Helicopters at night

For the past week after dark, helicopters have been flying over the house in Aitarak-laran. On one occasion one flew over at 1am and needless to say woke me up. Living next to the airport in Raikotu, we are very used to hearing and seeing military helicopters coming and going but not many do so after nightfall.

I assume that the increase in military surveillance is a result of increasing tensions in the community since Major Alfredo Reinado was arrested by the GNR on the 25 July. Supporters of Reinado, are not happy that the GNR arrested him as they see it as a political move by Alkatiri’s supporters. Reinado is ostensibly supported by the Australians, and had been left to his own devices, until the GNR stepped in.

In brief the theory goes something like this: Alkatiri is supported by the Portuguese and by extension, the GNR will arrest anyone not supportive of him; Gusmao, Ramos-Horta and Reinado are supported by the Australians and by extension its military and police personnel won’t arrest these same people, instead focussing on the Alkatiri supporters. Apart from a grossly oversimplified idea of the politics and competing interests here, this is also quite an insult to both military groups' professionalism!

Over the weekend the Australian Federal Police arrested 40 men, 19 of whom were planning an attack from a banana plantation near the airport on an IDP camp. During the course of the weekend, six houses were burnt down. Violence regularly flares up at Komoro market and inevitably, one sees the increasingly hated GNR called out to diffuse (or is that inflame?) the situation.

Meanwhile the Australian, New Zealand and Malaysian governments have begun to withdraw their troops. By the end of the month, Malaysia will have withdrawn all its military personnel leaving behind its police. Australia is downgrading its personnel but plans to keep 2,000 troops in Timor. There is no doubt that the main issue is policing and the yet to be created new UN mission in Timor will hopefully have a large contingent of international police as part of its mandate.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Daniel is ill yet again

Daniel is ill again with a dreadful flu like virus. The symptoms began nearly a week ago and he says they are different to the ones he suffered through earlier in the year. We know of quite a number of people in Dili who are similarly unwell.

This morning he awoke with a temperature of 38.9C and we both decided it was time to visit a doctor. As the Australian Embassy doctor has left Timor for Laos and his substitute will not arrive until Wednesday, we went to the free clinic in Bairo Pite which is a short walk from where we are staying in Aitarak-laran.

We arrived just after 8am and found the place deserted apart from a security guard. He told us to go into the clinic and wait. As we sat down and admired the beautiful artwork by students of Arte Moris, we noticed a door to our right with a plaque above it that read “Dr Dan”. Within seconds, the man himself walked out and invited Daniel in.

Dr Dan is (in)famous in Timor. He arrived in the mid to late 1990s during the Indonesian occupation and has remained ever since. An American by birth and now in his 50/60s, he has made Timor his home. His clinic sees hundreds of Timorese every day except Sunday (all at no charge) which was why the clinic was deserted of patients.

After consulting Dr Dan, a nurse took a finger prick of blood to test it for malaria. Dr Dan then talked to us. I got the distinct impression that he was one of those who believe in the (conspiracy) theories that Australia was up to no good and had instigated the unrest and violence that led to Alkatiri’s downfall. This did not endear him to me. Still, medical doctors are in short supply in Timor and there is no doubt that he provides a highly valuable service to the many thousands of impoverished Timorese. His obvious dedication and commitment to the poor is to be commended.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Flora returns to her homeland

Today on my way to my morning mikrolete, I passed the carpenter’s family home. Daniel and I have built up a neighbourly interest in this family ever since we admired the father and son’s handiwork. As I passed their home, their car pulled up with the carpenter, his wife and two daughters, one who was new to me. I assumed she was the one who had been studying at Victoria University of Technology in my home city of Melbourne, as her parents had told me the week before that she was due to return.

Their daughter’s name is Flora and she has spent four years in Melbourne obtaining her Bachelors degree in Banking and Finance. As she shook my hand I noticed her Aussie accent and confidence, the latter in stark contrast with most Timorese women who are painfully shy. I was however taken aback when she asked me whether I loved Timor. I replied that I wouldn’t say that, but did love all the children. She said that “yes, Timor has a lot doesn’t it; in Melbourne you have to go to a park or playground in order to see them!”

