No pictures yet, but soon

We are still alive. That said, let me explain the current, computerless, situation:

The entire trainees group was moved into a town South of Dili. This is normal. This is our second step to moving in with a family for 2 years. For these 9 weeks we all live with different host families. The Peace Corps gives them money to cook for us and other things, I imagine. We were all given water filters, beds, sheets, pillows, blankets, big mosquito nets, and a toilet. I say we were given a toilet because we think some families built them just for us.

There are 31 of us now, I think it is. Three have left so far for different reasons. For the rest of us still here, the living situation differs from person to person. One person has a fridge, tv and dvd player and chicken to eat. Others have a tv and chicken. Others have radio and rats. Bekah and I are in the last catagory.

I don't mean to scare you. We also all have very warm and caring and fun-loving host families. They not only cook for us and fetch water for us, but they help us with our Tetun and teach us other things about their culture. They invite us with them to funerals, weddings, baptisms, church, prayer. Even though we are so far from home, we feel quite welcomed.

We do have a rat or mouse or two where we live. It hasn't bothered us, we just hear it at night every so often. Our house does have electricity every once in a while. There are three light bulbs in the house that dangle from the ceiling. When they are glowing a dull yellow, we have power. This can be day or night. But the light is so dull and yellow that it doesn't make much difference. We still use candles or a kerosene lamp made from a sardine can. Our family has a radio but I've only heard it a few times.

So, I would venture to say that there are no computers in our town and can positively say there is no internet. When we come to Dili, if we have time, we can get to an internet room, as I am doing now. So, instead of us posting more than once a day, we will be posting maybe once a month or so. Oh well. I would really like to keep you all updated daily.

Training is done Monday to Saturday at the school in town or in our host families' houses. Language training is usually in a house and technical training at the school. Some days are longer than others. Bek and I and three others have a 20 minute walk to the school up and down hill, so that wears us out some days. Other days the Peace Corps SUV gets us there.

There are 5 married couples in our group. Yes, that is a lot. It's a nice support group.

Today we are in Dili to do interviews with NGO's and other organizations. We will then present them to everyone so that we all have an idea of who is working in East Timor and what they are doing. I went went a fella to Radio Timor Leste where we learned that there are all young and motivated and just starting off. The UN helped them get started. The big news is that they are going to be launching their new program, RTTL, Radio and Television Timor Leste, August 1 at 5:00 AM. We hope to see it's debut, supposedly the Prime Minister will say something first. They even have a website, www.rttl.org.

Well, enough for now. Till next next, ate logu!

Arrival in East Timor

THIS IS A SEND ONLY ACCOUNT, PLEASE DOES NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS.  THE PEACE CORPS TRAINEE WHO WROTE THIS MESSAGE PLEASE SEND ANY REPLIES TO THEIR PERSONAL ACCOUNT ADDRESS.

 

 

Hello family.  After a LONG trip we are in Dili, East Timor.  We can’t believe it.  Our trip was so long but amazing.  We spent five hours in the middle of Sydney, Australia…the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, fish and chips, gelato…it was great.  We even saw a super rainbow over the Opera House.  It was cold though…winter down there, you know.

 

We arrived in Dili on the smallest plane we’ve ever ridden on, and to tell the truth, as scared as most of us were, it was the smoothest ride of the five plane rides we’ve been on this trip.  We had a great view of the island coming in.  It really is beautiful here.  Hot, too.  Our training site will be in the mountains though so it will be cooler there. 

 

We had our first language lesson today.  They don’t waste any time throwing us into it.  It is really fun.  Our teacher, Luis, is a great teacher. 

 

We stay here at a hotel in Dili until Saturday and then go to our host families’ houses in the mountains.  Our hotel has AC and a balcony.  It’s pretty nice.  The power has gone off twice since we’ve been here J

 

We miss you all and will write more when we can.  Look forward to letters, cause that’s what it will be for a while I’m afraid.  We only go into town one day a week during training, on Wednesday, so that will be our email and mail day.  Please write us…

 

I love you all so much, here’s Travis

Rebekah

 

She said it all.  It really is more than I even imagined, and we just started!  I will now impress you with some Tetun:

 

Hau hakarak toba. 

 

I won’t tell you what it means but I will say that if you said, “I want to sleep,” it would mean the same thing.

 

Peace,

Travilito

 

Ida (One)

The bags are packed. We fly from here at 7am. Tropical Storm Cindy missed us but our friends in the New Orleans area felt strong wind and rain.

