Jago

Back in Timor again after a relaxing and cleansing week in Bali. I have included just one photo from my second to last night when I went to see a traditional dance. It is the same one in the opening scene in Baraka the movie. You know with all the "click-click-click-ing" It was beautiful although a bit more catering to tourist then the one in the movie.

This weekend we were up for another trip especially since it was my roommate, Sarah's, Birthday. Sarah had always wanted to goto Jago island at the eastern tip of East Timor and this was a big reason to finally do it. 9 of us took the 7 hr car ride out. My car stopped in Baucau for Friday night to break up the long trip and I were able to spend a short bit of time with my family who were all well. It was interesting to hear their stories about the troubles in Baucau from last month when multiple buildings were burned down or damaged. All the buidings were in a rocks throw of their house which was quite scary. Even the preschool was burned out leaving the oldest child in the family, who is only 5, with no more school. Now he is back to being a trouble maker around the house. The UNpolice investigating the violence in Baucau in Viqueque from last month now say that the perpatrators were as much as 70% children under the age of 15. Can you imagine your 15 yr old burning down a government building or a school. I guess Timor needs some help with their parenting skills!

Jago and the new Eco lodge a local NGO is building there was beautiful as usual although it had hardly made any progress since I was there in Feburary. There has been major work done thoughout Los Palos though, especially to the roads which the project is improving for the eventual tourism. This trip we were able to visit some cave paintings near Jago which I never had time for before. It was only a short hike from the road and was well worth it. Although the actual paintings were mostly weathered and non-existent the location is amazing. The caves are not so much caves as overhangs on the bottom of huge cliffs. The spot is about 1km above the beach and overlooks Jago island. Awesome spot. I couldn't help but think it was the best rock climbing spot in the world although doubtful many have rock climbed there for sport. The location was actually quite developed with a path constructed during Indonesian occupation leading through the woods to the caves. It even had picnic tables in two spots. Some of the rocks on the ways were very smooth as if thousands of people had been to visit. No doubt it was a popular tourist attraction twenty years ago. They must of only recently cleared the path through the jungle as they are really fixing the area up for tourism. It was a great trip and even included the mandatory fish and coconut rice lunch on the beach the last day. mmm....

7 day fast

I am in Ubud, Bali. I know I am lucky. This time just came for a week for my three month R&R. Not happy with the prospect of another vacation alone so I decided to make it worth while and booked myself into a health resort. I am now 4 days into a 7 day fast. Strictly speaking it is not a true fast as they give me supplements three times a day and fresh juice if i want it. I have also been doing yoga and meditation everyday, I have at least one massage, and colonics. So far it has been easy and I have just been real tired. Yesterday I took a mid day nap from 1pm to 7pm. Life is ruff. I think I am finally starting to detox now. My tongue has changed color and I have a light headache. The cravings for food are becoming stronger. What I would do for a pizza. I am done on friday and will go to Seminyak for another three days. I will be meeting up with some friends there. Hopefully will be doing some shopping and a day or two of surfing. Getty up! lv jesse

Rapid Assessment

After a week delay a team was finally able to hop on a UN heli and fly out to Uatolari and Uatocarbau in the Viqueque district to due a rapid assessment after some unrest. Earlier this month multiple communities in these areas were burned down and pillaged by a large mob. Here is a photo just as we were re-boarding the helicopter after the assessment. It landed in the village soccer field.

Although the reality of the violence was not what had been suspected it was still quite bad. One village had almost every building burned to the ground including the school. Most of the other villages had only selected burned houses including this one pictured which happens to be right in front of the local police station in the rear.

