Ice cream and 2 notes for future ET PCVs

We just finished off two chocolate ice cream cones. That's a real, real bonus here in Dili. At least once, you got to go to the store around the corner and buy an ice cream cone, one scoop, for 50 cents. It's a must-do. Today we even bought sweetcorn flavored ice cream for a felow PCV. I know.

So, the deal is now, I'm heading back to Same alone to clean up a house real good for Bekah's arrival a few days later. That's the doc's opinion. I'll clean up a house with bleach, Bek will come in by PC vehicle and the driver will spend the night, and we'll all wait and watch Bekah's skin to see if little red bumps once again make their unwanted appearance.

If they rise again, we'll be moving to another site, it seems. As you can imagine, we're excited and bummed at the possibility. If we have to move we have to move, it's her health, but that means we'll have to do the meeting people and getting to know the community and finding projects all over again. The staff is very supportive here, which makes it a whole lot easier.

2 notes for future East Timor volunteers, should they read this:

Do not pack white clothes*

Do not pack black clothes**

*White clothes, as I learned the hard way, will turn an ugly dirty color fast. There's no escaping this. I wanted to tell you to save yourself the trouble.

**You don't want to pack black clothes because it is a cultural faux pas. When the Timorese wear black clothing it means they are mourning the death of a family member. It's not like in America, though, where we wear black to the funeral and that's it. If a family member dies, the adults in the family wear only black clothing for an entire year. Black shirts and pants or skirts. Maybe even a black bandana. And they aren't allowed to dance for a year, either. At the end of the year they have a party called a kori metan, which means, "take off the black." At this party they burn all of their black clothing. So, if you're wearing black around it either means the above or that you're a malae, a foreigner, and don't know any better. I'm just giving you fair warning.

The new house and more about allergies

We just got back the newest pictures and most of them are of the house - the house that gave Bek the allergic reaction. Well, it's the house or something near it, we believe. It's been kind of a downer because we've been so excited about this house and after weeks of work and not a little bit of money, we only got to sleep there a few nights before being "kicked out" by the rash.

And TL-4, our group of volunteers, has lost 4 more people this week. They decided it wasn't for them. Some got really sick and that added to other problems and then the stress of everyday life here, well, I don't blame them. I miss them, but I don't blame them.

Well, we're going back to Same tomorrow to see what we'll do next. If Bek reacts again to something (though she won't go back to the house), we may have to move. How far we'll have to see.

This is the infamous house with kuku in the foreground. And then Bek in her oatmeal lipa. She called her mom who suggested the oatmeal bath. It helped a bit.

Things are a little rough, but we're staying tough. It's hard to remember why we really decided to come here when you're concentratnig so hard on fitting in, on getting comfortable. And then you get sick all the time. It's definetely just like they say, Peace Corps is "the toughest job you'll ever love."

Allergies and A little more about Christmas

The latest from Same is: Bekah's allergic. To what we're not yet sure. We're in Dili now because we couldn't sleep for the last two nights - Bek because she was scratching her entire body and me because, well, she was scratching her whole entire body - and we needed to see the doc about it and get away from it (both physically and emotionally).

At first we thought it could be the pepper we just bought in Dili. Then maybe a local dish we tried for the first time. Then we narrowed down to the new house we moved into. Now we're pretty sure it's some kind of dust mite or mold that Bek is reacting to, causing small itchy welps to travel around her body. We have medicine now and we're going to figure out what to do about the house.

We have some more pictures from Christmas we wanted to share. First is the calender Bek made. We got the family and any visitor who happened to be there to help us put up a star each day. It made it feel more like the Christmas we're used to.

The second two are of a neat Timorese custom. About a week before Christmas these little shelters were popping up around town along the street. At first we thought they could be future kiosks. Then we noticed they were lining them with real strips of grass and decorating them with palm leaves and then sometimes even lined with strings of lights. And inside was a large nativity scene. Sometimes figures painted on plywood, sometimes 3-D figures and sometimes Santa even made an appearance (once we saw an inflatable Santa.) It really takes lots of effort. These were at a school.

The last picture is Santa himself. He didn't come down any chimney and didn't even come until Christmas afternoon, but he came nontheless. We got a good laugh out of it.

Boas Festa du Natal no Feliz Anos!

Lots has happened since we wrote last, sorry ‘bout that. We actually stayed at site from the time we got back from Thanksgiving until 2 days before Christmas. That was a very long time for us.

Things have gotten better, no doubt about that, but still not much going on. The biggest news is we found an empty house to move into and we’ve been cleaning it and fixing it up and buying things to fill it with. It’s really perfect. It took a while to find, but it was actually under our noses the whole time – almost in our host family’s backyard. And that was one thing we really wanted – to be close to the family we’ve already gotten, well, close to. It’s safer that way, too.

Here’s the picture.

You may want to laugh but it’s just what we want. Simples deit. Just simple. We got what we needed here in Dili and the rest we’ll buy in Same’s market when we get back. And hopefully the wardrobe we asked a carpenter to make for us a month ago will be ready for us on our arrival. Also, a couple sold us their cell phone (we need one each for safety reasons) and their propane stove for cheap (we actually said it was too cheap and gave them more). Unfortunately, it’s because they decided to go back home.

As I wrote in my little green journal back on December 5,

“We sometimes think, living in this big cement water + electricity fed house, ‘This isn’t at all what I expected.’ So, maybe fixing up a small house and sitting in bamboo chairs will make it seem more like it.”

We spent Christmas with friends in Ainaro. It was the best we could do without our family back home. Like my mom said, “They’re your family now.”

Yes, the island. We spent New Year’s there after we with 13 friends survived a nerve-racking boat ride over. But what an island. 3 volunteers live there, 2 from our group. Those two met us there and we stayed at an up and coming little beachside “resort.” It was a beautiful way to ring in the new year – with friends on a tropical island.

Here's the boat from the Dili shore and then view of the pilots. We were under that tarp.

Other big news – we’ll be the first to visit America from our group (and come back). All the cards fell into place for us to visit our families in March. Not looking forward to the long flight but definitely to the faces we’ll see once we land.

In health news, with the rains came Dengue Fever. Sounds rough, huh? It’s spread by those pesky little susuks, mosquitos. The symptoms are two weeks of fevers and overall crappy feeling. A few of our group actually got it but they’re all on the north coast. It’s dangerous mostly for the young and old. We’re wearing repellent all day long (and sometimes even inside the mosquito net at night), so don’t worry. Giardia is the other popular illness. Bek liked it so much, she got it twice in a row. It’s bad diarrhea for a week or so and the loss of appetite.

This is Bek around that time.