We are pooped. Especially me. For the last seven days, family and friends have come by or called to say bye and wish us luck. It hasn't gotten very emotional yet, just happy and excited. Bekah and I feel a bit overwhelmed, not quite sure what awaits us. But everyone has been giving us positive energy. They're excited and some even jealous.

Right now my whole family is here and Bekah's sans Dr. Dad, her brother and sister-in-law. While Bekah and I are loving it, I think it's been great for our families to be there for each other. A little emotional support group.

Even better this morning

So things are looking even better for us this morning, according to weather.com. Tropical Storm Cindy is curving to the east, as they predicted. It's no longer travelling NNW, but now N. And it still moving fast, so it's expected to make landfall about Wednesday morning. I'm glad my family from BR and NO is here now, cause they are right in the path. So it's possible that we might get rain here in LC. And like I said before, the storms are unpredictable, so you never know what will happen.

Lookin' Good...

So now it looks like the storm won't affect us. It seems to be moving pretty fast through the Gulf, and they expect it to curve to the East. Along with that, it is predicted to make landfall Wednesday morning and be past by Wednesday afternoon, so we should be in the clear for the flight. But, and this is a big but...hurricanes are known for being unpredicatable, so who knows what will happen. Here is a link to the latest update for Tropical Depression "three".

Why now???

Check out weather.com for the latest tropical update, which details a tropical depression moving our way, with projected landfall...Wednesday night or Thursday morning! NO!!!! It looks like we may have to leave earlier to avoid getting stuck in this storm. What a bummer. We'll keep you updated as soon as we find out what's going on. We will call the Peace Corps travel agent tomorrow to see what, if anything, we need to do. Needless to say, we are beginning to pack tonight.

This afternoon we had a "redneck" moment. Picture this: An inflatable pool (kiddie pool) under an oak tree, a card table inside the pool, everyone's chairs around the pool so that their feet can rest in the pool, playing Mexican train dominoes. I think we got a few funny looks from the passers-by, but it was fun!

That's it for now. More later.

3 Days More

Good morning all. We have been enjoying ourselves to the limit with family, food, drinks and fun. Yesterday we had about 35 people here for a BBQ and it ended up being a beautiful day despite the day's rainy beginnings. After eating we went to Travis' aunt and uncle's house to swim in their pool. Thanks for having us over, y'all! (I know they're reading). Most of the group stayed up late drinking and smoking cigars outside, and it was a pleasant evening. Some of my siblings and myself had enough drinks that we were confident to tell my mom all the bad things we did in high school...well, not all of the bad things, but a lot! It was funny, and she took it like a champ, cause she knows she is great mom.

Today is the 4th so we are bbq-ing again, but we're not having as big of a party this time. Just a few folks. Then we may do some shopping and see the fireworks show downtown tonight. Everyone's pretty tired from the big day yesterday, so we might just chill today.

Ain't no sunshine...

This was the scene at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, the day of our going-away barbeque! Good thing we're used to rain down here. We've just moved the pit into the garage and the chicken's cookin'!

Lima (Five)

I burned a few more cd's I wanted to bring with me today and glued Bekah's laptop back together (though we are not bringing it). Let me explain. The cd drive has always been flimsy but recently it started to break off. Today I unpacked one of our bags and found the epoxy glue. I read the directions like a good little boy and fixed the computer up real good. In the process I realized that the glue, which is in a syringe, needs replacement parts. So, it's a good thing I discovered this now or we would be finding ourselves with a worthless piece of garbage, instead of handy dandy glue.

Bekah's sister treated her to a spa day where they both got pedicures. That's Bekah's prettied-up foot above (I love her foot, actually). Her sister also got a message and Bekah got her first facial ever - and loved it. She said it really relaxed her, which was exactly what she needed.

My cousin had a little birthday party today at his house and my family sans Bekah went. There we made plans to compete in a Putt-Putt tourney Tuesday night. The winner gets a free dinner or something else nice.

We will, of course, let you know how the party goes tomorrow.

Nen (you guessed it, Six)

I can not believe it as I write it, but we will leave in six days. The enormity of the situation baffles me, really. It is nearly midnight and everyone else is in bed. Bekah's sister, her fiance' and their two dogs made it here safely and we all enjoyed crawfish etouffee, beer and zinfandel. Some of us then watched Kill Bill Vol. 2. Oh, how could I forget. We also ate lunch at the infamous Mr. Gattis for possibly, most probably, the last time for a while. Bekah was indeed sad.