Amerika fali

We made it to New Orleans. But when you're on your fourth flight, and the third one was 12+ hours over the Pacific, and you've slept only 2 hours in the last 48, you're not sure you are gonna make it or even what your name is anymore. The good news is that the Qantas plane across the big pond in the west had a tv screen for each seat and you could choose which movie or show or cd or game you wanted to watch, hear or play whenever you wanted. And that helped time pass a little easier. A little.

No pictures yet but being that I'm sure only Americans read this, you don't need any pictures of America. But then maybe you haven't seen all that we can see here in New Orleans. Half the restaurants are closed. The ones that are open have abbreviated menus. And Burger King's sign out front says they'll pay $10 an hour! The problem is so many people left and haven't come back. But the people who are still here are strong. I saw on the news tonight that a restaturant just had its opening night - and the cameras were there to get all the people there. There's another story about a restaurant owner now living in my home town of Lake Charles opening up a pub and a cultural center. And we heard a while back that another owner opened a restaurant in Bek's mom's home town in Arkansas.

I can't believe the computer's clock is telling me it's 3:30 AM, but I'm still on Timor time and can't sleep. I've been working on a slide show for the fam using Windows Movie Maker. Timorese music and all. But I'm putting so much work into it that I'm not even halfway done. But it's fun. It'll be neat to watch in the future, too.

So, next entry should have brand new pictures from a brand new camera (hey, why not). We went to Wal-Mart today but they were all out of the one we wanted. That's the hurricane's fault, too, actually. Shipments are slow to come in.

Ate amanya, eh?

Eu te amo demais

That's actually Portuguese for "I love you too much." It's a fairly popular song here and I've been meaning to learn it on guitar. All the kids sing all kinds of songs together in the afternoons or at night. One or two guitars and 5 or 6 kids singing their hearts out. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

This entry is titles as it is for other reasons, too. We're starting to feel that way about Timor, really caring about these amazing people, on a personal level. It also means we love our families too much and can't wait to see them (the plane leaves here at 9am tomorrow!).

We got some more pictures developed, so here we go.

This is Mount Kablaki on the clearest day. I took this just down from our house.

We spent a few days recently in Bazertete (west of Dili) and on the way Bekah sat with these cute kids for this picture. They were too moi or embarrassed to do it alone. It's Bekah's favorite picture.

In Bazertete we were lucky enough to be there for a church's inauguration and mass (double meaning there) confirmation. The candidates dressed up in tais, and here above is what it looked like. Beautiful.

Don't let the katuas or old man scare you. Though he bellows like a bear and tries to look cool when we took his picture, he couldn't hold back his black-toothed smile when we put the camera down.

A Few Minor Adjustments

I stole the title from a Peace Corps book. The humour should not be lost on you. It's a must read, so if you're thinking of joining the Corps or have already signed up ask your recruiter for a copy. If they don't have it get it from your post when you get there. I just recently read it, after 8 1/2 months in country, and it really eased me mind, as they say (they being pirates maybe). It helps to know that all the stress - the tons and tons of it - is normal. And knowing that actually helps.Yes, the house we moved into and only actually lived in a few days, has been condemned. Kuku doesn't look too surprised, does she. We still can't be sure what caused the rash - we've heard other malae get rashes too when they visit and the locals think Bek got it because an old lady died in the house a few years back and so it's now bad. But we had to find a new place and did. The owner of this house above was okay with it. She tried her best to help by sprinkling holy water in the rooms and burying bottles of holy water, salt and half a lime in the front and back of the house. But we moved everything down the road to a cement house. We even moved one of the bedsthat was already there which was a bad idea and the owner let us know a few days later.

And this is the new house. Bek says we should enjoy it while we can cause it's probably the biggest house we'll live in for a while. 4 bedrooms and an indoor bathroom, which is not a given here. There's a dirty fish pond in the front (not in the picture). The home owners are a young family and are related to our old host family. They have one cute baby daughter.

The other big news is we're coming home for few days. Yeah, a quick trip for Bek's sister's wedding in New Orleans. We're in Dili now getting things done - filling out forms and buying a few souvenirs.

There is actually more news. 2 more things. We had In-Service Training (IST) last week and it went really, really well. The self-proclaimed indoor kid of our group has worked with a UN program to create an entrepreneurship ( I had to look that word up) curriculum (that too) for middle schools. All the economics teachers inTimor have been trained in it and we as PCVs will help them along as they teach. It's incredible. Bek and I will go see some more training tomorrow while we're in Dili. Also, I'm about to meet an RPCV with Cooperativa Cafe Timor (known throughout Timor as CCT) to see how I can help them in Same.

Th last and saddest, or should I say sadist, news is that none of Kuku's pups survived. And the worst part is...we actually watched her...swallow...the first...stillborn...pup. Yes, and we're finally getting over it. But quickly to better news, we're going to develop some pictures later for all y'all, so don't go nowhere.