Photos of Timor's struggle

Check these out.

 

http://www.dominicnahr.com/gallerytimor01.html

--
Jesse Shapiro
Water and Sanitation Engineer
Plan International
jessepants@gmail.com
------------------------------------
flipflop...not a shoe...a lifestyle.

Leaving the PC behind and coming back to Timor.

Hey y'all.  Things are good and busy. 

 

Some peace corps volunteers have started to return to Timor for visits and to look for work.  They include Joe and Sarah C who used to live on the island.  Sarah M also returned last week to start work with Tais.  My group is making a serious come back!  oh yeah, that is a challenge.

 

Cedric and Jen came back from their vacation and are now married.  Para benz!  Just as my house sitting gig ended for them I found a great house in town.  Sarah m and I just moved in this week and are enjoying are new place.  It is in Villa Verde and is an old Portuguese house which is great because it has revolutionary things like good ventilation and passive lighting.  It is also got colored concrete floors, a good layout, high ceilings, and ac.  I think we were real lucky on this one.

 

All the foreigners are coming back from vacation now.  It makes me real depressed when everyone of them asks what I did as I have not much to say but I do like their stories.  I am quite jealous.  I have just realized I have been here over 6 months with no vacation.  I gotta do something about that.

 

Work is great.  Water and Sanitation at Plan is going strong and we now have close to 40 staff, most who are dedicated to the emergency work.  We have made some changes and looks like we will separate the emergency and development programs here.  This will work out well and keep things from dragging down the development program.  It is also good for me as I will now be running the emergency water and sanitation side.  We are still discussing it though as no one knows how long the emergency will last, in fact Timor has basically moved beyond the emergency.  My first week at Plan the Metinaro refugee camp had 3L of water per person per day.  Now we are at 17 or 18.  That is good news and is one indicator that Timor is moving away from the emergency.  Although no one knows what could happen once the election starts later this year..  We will all just have to wait and see.    

 

I will write again soon.  Hope y'all are well.  take care. lv jesse    

--
Jesse Shapiro
Water and Sanitation Engineer
Plan International
jessepants@gmail.com
------------------------------------
flipflop...not a shoe...a lifestyle.

Happy holidays

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone! 

--
Jesse Shapiro
Water and Sanitation Engineer
Plan International
jessepants@gmail.com
------------------------------------
flipflop...not a shoe...a lifestyle.

Address

I got a PO Box in Timor.

 

Jesse Shapiro

PO BOX 223

Dili, East Timor

(via Darwin Australia)

 

paz jesse

--
Jesse Shapiro
Water and Sanitation Engineer
Plan International
jessepants@gmail.com
------------------------------------
flipflop...not a shoe...a lifestyle.

Rain

Hello y'all,  I am now into my third week at Plan working with water and sanitation in 14 IDP camps.  I will extend my contract to at least the end of January and see how the work progresses from there.  The work has continued to be challenging with long hours.  The situation in these camps is anywhere from desperate to pitiful to ok but has only gotten worse with the rains.  Although it rained a bit last week it wasn't that big of a downpour.  Yesterday was the first big rain and it has started to cause some real problems especially in the Jardin and Metinaro camps.  Sanitation and Drainage is and will be big problems in the quickly approaching weeks.  The security situation has been the same but could change as the rains become more frequent.  Yesterday the rains started to cause some tension as some people had there tents and house washed away with all there belongings in Metinaro.  My boss at plan, Dinesh, has left on vacation and another foreigner has come in as his replacement.  Ian has been here a couple days already and is great to work with.  Just like me he feels more at home in the field then sitting in an office so we are dividing up the work with more of a focus on the priorities in the IDP camps, which is great.  Now the amount of work for one is more manageable.  I think I start getting more sleep at nights at least.  

 

One big success we had this week was cleaning out and pump testing a well I identified about 5km from the camp which proved successful.  We now have plans to truck water from this well to the camp rather than from Dili which is the current situation.  We will develop a system for filling a truck to deliver the water in the next week or so if everything goes well and can begin to bring the IDP's in metinaro a larger supply of drinking water. 

 

Today I will start living in my ex-boss's house closer into town as he is off to New Zealand for a couple weeks to get married.  I will be keeping an eye on their cat, busa, which means cat in Tetun.  It will be nice to stay in a proper house for a while as theirs is well decorated and even has a couch. Take care.  Happy holidays.  lv jesse 

--
Jesse Shapiro
Water and Sanitation Engineer
Plan International
jessepants@gmail.com
------------------------------------
flipflop...not a shoe...a lifestyle.

Health Promotion in a school in Manatutu during Triangle's water and sanitation program.

Me, Ann, Dave, and Jesse on the top of Ramalau. Highest mountain in Timor

Look I am actually working. I am doing a water pipeline survey in the mountains of Aileu.

From left to right: Kiyoe, Erin, Bree, Dave, Ann, Jesse, Jesse, Penny, and Ron on a sailboat a couple weekends ago.

View from small hilltop in the Metinaro IDP camp.