Back in Dili things are good. Next week I am going to Bali for a 7 day fast and some relaxation. Will send an update from there. paz. jesse

Timor makes Wikipedia

Timor makes Wikipedia front page news. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

 

Jesse Shapiro

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IDP Technical Support & Service Advisor to

Direccao Nacional Aguas e Sanemento (DNAS) Timor Leste 

Oxfam Australia

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jesses@oxfam.org.au

(+670) 732-6275

 

 

New Government

Today Xanana was sworn in as Prime Minister and the new government announced.  It was almost a clean sweep as the AMP alliance cleaned out most of the Fretilin government even the Minister of Health who was loved by all.  Xanana has promised a lot, like most politicians, let’s just hope he can live up to some of it.  Hey, I am an optimist.  Quite a bit is going to change in the government besides just the changing of people as the structure has been changed.  New ministries have been created even one for fisheries.  Huh?  People laughed as they heard announcements of certain ministries new ministers cause they believe they were inappropriate people or like the Ministry of Planning and Finance… who’s office was burned to the ground only yesterday by demonstrations alleging this illegal formation of the government.  I don’t know what the constitution says but it does seem weird that Fretilin, with 30% of the vote and the winner of the election, has not been included in its formation.  Oh well.

 

The department of water and sanitation will also be moved  back under the Secretary of State along with Electricity and a new department called Urbanization.  This looks real good for water and sanitation as the secretary of state has some technical background which will help to make good decisions.  Only hours after being announced he even came by for a visit.  That has got to be a great sign right?   Laters

 

jesse

 

 

Wake boarding

Not usually found in Timor are extreme sports but this past weekend we went wake boarding here in Dili. It was a blast. I think I might of found something similar to skiing and snowboarding which I still fantasize about since I haven’t even seen snow in almost three years. It was actually my second time and I was able to stand up and do some basic turns. The rough sea made it a bit tough and has given me the killer ache in the legs. One of our friends was quite good and could even jump the wake and do flips. Here is a picture of him upside down just in front of the Dili landmark Jesus statue, the second largest in the world. Guess if he landed it or not? Then one of me surfing the wake.

Yesterday was the moment East Timor has been waiting for, for over a year, when the new government is formed and partially announced starting with the prime minister. Surprise, Surprise… it is Xanana, who was previously president. Now the president and the prime minister have switched positions. Although we have waited for this moment to move forward with development again the political problems are not over. Fretilin the party that won the most seats in parliament do not support the new government and will start causing problems here in Dili. This morning there are already some illegal road blocks and stone throwing which is normal except not usually in the morning. NGOs are restricting movement of their employees so we are staying put to see how the situation develops. It is likely there will be little work for a couple days.

jesse

Best purchase I ever made

This weekend decided again for another physical adventure. 7 of us including one Timorese whom had never ridden a bike more than a mile were off to Maibissi for the night. The plan was to ride the 65km through the mountains back to Dili on Sunday. Being extremely intelligent about things I decide to drink a whole bottle of wine the night we stayed in maibissi during a intense game of Taboo, men vs women, which was dominated by men*.

*This was following the logical and moral score keeping of rob (picture 2), on the boys team, in which we removed the points posted Sarah, on the girls team, who is the game owner and therefore has home field advantage. In some cases it was even relevant to count her scores as negatives. I must state the boys had additional difficulties as all members were from different continents whereas the girl’s team was all Americans.

The next day we climbed aboard our amazing cheap Indonesian made Wal-Mart quality performance machines and set out on the road. Although the 65km is mostly a decent, which was the main motivation for the trip, there were some tough hills. The longest about 15km and quite steep. On one particular decent as I approached the group on the side of the road who were taking a break I thought of pulling a skid to scare them. I will later say I was trying a trick, but really who knows cause I have forgotten to be honest. I thought it was no biggie as I have done it close to 1 billion times as a kid on the dirt roads in Canoncito. Of course what I forgot was I had just tightened my brakes for the long decent and had switched right with left because I was having trouble with the back. So what happens when you slam on your front break at 20 km/hr.? I would love to say a flawless endow 360 or a seesaw flip but instead I went over the handle bars head first into the ground.

10 Timorese who were standing right there and would normally laugh at any painful occurrence were dead silent. I think they thought I died. Even I lay there a moment to make sure I had all my pieces. Yes I did. In fact, I ended up with only minor scratches and cuts. The one time use helmet I thought was a necessary purchase only the morning before was cracked and had probably saved me.