I asked her whether she planned on staying in Timor to look for work and she replied yes. She planned to take her CV to various businesses the following day. I wished her the best of luck and said that I was sure that with her qualification and English language skills, that she was sure to find work.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

House and dog sitting in Dili

It almost feels like I’m back in Australia for I am house and dog sitting for a malae colleague while she takes a two month break in Bali, Germany and Switzerland. We now spend Monday to Saturday morning in Aitarak-laran, a suburb of Dili 2km west of the centre of town, while we return to our home in Raikotu for the weekends. I have joked that we now have two abodes: a city pad and a beach house – how aspirational and terribly upper class for two volunteers!

My colleague’s home is an enormous three bedroom house which is part of an Indonesian-ish family compound. The landlady and her family live opposite and two recently built one bedroom units complete the grounds. At night there are two cars parked under the carport and a very heavy and large gate secures the entrance. The landlady runs a small shop on Komoro Road opposite the heliport which is currently occupied by the Australian military. The family are clearly much better off financially than “our” family in Raikotu.

The downsides to staying here are that a security guard arrives at 8pm every night and sleeps on the veranda until sunrise, something I find unnerving and intrusive to our privacy (the curtains are very flimsy). There is no hot water which makes for a very refreshing mandi in the cool mornings and there is no generator in times of power blackouts. Lastly, her house does not command a view of the ocean and the glorious sunsets to which we are privy to in Raikotu. It does however come complete with eleven clocks! (Is this because the owner is German?)

This house contrasts with our very small one bedroom home which is located deep in the community of Raikotu and which needs no security other than the presence of the family next door. What amazes me is the difference in rent: we pay $400 a month and my colleague pays $300! Does the one hundred dollar difference reflect our hot water, generator and beach views (despite the house being one third the size and a further 5km from town than my colleague’s) or is it just the arbitrary nature of the rental market in Dili?

I really enjoy living so close to town as I can walk just about everywhere I need to go and, thus don’t have to worry about the lack of transport. Moreover, my colleague’s house allows me the escapist fantasy that I could be somewhere else. It is such a secluded home that with the doors, windows and curtains closed and with only the sound of children, dogs, pigs and the occasional rooster to bring me back to reality, I am transported to another place, one that makes me happy.

My main task while living here is to feed Meemee, a lovely but very shy one year old female dog who recently gave birth to seven adorable little puppies. They all belong to the landlady but Meemee is referred to as my colleague’s dog as she took a special interest in her as a wee one, which wasn’t so long ago. I love playing with the puppies and often in the mornings sit outside on the veranda and do so for hours. They make me laugh and bring a smile to my face. My dreams of becoming “Dra. Doolittle” are finally coming to fruition!

I buy Meemee’s food from Leader supermarket, including dry dog food and powdered milk both of which are imported from Australia. Twice a day I give her a cup of dry food with half a cup of powdered milk mixed with a cup of purified water. She’s still terribly thin and her little ones are very demanding of her milk supply but I’m sure the food helps!

As previously written, there is only one Timorese vet in the entire country, but I have heard recently that there may also be an Australian one. In the West, Meemee would hopefully have been spayed and so too her seven littlies, but in Timor, animals like humans, beget many offspring.

Meemee takes a rest

Two of her puppies also take a rest

My favourite of the seven puppies

Meemee feeding her pups

Meemee feeding and grooming her pups

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

A mini wedding boom

The number of Timorese marrying at this unsettled time is on the increase. Upon hearing this, one thinks it a bit odd that people would want to marry when there are other more pressing things to think about such as securing shelter and food for one’s family. However, brides have become very cheap! Brides’ families are prepared to negotiate the price of their daughters down due to the current situation. Families know that money is tight and possessions have been lost. Thus, many people are taking the plunge. In a society where those marrying often take on life-long debts, cheap weddings (and wives) have become the fashion of the day.

This morning the driver at Daniel’s work place, Rui, married his long time partner and mother of his children. They are all living at the IDP camp at the airport after their house was burnt down. We were invited to the wedding but due to miscommunication, we were not able to attend!

