Dili Beach Hotel

... E quel qualcosa mi dice che dopotutto e' meglio cosi'. E se c'e' una cosa che ho imparato in questo viaggio, e' fidarmi del mio istinto, di quel qualcosa. Credo che sia molto piu' straordinariamente umano arrivare ad un passo dal realizzare un sogno per poi mandare tutto all'aria, che riuscirci veramente. Poi tutta questa faccenda del non volare stava cominciando a diventare un ossessione, la solita linea di cui parlavo prima era sempre piu' vicina; mi stava facendo perdere ...

We started a new program in Timor-Leste, in the area of rural water supply and sanitation. The purpose of this program is to help build the capacity of the Timor-Leste government in the provision of water supply and sanitation services. The team will be working with the Ministry of Health (which is responsible for WSS) and other donors in all districts. This was my first visit to the country which has gone through great civil unrest and violence over the last 18 ...

... all the faces of the people behind us in the cue waiting to get there chance to go in front of the Commander Genral. Mikes grumbles something like put a few dollars in your passport that always does the trick, thats all he wants a little bit of kickback, 20 should sort him. I am contemplating the 20 dollar bribe when Travolta sticks his head out of the serving hatch on the caravan and shouts us over. OK Mr Smirk from Manchester. 11 days you want ...

... Even worse I am chained to Cookie for the duration having to listen about his fav comic books and his one big regret is that he will never every get to see the new transformers film. Then the customs blokes start checking through our bags and i remeber that both me and Mike had packed our sumartran coffee in the bottem of our rucksacks. Only coffee i promise but the bloody was wrapped up in plastic and looked like a flippin bag of you know what. I can ...

... Inspector line to line like a unknowing student with filling and stamping the Carnet - although East Timor has not been listed for Carnet-Countries. Aft**wards the country presented itself with untouched and v**y poor, but incredible friendly country with always smiling citizens. Along lonely beaches and untouched by any tourism it was going to Dili. In Dili we checked in to the only but v**y nice cheapy East Timor Backpack ...

... cele Indii se jich ridi tisice, hlavne na jihu. Sice jsem tu nevidela zadny autosalon, ale maji tu uspech. Bylo tu take hodne Tibetanu, jak nakupujicich, tak prodavajicich. Vecer su jdu takhle po ulici a bezi ke me clovek a on to Anglan, se kterym jsem stravila tyden v Darjeelingu, pred 3mesici!! celou dobu byl v Assamu, s domorodymi kmeny, byl uplne nadseny. strasne shubl, bydli s mistimi a ji jejich stravu ...

... and we could see why the Indonesian military weren't able to clear out the Fretilin although the killed lots of innocent bystanders. Just north of Venilale we saw seven openings to the tunnels the Japanese had forced the locals to dig and then killed the workers so they couldn't reveal their whereabouts. East Timor is not a very lucky place. In Venilale we visited the Catholic boarding schools there. [GPS 08 38.275S 126 22.902E]

... the town during the day, rather than taking the taxis, even though it is extremely hot for us. We figure it's the best way to get the feel for the place. This morning we walked all the way out on the Hadda Fada highway to the office of Paradise Tours to get bus tickets to cross into Indonesian West Timor and on to Kupang. $17/person. Tomorrow we'll relax at the beaches which we can see off in the distance to the east under the Cristo Rei Statute. But we'll take a taxi out there.

... most countries means nothing. Unfortunately the guys at the border were not aware of this and allowed us only 14 days in the country. We realised this in Dili and went to immigration. The flat answer was no, we could not extend it. Bummer. We asked to see the boss and we were immediately taken to the 'supreme commander' of immigration. Once again a flat no, but pretty cool that we got to sit in the big-man's office almost ...

... over and over again and they spend all their time learning languages, Bahasa (Indonesian), Portugese, and English. I am also hoping to work with some womens groups and maybe some youths. We will see how it goes when I move in for good the first week in November. Right now I am back in Hera finishing up training, which is good because I just found out that everyone in my town speaks Maumbi and I speak Tetun. I have a lot of learning to do.