as the sign said ‘Open at 10’ and it was a quarter past. Interesting to view the three rooms inside: Room on the right – long table piled with books and a PC for cataloguing the books and issuing them. “Do you know how to use this?” asked the librarian. She startled me as I had already fired it up and been adding my name in as a borrower and also added the book I wanted to the read. It appears she was new to the job and the previous librarians had left two weeks prior. Evidently no transfer of skills. “Does your manager know?” I asked. Apparently he did, but when he eventually appeared, I asked him and he didn’t know. Hmmm. On to the room on the left, where I saw stacks of books waiting for cataloguing and odd bits of furniture and computer parts. There was also a PC with internet access. 'Oh goody’, time to check it out. I had to use some special software to clear out the inevitable viruses (all on my memory stick with a write-protect switch) and then get AVG on and….oh, I'm getting boring for non IT people. Anyway, I found another PC in a stack of stuff and got permission to set that up for them. Same procedure, all the way to AVG protection. The manager sat all this time in the middle room, where the rows of chairs, TV + two VCR machines and about 100 tapes were. He wanted me to replace the TV with a large flat-screen computer monitor. "Um, no it doesn’t work that way", I said What exactly doesn’t work? “Both VCRS”, he said. OK, so why not get them fixed? (Blank look). I gave an address and contact details for a handy electrical shop between Timor Plaza and Banana road. Some careful testing using the computers showed that the cable connection for the librarian’s PC was faulty, possibly from people tripping over the cable as it had to cross open space to the table. Back to the left-hand room to search the piles of donated goodies…there were three computer stations that were perfect, so I got the manager to help me carry one across the way and we, sorry I, moved the issuing PC to the new station, against the wall where the power and the (faulty), LAN connection were. There is a very nice building going up at the back, where everything will be re-located; maybe later this year. After two hours I had a lunch break and then left my card before heading home.

We’ve had changes at work, with two key people deciding, independently, to leave. One immediately and the other before this month is up. Successful transition to a financial institution now depends on quickly replacing the ‘orchestra conductor’ and the ‘tour manager’. I hope to look back on this period and comment that my concerns were unfounded. After much thought, I won’t make bets either way.

Miang, Tracey, Robyn and I visited Atauro Island over the long weekend of May 18-20^th. We took the local ferry out at $4 each and came back by fast Compass launch for $35 a head, early on the Tuesday morning and in time to go directly to work. I took my bike over again (new bike, #3) – we all took a bike each, for the ride from the concrete jetty in Beloi, near Barrie’s, down to Manukoko Rek, opp. Bonecas, in Villa. Only about 8km and pleasant as not much traffic, apart from the motorised trike-bikes – the local taxi service. The accommodation was a deja-vu experience with the same catch, on the door of hut #3, falling off again (despite Steve and I pointing this out to them in December, precisely nothing had happened about repairing it.) We ‘lost’ the loose catch in an effort to incite some activity on the repair front, but nothing doing. In the end I went over the road to the local store, bought a new door catch for $1 and presented it to the Manukoko staff. They were pleased. The same light bulb over the common area was also still broken, so maybe that can wait for another visit. Saturday morning is when all the ferry day-trippers hit the island, so the local market sets up by the jetty and you can take your pick of food stalls plus a few arts and crafts. The tomatoes were the size of marbles, so we didn’t buy any.  Later that day we descended on Bonecas and bought gifts. I went for a range of bags that are now, hopefully, in the NZ postal service somewhere.

