It’s been a very busy few weeks since my last blog post and so I have a lot of photos to share 😁. The good news is that I have progressively gotten my health back after the Dengue and I have been able to continue my activities here in Fatuquero.
I have been here in Timor for 10 months and in Fatuquero for 8 of those months. Even in that time, I do see progress here in the development of infrastructure. It’s slow. Really slow. With regard to roads, many were paved in Portuguese and Indonesian occupation times but the war here and a lack of maintenance and annual heavy rains has left many of these roads no better than farm tracks. But it is there. There is an access road in Fatuquero that has started to be laid and I show some photos below. It means that the families on this road will soon have access to transportation options not available to them before, particularly in the wet season. They will be able to go to the market and have the microlet bring them, and their shopping, to their home. A small improvement to slowly increase people’s quality of life.
The road building projects also give local jobs as local people along the route of the road support the building and are paid a wage. I have been showing my appreciation to the workers by buying them cigarettes on my way to work. They appreciate that they are appreciated.
Manusae Fatin Turizmu Journey
I was invited to another new Fatin Turizmu in a place called Manusae (means literally chicken up-high in Tetun 😁). This was the birth place of my EAMO colleague Maun Mateus and his friend was one of the group that created the construction.
As per my volunteering organization’s rules, I am not allowed to ride a motorcycle, so I set myself the challenge of riding there on my bike 💪. Maun Mateus kindly rode his motorcycle along side me and we set off on our journey from Gleno following a stiff Timorese coffee. It was an arduous but awesome 16 mile ride up the mountain. We did a cumulative total uphill accent of 3100ft on a pretty terrible road…. (4×4 car or motorbike only can pass) I felt really good and was super happy that I seemed to have gotten over my Dengue. I met many, many people along the way. On the way up we stopped at Mana Berta’s (my host mum) birth village and took some photos.
The Fatin Turizmu is set in the heart of Manusae and is in the middle of a stunning mountain setting (see photos below). It is actually just beside the highest location in Ermera province. I met Eddy (right hand side of the first photo below) who was the director of the organization that built the Fatin. He was a really nice guy, softly spoken. He does not have a cell (mobile) phone or a computer and no WhatsApp. I joked with him that this sounded like heaven and that back in my previous job in California I received messages minute by minute on my phone. I suppose he has no concept of that. Eddy’s organization promotes youth development and self determination. The youth of Manusae have very little “opportunity” for jobs and self development. I “suggested” that I could visit there, for a week or two stay, and teach English to youths and adults. I want to try and arrange that for when I return from my Cambodia trip (so after August). Eddy showed Mateus and I around his fatin where he had coffee which had been picked and was laid out to dry in the sun (traditional “Timor Technique”), and ponds with catfish and chicken coops. I will continue to work with them on promotion for their fatin. Next is getting them on Google Maps!
Water security is a big issue in Manusae during the current dry season. Eddy feared that his fish (and their water) may not last the dry season. But he will try. Before we left Manusae we visited the one kiosk in the village and ate a “Pop Me” instant noodle (a bit like a Pot Noodle for the Brits) and met some local youths and mothers (photos below). It was nice to meet these people and reflect on how different their lives are from mine back in the US.
My cycle ride back down the mountain was brutal but so so cool. Again, my bicycle held up, stayed intact and no punctures. I cant tell you how much enjoyment I get from riding that bike 🚴♀️😁.
Mana Mailys Visits Timor-Leste
So! This last week I have a visitor from the USA 🌎! My great friend Mailys (now Mana Mailys). She has been brave enough to travel to the other side of the globe and come and live with our host family in Fatuquero for 10 days. Mailys is much more of a “camper” than I, so in some ways she fits right in here in Timor-Leste, Fatuquero. Mana Berta and Senor are really happy to have her and she has been introduced to the local community in Fatuquero. Some nice photos of Mailys around Fatuquero are shown below. I took her (with Mana Cidalia) up to our local Fatin Turizmu to meet the Team there. They have been continuing to make updates and give the place a fresh coat of paint. I plan to start some English Coffee Mornings there as part of the promotion of the Fatin and also because the team there have some English skills already and really need to practice conversational English with a native English speaker. I hope to post more on that activity in my upcoming blogs.
