Still in Dili

We are still in Dili because Bek got a little kabun moras, stomach trouble. Must have been something we ate, but whatever it was, Bek is now resting it off in the clinic a few meters from me now. I'm in the volunteers' room where there are two computers, a tv and dvd player, lots of bootleg dvds (Wedding Crashers and Batman Begins are here and they're probably still in theaters in the states, am I right?), two couches, our mail boxes, a little library and lots of other random volunteer droppings.

Oh, I want to clarify the pronunciation of Same, the name of the city we will li ve in. It's Sah' may, stress on the first syllable. The Sam- part rhymes with the rom in cd-rom. And the e sounds like the a in hay. I hope I didn't confuse you too much.

Some more East Timor photos. During the first week in country we stayed in a hotel on the beach and in the first picture below Bekah is weighing in for our PC Medical Officer. Some time that week we all walked up to the second highest statue of Jesus in the world, so we've been told. The second picture is what it looked like from the hotel. Get this: the Indonesians built it for the East Timorese while they occupied them to try to make them like the Indonesians more. The third picture is the two of us up at the statue. Soccer players were actually running up to the statue, resting and then running back to Dili while we were there huffing and puffing our way up. The fourth picture is what it looks like when we travel by anguna. Angunas are small truck-like vehicles that haul you arround for 50 cents. The last is a morning view from our room in Balibar. Timor Lorosae, one of the country's names, means Timor of the rising sun.

And they're off! Sort of...

Aban dedeer, tomorrow morning, we head out to Same for our site visit. That's a week-long stay with our new host family in our new communities meeting with our new counterparts and seeing new things all around. Our group of 31 is being flung out across the country like seed in a field. Two of us were already sent to Atauru Island yesterday because the ferry only goes once a week there. A few more left this afternoon and the rest of us leave in the morning.

We are in week 7 of training. 2 1/2 weeks to go before we all become volunteers. This week at our sites will be a sneak peek of what it will be like - no American friends to speak English to and help you speak Tetun, no Peace Corps to hold your hand. Yes, we are a bit scared, actually.

Bekah's Tetun is better than mine, so luckily I have her to help me when I don't understand. On the other hand I'm using her as a crutch, leaning on her instead of trying to do it all myself. It's not on purpose, it's just survival. But my Tetun is indeed improving daily.

We met our counterparts during Counterpart Day this morning. Ours are very nice and said they have lots for us to do. My counterpart actually said, in Tetun, "You can play you're guitar and sing in English and the children will come because they want to learn English." And they love the guitar here. I'm still in the market for one.

In other news, we all have to do a little project during training related to our field, either Community Economic Development (CED) or Health Promotion (HP). I'm a CED and I will try to run an Ultimate Frisbee Camp, tentitively called Eskola Soe (Throwing School), in two weeks. It will end with an exibition match on Fair Day, where we all present the results of our projects. Matthew, you can smile knowing little Timorese kids are throwing forehands like pros. And they taught themselves! They're super quick to catch on.

We'll let you know how the site visit goes. Ate logu!

Same!

Pronounced Sa-may, will be our new home and where you can find us for the next two years. Our APCDs, our bosses, were very excited about it. By the way, they had us all draw numbers to see who would find out where they were going in what order yesterday, and we were first. Yes, they suprised us yesterday by telling us. Great people here.

This map from lonelyplanet.com has Same on it. It's south of Dili. We'll have to go over the mountains to get to it. There will be 5 or 6 other volunteers within a few hours of us, so that's good for all of us. This area is new for Peace Corps, so we're real pioneers. Yee-haw!

We talked to a current volunteer who said it was beautiful and sports were popular there. My counterpart, the person I should be working with in the community, is the Minister of Education for the district and Bekah will be with a high-ranking official in the health field. Big jobs. We'll know a lot more tomorrow.

I mentioned in the last entry that the children were from our aldeia. An aldeia is a little village. Ours is called Tankai. It's a bit off the road, a bit secluded and loud with all of the children and animals around and parents yelling for their children who should be watching the animals. The kids halimar all day. To halimar is to play. We ask them, "Halo saida? What are you doing?" and they say, "Halimar."

We went to Arte Moris this morning. It's an artist community in Dili. The people live there and make art. We may work with them in some way in the future because one of their goals now is to send out good messages through art, theater and tv. Oh, and our camera stopped working. So, we'll see what happens next. We may have to get a new one.

Here are a few more photos. The first is the three-year-old twin girls in our family. Cute as can be, but they usually shy away from us. The second is a glimpse of life in Timor. I'm shaving with lemon-lime smelling shaving cream, looking into a tiny cosmetic mirror.

Tomorrow we will know

Tomorrow we will know where we are all going. We just ate some great pizza (thank you all of you who prayed for that) at an Aussie-run restaurant on the beach. They also take people diving. What a combo.

And now, some pictures.

The first is Bekah and I in front of the Sydney Opera House. The second is of our host dad being chased by a goat while he's holding his baby. Nuff said. The third is the view from our host family's house. The fourth, me and the kids from the aldeia. The fifth is the little baby, Anis, in a bucket. He loves to smile.

A Visit to Venilale

So, this past Thursday through to Sunday Bek and I stayed with a PCV couple in Venilale. It's about 3 hours East then 1 hour South. We enjoyed every minute of it.

We actually went with another couple and stayed in the extra rooms of the volunteers' house. We thought Balibar was beautiful, with it's mountain view, but it paled in comparison. The mountains from Balibar are dry, the trees spread out. But the trees a green and everywhere in Venilale and you look out over fields of natar, rice, terraced on the hillsides.

I've actually been so inspired by the country and the current volunteers that I've started writing about it. Training is rough, with its long hours of sitting and listening, so long it's hard to sit straight anymore and I find myself standing up and standing in the back just to keep sane. And with all the traveling we've been doing, well, you know how hard traveling can be.

Speaking of traveling, here's a good story. A PC vehicle drove us out to the site but we had to find our own way back. Luckily, the couple was heading into Dili, too, so we just did what they did.

They had actually never caught a bus to Dili on a Sunday, so they didn't know exactly when the bus came, which didn't really matter because all the busses run on the same schedule: leave when the bus is full. So, we waited for about 3 hours on the side of the road for a bus. As we waited, some of the party read books, I actually made a mancala board in the dirt and we played with rocks, and we talked to the locals walking to and from church.

Finally, we decided to take a dump truck to Baucau. Yes. Perfectly normal here, but a first for us. As we came upon Baucau the volunteers told us to hold onto our bags because the locals would try to take our bags to their own bus to get us to ride. So, when we got down from the dump truck, holding our bags tight, we were swarmed with people. They wanted us to choose their bus, but we had to see if their was enough room first for all of us. Bekah started to worry when one of the volunteers was completely surrounded and the other was gone. But within a minute we were all back together and getting on a nice little bus with a motorcycle being hoisted onto the back and tied up tight.

Imagine the bus on The Great Muppet Caper. That was this bus, and all busses in Timor: chickens and pigs and guitars and loud music and, best of all, people hanging out of the doors.

In other news, before I sign off, Bek and I went with a language teacher to buy a guitar. He took us to a busy street lined with electronics and just about anything you could want. We went into a few stores and they would have 2 or 3 cheap guitars with a sticker that said Yamaha in it. I actually almost bought one because it was so cheap but Bek said we should wait. Another of the teachers plays guitar but he's not here today. We'll get him to take us next time.

So, until next time, take care, y'all.