Bonecas bags

Inside Bonecas workshop

Flag-raising - Villa parade Atauro

Singers + musicians at Barrie's - Atauro

There was very big parade on that afternoon between Bonecas and the beach. A large grass area was filled with local groups from villages all over the island, many had walked for 5+ hours to get there, plus army and police. The police compound is opp. our accommodation and they like to play very loud music from 9pm until around midnight. After the parade it rained and then there was a soccer match that turned the central area into thick mud. The crowd was still entertained. I don’t know whom won. The internet worked OK at Manukoko, they have four PCs and a wireless connection as it is the Timor Telecom link for the island. Ironically, because hardly anyone has internet, the speed is pretty good at around 70kbs. Sunday I cycled up the road, back of Barrie’s, to the new clay sealed road about 2km up and to the west. The road veered north for another 5-6km and I eventually ended up in Doro village where the road stopped and there was a metal bell hanging from a large tree. Nasty pesky flies ignored the deet repellent and bit my legs while I cycled and the sweat dripped off. I have heard of a recipe, out New South Wales, that is guaranteed to get rid of anything, including Finnish mozzies! It is: coconut or baby or olive oil + methylated spirits + Dettol = 1/3 of each. Shake it up in a plastic hand spray bottle and spray away once to last the whole day. Barry had a local music and singing group in for a special concert. They have been together for over 7 years and played for evacuees in 2006. The Kiwis were invited to sing Pokarikariana, but we only knew a few of the words. There is an identical Timorese song with the same tune but local words!

$10-$30 tais

Last weekend Tracey, Robyn, Trisha (now back in NZ) and I went to the Baucau music festival. There were several arts and crafts stalls there as well. One had a 60 year old tais from Lospalos for sale. Trisha convinced them not to sell it, even for $300, as that would remove it from the community. A better option would be to invite sponsors to pay for the tais to be retained – maybe mount it in a glass-covered frame? Highlights of the event included: the range of dresses hanging in the tree at one end of the school playground. These were lit from the inside by separate light bulbs on the Friday night and looked excellent. After heavy rain, for most of Saturday, the lights didn’t go again. Maybe because the electrics were rather exposed and either shorted out or it was deemed unsafe; pity. 

Close up - 60year old tais

Dress light tree being admired

Paparazzi from NZ

old tais - kitchen picture

Lospalos performers after extracting $1 for photos @ Baucau

Local and groups from Viqueque + Lospalos were on stage during the day while the big local bands, ‘Inferno’ (Baucau) and ‘Galaxy’ (Viqueque) were on during the evening. Three Aboriginal guys from Oz, ‘B2M’ were one of the key acts, but they played on the Sunday night when we had to take the 3-4 hour trip back to Dili. Fortunately they did a sound test earlier in the day and we got taste of how good they are.

How does one get maps of Timor? 
I’d been trying to get the ‘freebie’ ones from SDV last year. A recent donation from Sue at Red Cross is now ready for the new work premises. Recently, there has been an initiative from GIS fans associated with the Dept. of Statistic  (stay with me please…) They suggest, well Dave does, that it would be good to have a general sharing of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) information between all agencies that deal with it. We’ve had two meetings so far and after some talk, the time approaches, similar to the little Red Hen gathering ingredients for the bread, when work has to be done. I put in my two bits worth by introducing the value of records management: good file names and version control. No one interrupted nor asked questions, so I guess everyone all ‘got it’; Right? (don’t worry, I am under no illusions. We have enough of a challenge explaining the difference between ‘debt’ and ‘credit’ to some staff in our own organisation; they have been managing funds for years; empirically in some cases, it now appears). Now, that was a Ronny Corbet diversion. David found out I was eager to get hold of a map and he introduced me to the GIS map makers downstairs - freshly installed with all the kit from UNMIT (recently departed Dili). Exciting stuff with massive printers that can do A0 - Very impressive resolution down to smallest roads and villages. I got a couple of maps run off and then took them to a laminators (‘Sugar’) where some negotiation got them done for $25 the pair. Monday 3^rd pickup, as Sugar needed to dry out the edges after I got caught in a tropical downpour when  delivering them on my bike.

Sunday evening should be peaceful, but One More Bar now gets to ‘enjoy’ the local motorcycles as they ‘hang out' around the wee gardens between the blue pavilions by the shore and OMB. The riders like to rev the heck out of the engines and cruise around the park for 15 minutes, in a low gear. Conversation ceases & unwilling listeners think of satisfying, but technically illegal responses.

The new premises at Timor Plaza are finished and we’ll probably be moving there either this coming or next weekend. It’ll be sad day; not to be able to store my file server in a shower and the keyboard next to the sink.

Tony’s Turkish has been shut for a while now. Rumour is that he’s investigating a business move to Burma.