We climbed back on a finished the remainder of the ride and pulled into Dili about 2:30 a half hour before the cutoff for free sticky date putting from Castaways, a local treat promised to us by Rob if we arrived before 3. Took us just under 7 hrs. It was a sweet victory.

Mantebian at last!

So two weekends ago a group of us managed to finally get out of town with the objective of climbing Matebian mountain, the second tallest in Timor, which is quite difficult or at least more so than the tallest, Ramelou. We took a night in Baucau where I got to visit with my host family again before heading to the base on Saturday morning. From there 8 of us headed for the top. We were unsure where we would actually make it in order to camp but wanted to get as close to the top as possible. Exhausted, in the dark and wet from rain we made it to a spot with some traditional sacred houses that had been abandoned about 2 hrs under the summit. This was our lodging.

By then we had also managed to drag along a posy of about 8 children which kept requesting to be our guides. The 7 foreigners and 1 Timorese in our party had food, clothing, tents, water, shoes, and jackets whereas the children had nothing. I was sure they would die during the night of the cold or maybe hunger but that was not the case. In fact, if the cold and uncomfortable conditions didn’t keep us awake it was definitely the children’s singing which lasted until about 5 am at which point someone actually flipped out and yelled at them. The sun broke that morning revealing a absolutely amazing view into Baucau district below (first pic). Arriving the night before in the rain, darkness, and clouds did not prepare us for what we say that morning. Matebian is quite steep and can only imagine it is similar to what mountaineers see when they ice climb steep mountains.

Unfortunately the night was not kind to us all and most had trouble getting up unless to throw up or take a long trip to the bushes. After trying to motivate the crew it was to be only two of us who would go on for the summit. Even I was feeling a bit queasy having to use those same bushes myself twice already by 7am. We left camp with one more motivated member and had a total of seven including the guide and three children with only t-shirts and no shoes. After one more trip to the bushes we made the summit in only hr and a half. Fog covered the accent but suddenly opened up a 180 view when we hit the top (second pic). The decent was hard on the legs and felt like stacks of jello by the time we hit the cars. We travelled all the way back to Dili for a Kalan bo’ot arrival of 9pm. All I got to say is the hurt of the next two days was severe.

Rice harvest

During the first presidential election this year my Baucau host family had been in a motorcycle accident just after voting.  It wasn’t good especially with the five of them on the one bike.  Only my host mom and the 1.5yr old who she was holding fell of the back of the bike and were hurt.  The baby bumped it’s head and my host mom cut her face quite bad.  It is amazing to me for one that five people can fit on a bike and secondly that given the risk with three children under 5 they drive that dam fast and with no helmets.  Anyway it is normal here.  I think Timorese are either really good drivers (NOT) or just extremely lucky, if not people would be dying daily.

 

On Saturday I spent the day in the Natar (rice patty) with my host dad watching as they divided up the rice harvest.  It was fun to see their traditional method for how it is done.  There was a bit of chanting which we had trouble translating into Tetun from their local language but I got the idea.  They kept asking God for thanks and making sure that the soil and water is healthy for the next year’s harvest.  We then killed a goat and ate it with rice right in the natar.  They took palm leaves and quickly wove bowls and spoons for all of us.  At sun down we climbed back in the car and headed home where I was of course forced to eat again, not that I am complaining.

Election

The election is over, but are the problems in Timor?  For now the answer is no.   It seems we have stumbled upon a weak part of the constitution and it is now under debate.  Fretilin won the election although only has around 30% of the vote.  All the other winning parties decided to immediately form a coalition contacting the remaining 70%.  Now they are debating over whether Fretilin can just form a minority government or that the coalition which does not contain the election winner can form the government.  The debate is over two words in the constitution alliance and coalition.  Fretilin says they are not the same and the rest say they are.  Of course the debate is on the Portuguese words in which the constitution is written and which many Timorese poorly understand and don’t know well enough to speak.   Getty up. 

 

Jesse