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Skip works again as a translator

As I entered the security conscious entrance area of Leader supermarket in Komoro (most of the gates are now closed, allowing just a small area for entering), a young Timorese man looked at me and said, “Samantha, right?”

It didn’t take me long to recognise the young man as Skip, who had talked to me at length on a mikrolete trip months before. “Skip” I said, “diak ka lae” (how are you?). He replied in his very Aussie English accent that he was good and working again as a translator for the Australian military based at the RTTL (Radio and Television Timor-Leste) complex in Caicoli. I was happy to hear he was able to secure work again as his spoken English is excellent. Skip’s good fortune is an example of the increased employment opportunities during a time of crisis, perhaps the only positive thing about it!

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Encouraging IDPs home

An IDP camp in Dili

Children talking in the IDP camp

Children playing in the park that has now become their home

Today marks the first coordinated effort by the INGOs to encourage the IDPs to return home. INGOs will set up food distribution in the suburbs of Dili while the International Stability Force are set to post security personnel to the suburbs, thus addressing two concerns the IDPs have and which prevent them from leaving the camps: food and security. Let’s hope it has a noticeable effect.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Australia’s role in the recent chaos

The Australian Prime Minister John Howard arrived in Dili today for his first visit since goodness knows when. It’s certainly his first visit since I arrived in the country a year ago. According to ABC Radio Australia, the purpose of his flying visit was to meet with the newly installed Prime Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta and President Xanana Gusmao; not to mention sharing a morale boosting BBQ lunch with some of the estimated 2,500 Australian security forces currently deployed in Timor.

Of course, Howard’s visit has fuelled the lefty rumours (a la Pilger, Martinkus and the Communist Party of Australia) that the unseating of the former PM Mari Alkatiri was as a result of an Australian backed coup and that Howard has come to congratulate “his” men in Timor. This (conspiracy?) theory says that Australia disliked Alkatiri (true) and wanted to get rid of him in order to get their hands on Timor’s oil (unfounded as Australia and Timor had already negotiated an agreement over the final disputed area in the Timor Sea which is waiting approval by both country’s parliaments but which when passed, will remain in effect for the next 50 years), and wanted the more Australian friendly Ramos-Horta (true) at the helm of the country. That Australia also dislikes Fretilin as it is considered the most radical of the political parties in Timor (true, but radical only in comparison to the other parties, not with its past history and policies or to other more radical parties in the world such as the Communists. I would describe Fretilin as similar to Australia’s Labor Party (even though there is a Timorese Labor Party with no current MPs), which can hardly be described as radical). The theory goes that Australia approached a number of high ranking Timorese military men to stage a coup but that they refused. In the end they somehow managed to convince some of the original 500 odd soldiers from the west of the country to resign in protest over discrimination and favouritism to those from the east, which sparked civil unrest and which led to our evacuation from Timor and the subsequent downfall of the former PM.

This theory fails to explain: why stage a coup now after the disputed oil reserves had been negotiated? The elections are only a year way anyway and given the former PM’s widespread unpopularity, there was speculation that Fretilin would lose seats in parliament as a backlash to their choice of PM. Moreover, how did the Australians manage to engender such vitriol in the Timorese people for their former PM? By osmosis? Normally I’m a great supporter of lefty theories about political coups (not to mention a fan of the writings of Pilger and Martinkus) but having lived in Timor for the past year, I find this latest theory difficult to believe. The Timorese people genuinely disliked their PM which was not manufactured by Australian ASIS spooks.