Liquica 4th July Weekend
So! As I am part of our Peer Support Group for our organization’s volunteers here in Timor-Leste, we decided to organize a 4th of July (USA Independence from the Brits day) in Liquica (you may recall from a prior blog I visited there previously). We had 2 nights at a “resort” right on the beach, with some volunteers staying in the resort villas and some staying in tents. It was an absolutely super weekend. The beach setting was awesome and we managed to do some group activities like pub trivia (organized by me, with questions and answers heavily British influenced 😁😁) and a camp fire with hotdogs and even marshmallows which one volunteer (Silas) found in one of the Australian supermarkets in Dili. It was a great time to reconnect with all the volunteers in my cohort. I have to say, they are all doing extremely well. At times, it’s not easy being a volunteer here due to challenges with every day living, health and work counterparts. But the TL volunteers also have such a rich experience of life here and they all seem to be embracing that. Some choice photos below:
So, my mode of transport to Liquica was bicycle. It was another epic ride from Fatuquero to Liquica and I was joined some of the way by fellow volunteers Max and Shawn (both doing a 3rd year here!!! 😦). On the way down from Fatuquero my bike bag rack broke!! It was something I should have expected when I first saw the rack and first used it with my heavy panier bags. I was able to stop at the Bamboo Institute in Tibar (near Dili), where Shawn works, drop my bags off AND met his counterpart Maun Mario. Maun Mario said he would fix my bike rack with wood 😎! I was so grateful. He removed the rack and returned it a day later in Liquica with some amazing wooden reinforcements! I show the photos below. I was/am super happy. The rack is super stiff and strong now and should see me through the rest of my service here in TL. I gave Mario some cash for his efforts (even though he tried to refuse). He did an awesome job!
Heineken Timor Leste
So, while Timor-Leste has very little industry, there IS a Heineken owned brewery which is based about 1hr drive from Dili. It was opened in 2015 with a $40 million investment from Heineken and created about 200 direct jobs and over 500 indirect jobs. It’s an example of what foreign investment can do in Timor-Leste. They brew “Bintang” beer and “ABC” stout.
One of our USA Fulbright scholarship teacher friends in Dili arranged a tour of the Heineken brewery (not a normal event there, so I jumped at the chance) and I was able to cycle down to Dili for a couple of nights and take part (along with a bunch of other Dili ex-pats and 2 other volunteers). It was pretty awesome. We got an air conditioned coach from Dili to the factory and were given a great tour by the staff there. It was professional, with steel toed boots and florescent vests. The people who were running and working in the factory were all Timorese and it reminded me that, with the right investment and organization, Timorese can run and operate a modern industrial facility just as well as anywhere else in the developed world.
After the tour we were able to sample a few cold Bintang beers in a nice guest bar they have in their reception. Those beers went down fast 😁.
I have suggested to my volunteer organization that I can help arrange a similar tour for the new Timor-Leste volunteer cohort who will start mid next year so they can see the other end of the economic development spectrum and what is possible here. Some photos of the day are shown below:
My Last Class Before Travel
Tomorrow we have the day trip outing to Dili and a movie with my disability group FJDE and my host sister Mana Cidalia who also happens to be 10 years old tomorrow (I will document that in my next blog). But then I go on vacation. First to Atauro Island (part of Timor-Leste) and then onto Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Siem Reap (Cambodia) and Bangkok (Thailand). We (Mailys and I) have a half marathon planned at Siem Reap (Angkor Empire Marathon) on Sunday 3rd of August with a few other volunteers from Timor-Leste and Cambodia. Find out how all that goes in my next blog.
So, I had my last kid’s English classes this week and it will pause for a few weeks. Some choice photos from those classes below. I have also posted a YouTube video showing two of my students doing a clapping game after our class. Really fun to watch.
Random Photos
So.. until next time.. I leave you with some random photos from this month. I caption them all. Take care out there 😉!!
A massive moth than Maun Aju and I found at EAMO
Senor (my host Father) as he headed off to a cultural festival event with his family in the mountains
Our local chapel with the statue of Mary (Na’in Feto.. Our Lady). This statue is passed on every month to a different location (a shrine or chapel) in Fatuquero where there are morning and evening prayers and songs over loudspeaker and other activities. Can be a little loud as sometimes they blast music through the speakers 😁 but it’s a nice way to “involve” the community.
A pretty big spider (Huntsman spider, they hunt for their pray with venom bite rather than spin webs) in our toilet as I went to the bathroom before bed 😮. See my YouTube video (link here) to watch the “dispatching” process 😉 (warning, lots of swearing in the video).
Mailys brought “smores” ingredients to Timor-Leste!! A nice cultural exchange 🙄. The “Ahi Manual” was repurposed from cooking to roasting marshmallows! Mana Berta, Mana Cidalia and Mana Mailys enjoyed the activity 😃. Maun James watched 🤔.
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