I’ve now been in East Timor for one week, and am enjoying it immensely (of course). What am I doing here, you ask? I’m doing some ‘engineering’ work for a group called Friends of Ermera, which is a community group in the Casey Shire that is friends of the Ermera district in East Timor. Timor is the poorest country in Asia, and you can tell. There is hardly any food security, even things like chicken and eggs are imported from Indonesia. The roads are in shocking condition, and while driving between Dili and Gleno (the capital of the Ermera district where I am staying) we hardly ever get above third gear. They do have a very large coffee industry; at the moment it is harvesting time, and there are sheets covered in coffee beans spread out everywhere to dry in the sunshine.
So far I have been to see three schools/kindergartens who have either put in or are planning to submit proposals to Friends of Ermera for extensions, or fences. My job is to talk to the district administrators about what they want, where things can be built, and come up with a (basic) design. It’s really great, because I get to meet people in their local environment.
One of the schools visited in Madede village
Everyone greets everyone in Timor, here are some of the phrases thrown at me constantly:
Bondia (good morning)
Boatardi (good afternoon)
Bondia Senhora
Good morning, sister!
Good morning, teacher!
Hey, Mister! (an address for foreigners)
Where are you going? (an appropriate response to this is either going home, or going to the market)
Some of my new friends, Sandra, Effie and Adina - they love having their photo taken
Some of the braver children will try to strike up a conversation, and with the help of a phrasebook we have managed to share some things. I also met a young man the other day who had been to Canberra, and expressed to me that Canberra is like ‘heaven on earth!’
