Fatubessi,
Timor-Leste
Thursday, November 25, 2004
After a few minor problems Peace Corps decided to move my site from Soloi to Fatubessi. So I have been living the last month in a town called Fatubessi, it is a lot like my old site... equally beautiful, cold, in the mountains etc. The great thing about my new town is that it combines all my favorite things.. trees, coffee, monkeys, and mountains. I have yet to actually see a monkey but I have heard stories of people going on monkey hunts. The last few weeks I have just been hanging out and getting to know the community. It is very small and spread out over a large area, so you never see more than 5-6 people in one area. The houses are clumped in groups of three or four with about a ten minute walk through the coffee forests to get another clump. So that makes it difficult to organize any large meetings in town, so I will be doing a lot more one on one work with people. After one month I have no idea what my contribution to the community is going to be, when I ask people what they want from me and why they asked for a volunteer they tell me, "We like to be friends with Americans." really right now they are just excited to have a foriegner living like them. The town has no electricty, no running water, and the roads wash out in the rainy season. But they do have plenty of springs so nobody goes to far for water and everybody has a home garden so from my understanding there is no shortage of vegetables. Right now I am in Dili for Thanksgiving at the country directors house. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing well relaxing in the mountains. Happy Thanksgiving.