I believe the recent trouble all comes down to the incompetence and inexperience of a new government left to fend for itself without adequate ongoing international support coupled with the arrogance of a PM and his Ministers who decided that the dismissal of nearly one third of their military personnel was not worth addressing. Moreover, it was the United Nations who decided on the make up of the security forces and clearly not enough attention was paid to the history of the Indonesian occupation and the geographical realities of Timor. By and large, people from the east of the country escaped the worst excesses of the occupation while the people from the west, who were and remain right up against the border with Indonesia, were much more vulnerable to human rights abuses including intimidation to join pro-Jakarta militias in the lead up to the independence ballot. Most of the Falintil soldiers came from the east where it was geographical feasible for them to continue hiding out in the mountains; while the people from the west simple were not able to. For the UN then to divide the newly independent nation’s security forces along geographical lines (military from the east and police from the west) shows a great deal of ignorance in planning the peace and security for a post-conflict society. Unfortunately it has contributed greatly to the current situation which on the surface looks peaceful and secure, but underneath is anything but.

As the Timorese refugees in Darwin and Dili know, there is no secure future for as soon as the International Stabilisation Force departs, they anticipate that all hell will break loose again as further retributions are exacted in a vicious cycle that will be difficult to break. The only hope is that the UN will decide to send a substantial number of both peacekeepers and police officers to retrain a reformed security service. Moreover, that peace building activities amongst the people begins in earnest.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

My one year anniversary

Today is my one year anniversary at my place of work (my one year anniversary in Timor was noted in Tropical North Queensland). It’s hard to believe that I actually made it this far: what with a breakdown, dengue fever, an armed battle in my neighbourhood between rival factions of the army, and being evacuated, all as a result of living here! Sometimes I wonder about my sanity but I certainly do not doubt my tenacity or resilience.

The thought of spending another year here however does not particularly fill me with enthusiasm. Apart from all the problems I have with living in Timor, now added to the mix is the political uncertainty and the fact that I fear that one day in the not too distant future, Timor could descend into a very bloody ethnic conflict which I do not wish to bear witness to.

It is very noticeable how the east/west divide has become cemented in the Timorese conscious. Before we were evacuated, we never heard any Timorese person speak disparagingly of people from the east or west, apart from the usual banter about how expensive women from Los Palos are! Now, we routinely hear (from taxi drivers, always a good barometer of how the average person thinks) how the country must be divided up and how the people from the east are murderers.

One colleague whose house was burnt down, on Sunday night experienced further destruction of her property when unknown persons destroyed most of the windows of her car. She told me that she and her husband were leaving Timor in two months to live in London. When I said for how long, she said, “maybe five years, I don’t know but Timor is no good and I cannot live here any longer.”

Another colleague has been living in the UN Obrigado Barracks IDP camp for two months. She fled there with her husband and two small children. The reason: she lived in an area of Dili which is mainly inhabited by those from the west and although she and her family of origin are also from the west, her husband is from the east and he is frightened to go on living in the area as he believes he will be killed. Thus they remain indefinite IDPs. Many people in Timor are married to people from the opposite side of the country and the children born of these unions are both east and west. How and where are they to live in an independent Timor?

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Return to work

I returned to work today as a true volunteer (i.e. no remuneration). It was nearly two months since I had last stepped foot into my work place and much had changed in the interim.

We are now operating an emergency program until mid September which is being funded by INGOs. My team no longer exists as the coordinator remains living in Baukau and the acting coordinator now works on the emergency program in the IDP camps of Dili.

The computer problems continue unabated. Although I was not employed to do such tasks and nor do I have any expertise, in comparison to my Timorese colleagues I know many things. Unfortunately the power was off and would remain thus for five hours! The government had warned its citizens that it was low on mina (oil) and had instituted power blackouts until stocks could be replenished. Apparently someone in the electricity department had forgotten to order mina (from Indonesia) in advance. Now, due to the recent problems, this person could be forgiven for such an oversight but unfortunately, this sort of thing occurs regularly.

Thus, I had to wait until late afternoon before I dared to look at each and every one of the twenty odd computers to see how they were working. One computer which was in perfect working order two months ago was now (I believe) riddled with viruses and had to be taken to the real expert (a lovely Indonesian man named Harry) for a cure. Others were performing slowly but when I installed the latest Norton Anti Virus definitions (obtained from Daniel’s work place’s Internet connection), they picked up their game and now work fine.

