I'm here!

So I’ve landed in Dili and so far it’s gone well. All my bags arrived! The customs guy eventually conceded that maybe I didn’t need to pay duty on a 3 year old coffee machine or a 3 year old printer. And no, I didn’t have the purchase invoices. The guys from the Department picked me up and brought me to my digs where there was no one in the office, it being Sunday. They nevertheless got the key and we moved in.

They had taken off before I realised that there was no kitchenette and the room was pretty sparsely furnished. Not what I had paid for, and not very like the photos. Later things got better. I spent of lot of time walking around the local area and bought a little fruit (bananas! bush limes!) and just taking in the sights without trying to form too many impressions. There’s more variation in skin colour than I expected although less than the Solomons, and some of the people have that same elegant posture that I missed while back in Australia.

I met quite a few people, including several Dili hash regulars such as Footrot and Wal, a newbie named Whip Me, Beat Me who had singularly managed to attend his first Hash, get named and be awarded PoTW all on the same run, a couple of construction workers who talked fishin’, fightin’ and other stuff involving the letter f, some fairly inebriated but very pleasant folks celebrating a significant birthday, and the owner of the establishment, Gil. Gil blamed my accommodation on the travel agent, who is currently in Bali and can’t be contacted. In other unpleasant news the internet was slow (no surprise) and not free (as promised by the same travel agent).

And tomorrow, I start the new job. I’m unwilling to really unpack as I might be moving rooms. If I’m lucky.

Packing is fun.

I don't really like packing at the best of times. Fortunately my boss, bless his cotton socks, told me to take the rest of the afternoon off after I handed in a pretty good piece of work earlier than either of us expected. I can take 20kg of check in luggage and another 7kg of hand luggage and I'm told they are pretty strict about it. As it happens, I'm packing about 41kg of check in, so I can take a good UPS, a printer and a coffee maker to Dili. My son Three Strokes contentedly remarked that I'm a nerd.

So I'm nearly packed (just the laptop and a first aid kit to go), and I'm about as ready as Ethelred to face the new scene. I have a list of contacts, there's a family friend or two and I'll be staying virtually on the dance floor of one of Dili's live venues-cum-sports bars. That will presumably be OK while I'm alone, but I can't imagine Just Add Water taking to it too readily.

Time to tie up all the loose ends and head on out to the unknown.

Counting the sleeps

Less than a week to go now, and it's all starting to get a little too much. There is so much to do and so many people to see that I just can't see myself getting over there without a lot of really last minute disorganisation. It was probably a mistake to agree to work fulltime up until the very day before the morning that I'm going to leave, but I feel I owe it to my current employer, who has been generous in offering me leave without pay for a year.

Last night we had a lot of folks over, allegedly for a whisky tasting, but really to see them all one last time before I go. My new decoration was a topic of some discussion, a fair deal of disbelief and certainly not unstinting approval. Just Add Water overcatered as usual, and did a brilliant job as usual, and everyone had a fantastic time as usual and she has completely collapsed today as usual.

I'm really falling behind in my intentions to study the language(s). Tonight, I'll make a fresh start on my Indonesian program and work harder on the Tetum dictionary. It'd be nice to have an actual speaker to get a lesson from, but next week I suppose they will be rather readily available. Last family dinner tonight, and last dinner with the outlaws tomorrow night.

Getting ready to go.

I’m excited, to quote Big Kev. The clock is ticking down and I’ll soon be winging my way to Timor Leste to take up a position with one of the ministries there. I’ve made accommodation arrangements, flight arrangements and initial living arrangements. Despite our previous time in the Solomons, however, this is really an adventure.

I flatter my self that I know a bit more about living in developing nations, a bit more about capacity development and a bit more about cross-cultural sensitivity than I did before. How this will translate to the Timorese context, I have no real idea.

What am I looking forward to? The chance to roll up my sleeves and get involved again, to really look around the faces of my workmates and realise I’m making a difference. It’s the cooperation of the atmosphere that is so rewarding. To be frank, I also like the idea of living new a new country. It’s not a case of whether it will live up to my expectations, it’s a case of learning about the people and the place so that I can actually have expectations.

You can never know a whole country, not even if it’s a small one like Nauru. Timor is huge by comparison and I’m sure my workload will be large enough to keep me busy, too busy to engage as much as I’d like.

But I have my Tetum language book and my learn-to-speak-Indonesian software, and I’ll be hitting the streets with the bare and basic minima of politeness and getting-around words. I think I’ll have to put learning Portuguese on the backburner for the time being, however.