ANZAC day – aromatic waters – Trip to the SW: there & back again – Baking a cake – new bridge on Comoro road – twice up Dare again – well stone me – getting hold of bike bits – a very old coffee tree – meeting halfway – Flash dance

We gathered (I reckon about 300) at 05:30 on April 25^th and the Dili Choir sang four national anthems a Capella: Timor Leste, New Zealand, Australia and Turkey. Tony’s Turkish (Tony is taking a break and his brother is running things) supplied some delicious Turkish breads for afterwards. There weren’t many programs as we were meant to print off our own. Someone had thought of providing candles inside paper cups and that worked really nicely. If ONLY the poppies had been delivered well in advance, we could have been wearing them for a few days beforehand, rather than mere minutes. The choir of expats sang each anthem very nicely and that meant that the poor singing performance from the audience didn’t matter that much. A special commendation for the choir’s rendition of the Turkish anthem (written on the program in phonetics). Afterwards 'One More Bar' appeared to have forgotten that they were going to provide a venue AND drinks + food. Sooooo, nearly everyone shoved off to Castaway for breakfast instead.

My shower water smells a bit ‘off’ and I thought it was due to the water table being contaminated by ‘other water’. Well, I‘ve heard that it might be more to do with geothermal and so that might explain why the odour has more in common with NZ’s Rotorua area than waste water. I hope so, but then I haven’t suffered any ill effects.

Monday 22^nd - Wednesday 24^th was another IT trip, this time to the Covalima area in the south west. We visited Liquica, Atabae and Maliana on the first day. I stayed at a reasonably nice place in Maliana, just 1km north of the main market. In the morning I had breakfast with a rep from Timor Oil and Gas. He was scouting accommodation for what sounded like a team building outing for over 100 staff. I took the opportunity to ask about how the power station at Betano was going to be powered. Well, apparently a pipeline will be built between Hera and Betano – right across the island with all its hills. Hmmm. There are a few gaps to fill in as I think that those 5000l tankers are running all day from Pertamina to Hera, just to keep that site running. Soooo, why have a pipeline unless the fuel was going to run from the south to the north? Begs the question on how the fuel gets to Betano, as there isn’t a wharf yet and the station looks as though it will be finished this year. I’m sure someone will enlighten me with the info.

We traveled the reverse way (see Feb trip) from Maliana down to Zumalai. I was astonished to see a bus coming the other way with ‘Suai – Maliana’ above the windscreen. Another look at the large washout showed I was a bit dramatic in my earlier report as to how wide it is. You still wouldn’t get me on any bus or truck taking that route.

The work in Suai went well and I showed everyone how to scan in documents and use the power conditioner + UPS correctly. The premises are being upgraded so part of the outside wall was missing on one half of the building. Accommodation was initially at a place 200m away & they wanted $20 for a bed with half a fan hanging off the wall, no furniture, apart from the bed and a bathroom that didn’t have a water supply. Some surprise when I walked out. Rapid conversation got me the room over the passage way with an ‘ensuite’ larger than the bedroom. Pipe plus tap, instead of a shower head, was the shower. Fan was connected to same circuit as the ceiling light, so lights-out meant no fan. I groaned and draped a shirt over my face and slept with the light on.

Home trip was via Ainaro, so another new place which I had first heard about in 2005 from a fellow Kiwi that had been there in 1999 for the election. Had lunch at warung and was suddenly accosted, in a very friendly way, by a man I hadn’t seen since we worked at Ministerio de Saude in 2007. Alvaro was having lunch there with his wife and child. We hope to catch up again in Dili some time.

Wednesday 1^st was a holiday. I had a piece of lemon + coconut cake at Beachside and it was delicious. In the evening a friend, Robyn, coached me through making the same cake! It took a long time to get out the juice using just a fork, peeler and a knife. The 'zesting' bit also took a long time, but the results were even better than the morning cake. I think I’ll have another go at this…

Finally, the little bridge near the President’s Palace has been successfully widened. There are some teething issues with how traffic will take to all the extra space, effectively two lanes either way, but I’m sure everyone will adapt. An extra ‘baily’ bridge was erected, just 50m to the south, a few weeks back and that is taking some of the traffic loading away. I get the impression that changes are just 'made' and then we all have to wait & see how good the results are.

Even after rain, there is dust in the air again within hours. Very evident at night when every mote swirls around in the light beams. Maybe Dili should be called the ‘big dust’, instead of the ‘big smoke’  

Unlike last Saturday,  Saturday 27th was another busy one with Eddie and I going up and down twice. The 2^nd time was for the annual ANZAC Hash run to the top of the hill – starting from the church west of Dare. It was heavy going and I was glad I had my off-road running shoes that didn’t slip. I still fell over and grazed my knee coming down from the top, due to being rather tired.

A good bit of advice in the tropics is to drink plenty of water during the day, every day. I haven’t been doing enough of that and the consequence was 3 hours of discomfort one night. Some stones are by the side of the road and are a problem for a short period of time. Other stones are tiny and a right b#####d until they go on their merry way. Lesson learnt for the 2^nd time . My next work day was exhausting for some reason, maybe due to lost zzzzzz.

Bike #3 still needs a carrier + a few other items and I have found someone to bring them back, via Brisbane. Getting anything bigger than a postcard delivered by mail to Dili is not guaranteed; thus the frequent requests of people visiting other countries. In January I bought a book from www.bookdepository.co.uk called ‘Mathematics and the Imagination’, but it has never arrived, for me to collect anyway. I hope some local person, associated with the postal service, is enjoying the content including how to derive ‘Pi’ from a random series of events (ask me and I’ll tell you how I worked out the secret, as there is no explanation in the book)

During a Tuesday morning run with some friends I heard a story about a very old coffee tree. Apparently this was on East Timor Action Network (ETAN) email feed. Anyway, apparently there was a world-wide coffee tree blight in the 1920’s that was wiping everything out and someone discovered a natural hybrid, here in Timor Leste, that was resistant to the blight. That tree was somehow propagated around the world so that all other coffee trees became resistant as well. Recently, this tree has been re-discovered. How is that for an important bit of coffee trivia?

One of the new Financial system PCs had a problem at Viqueque and I was the only one who could fix it. I estimated about an hour’s work, but it was 5-6 hours return by car to Viqueque and I didn’t want to make such a trip, because it would be an over-nighter and make me carsick + listen to the driver’s sound track 8-9 times. We got the people in VQQ to deliver the PC to Manatuto, so I could travel for only 90minutes, do the work and then go home again. Worked nicely. Turned out that SQL didn’t like us using a specific database name; so I changed it and everything worked fine after that. Now identifying the actual problem and then testing a work-around took quite a while – 3 hours.

Two weeks after starting tango lessons I was part of a lunchtime crowd at Hotel Timor that became the first ever flash-mob in the country! Or so we think. We entertained the lunchtime crowd in the dining area for a couple of minutes and then dined at the pleasure of the Hotel. Exciting and I was a bit nervous beforehand.

I am there somewhere  in a white-striped shirt.

The Youtube link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8EWRQYEBW0

People leaving and arriving - Traffic lights suddenly retired - Dealing with traffic costs - Dare trail walk opening - Visiting districts for IT work - Damp concrete - Red Cross pizza + music - New neighbours - Fruit

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 5^th 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.

New camera - Easter – Ramalau becomes a beach visit – luck at the ATM – another bike gone – Palm Sunday – District visit coming up – Rebuilding a laptop - Late-night church goers in Dili - Onions

Blog ending 2013-03-30

Well the number of ‘threes’ in the date means nothing, but it does look interesting.

We had a quiet ride up to Dare this morning and I used my new Olympus camera to take some shots of the WW2 history banners at the café. We were pleased the café was actually open as Easter is usually, in NZ anyway, when shops are either shut or they charge a premium for the service. The main premium trick here is to allow any malae to pay for the coffee, even if someone else has already done so. So three coffees can be drunk while, in one instance, six are paid for . I am aware that despite having a new camera, there are no photos in this blog

Nearly everyone who could afford a ticket on Merpati (prices way up since Batavia Air went bust) has decamped to Bali for the Easter break. Others have gone to Atauro Island (Barrie’s is full). So Dili is pleasantly quiet.

On Friday, a Rav4 was available for use and three of us were all set to go to Ramalau for a climb, BUT due to the roads and the vehicle being borrowed, we decided against it and settled for an afternoon over the back of Christo Rae, at what used to be called ‘Kiwi Beach’. My chilly bin was excellent for the drinks + ice cream and cucumber. Tracy tested out the cucumber + vegemite on crackers and it wasn’t a bad combination.

Thursday was a big half day. A morning run from the lighthouse to Ocean View and back gave me a heel blister, but I have to get in the distances to do the June marathon. Just off shore, near Ocean View, there were 26 local fishing boats in a 700m radius. Rather intense fishing?
At work, there was a mass exodus at midday. Later, I went to pick up the new camera from Kees, who’d kindly purchased it in Bangkok, and then I passed by the ANZ ATMs, at about 7:45pm, on the way home. Hmmm, better get some cash, so I joined the queue and got straight onto the ATM with no queue, clever eh? Then discovered the ATM provided all services, except dispensing money. Huh. So onto the other machine + queue & passed out advice to new-comers, not to use that ATM. Withdrew $200. The next eager person behind me was disappointed to find out I’d taken the last $$ from that ATM. The ANZ had a notice up saying that they were shut Thursday and would re-open on Monday 1^st April. I guess that’ll be when more money goes in the ATMs. Maybe the ATM at Tiger fuel is not on the blink and MAYBE the ANZ ATMs at Timor Plaza are now finally working?

Three weeks ago, between 0100 and 06:00 Friday morning, a bike of mine got stolen. This was the 2^nd time. The bike was one I bought in November, after #1 was stolen. #2 was on the porch outside my apartment. The porch cannot be seen from the road and you have to go through a metal gate, then a courtyard next to another house with family members and two ‘guard dogs’ that didn’t bark. Curious. Fortunately, the bloke who bought the other bike (part of a pair donated to Rotary after the '2012 Tour de Timor')  in November hadn’t ridden it, so agreed to sell it to me for $500; same as he paid. Since I still don’t have the insurance from bike #1, bike #3 was purchased with funds snaffled from NZ. Now it is always locked up or is taken into my living room for the night. A water bottle went missing as well the following week. Misplaced trust appears to have been my problem. The new bike is working out really well and I just have to get hold of a carrier that fits over disk brakes. Borrowing Helen’s spare bike has been great as it has a carrier and is pretty good on the roads.

Three of us went to the cathedral last week for Palm Sunday. It was a very big event and preparation had begun the day before with many boys coming down the hill from Dare with big palm fronds stuck in bags or down the back of their shorts. Their bikes have no brakes and they were just dragging their feet on the road to slow down, so I showed them how to put their foot directly on top of the front tyre instead. Two of them had a point to prove and overtook me going back down to Dili.

The church service began at 07:15 when the bishop walked through the crowds outside and flicked holy water from what looked like a large, horse hair brush as one would use from lathering up a beard. I was still checking it out when I was blessed and my glasses got blurry. Then there was a parade around the outside and then Tracy, Sue and I went inside and stood at the back while the service went on for about 90 minutes. We then left. Outside, a large crowd arrived from Dili Institute of Technology (DIT), they had their blue blazers on and carried several banners. It is at least a 2-3 km walk from DIT. 

Next week my counterpart and I will visit three branches, over three days, to the east: Manatuto, Lospalos and Viqueque to attend to computer issues and make sure they are all set for the new financial system rollout.

My IT skills have been used a few times in the past six weeks. A recent example was a fellow volunteer’s hard drive dying. I got a new one and had it rebuilt in a couple of days, with virus protection. Very pleasing for both parties. 

This evening I was in a truck coming back from Railaku and we passed many people in their Sunday best, headed toward town. In Dili; same thing - many families dressed up and walking through town. I guess it is for a late night service before Easter Sunday.

I finally found some large onions for, not 'on' sale, today. Waving my five onions at the stall owner, I was informed they were US$1.5 each....WHAT?!. Reduced my purchase to two onions and decided to cut each into four sections. There was a nice tenderloin in the frozen meat section at Kamanek. Produced by AFCO and from NZ - a  steal at only $60 for 4.6kg.
Back to getting my protein from eggs, chicken and fish, I think.