We still have no widespread Internet access other than from one virus riddled laptop that my colleagues are reluctant to let me take to Harry, even for one day! It’s very frustrating trying to explain that because they insert their USBs into an infected computer and then into an uninfected one, the viruses keep doing the rounds in the office which makes it very difficult to get rid of the little buggers once and for all!

The server computer was cleared of viruses in May but ever since, we cannot establish any Internet or printer connection. Hence my colleagues are reliant on the use of USBs to take files to the one computer which remains connected to the printer, and hence the viruses do the rounds. At least the majority of computers are now up-to-date with the latest virus definitions so perhaps I can contain the viruses to a handful of computers (mostly laptops).

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Wildlife at Tasitolu Peace Park

We were woken not only by the sound of roosters (who remarkably no longer irritate me) but by the even louder sound of an Australian military helicopter taking off before 7am. I thought this a bit rich as it was Sunday after all but I forgot that I am in Timor where people wake before dawn no matter what day of the week it is in order to do chores before the heat of the day kicks in.

Daniel suggested a walk along the beach as he had not done so since he returned the week before as he wanted to share the experience with me. It was another beautiful morning and as we left the property we came across many members of “our” family and other children in the neighbourhood who were just returning from their pasiar (stroll). We talked to a number of women and their children and we asked them about the festa (celebration). They said it was for Lezette who had turned seven. Lezette is the second eldest child of the family next door whose father works in the government department of state administration. He is considered a bit of an ema boot (big/important people) in our community as they easily have the largest house along with one government car and perhaps a personal one.

During our walk we noticed the lack of people who would normally be on the beach. A small fishing boat was moored out at sea replete with a Timorese flag. We passed the houses of two of the malae we know in the area (the couple from Georgia and our AVI colleague and his Canadian partner). We decided it was too early to drop in on them and would do so on our return.

We walked over to Tasi-tolu Peace Park and noticed the large Australian and Malaysian military presence on both sides of the park. A road block had been set up less than a kilometre from the Dili/Liquisa border. As we walked passed the John Paul II memorial house and under the trees where normally animals abound, we noticed numerous shallow graves and became a little concerned as to what these were. We peered into a couple and saw that they were empty. I surmised that these were the spots dug up by investigators looking for the supposed dumped bodies of the tens of people claimed to have been killed in Tasi-tolu and Rai Kotu on 28 April. So far, no bodies have been found and the allegations remain unsubstantiated.


The three lakes were still quite full although the two that join together during the wet season were slowly separating. We immediately noticed the many pelicans on the opposite side of the middle lake set against the backdrop off scared hills from recent burnings (this is the season for burning off). We walked between lakes one and two and I took photos of the pelicans which numbered between fifty and one hundred. As we journeyed between the lakes two pelicans flew so low over us that we could just about touch them. (I love pelicans; they are one of my favourite birds.) We also noticed Malaysian plovers, cormorants, terns and much to our delight, three birds of prey flying gracefully over a hill.


We caught a mikrolete to Landmark supermarket and it felt good to be shopping in our usual haunt. I was particularly happy to see our yummy Chinese vegetarian dumplings in the freezer section but not so happy to see the price at $6 US a pack! (Late last year they were $4.40, by January they were $5.70 and now $6.) I soon noticed other price increases such as toilet paper $3.90 (up from $3.15) and bread $2.20 (up from $2.05). Other items had remained the same but nonetheless certainly not good for me given that I now have no income.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

The celebration of women and girls

This morning while I ironed our clothes (I had brought many clean but unironed clothes back from Australia and didn’t want to burden Senyora Domingas with them and as she had accidentally left the iron behind (she keeps it in her house) I took the opportunity to do so) I heard the screams of a goat. I peered through the window to the back garden of our recently returned neighbours (whose dog I had adopted when they abandoned it) and saw to my horror a goat hanging from its neck from an easel. Oh dear, not another party! Daniel hurriedly pulled down the venetian blinds and seeing how dirty and dusty they were, decided to clean one, only to discover how difficult and time consuming it is! The goat’s cries went on for a while longer and when it had stopped, I peered through a slat to see that the animal was motionless. I wondered what the party was in aid of and whether it would end in a baku malu (fight) as the first one they held did when they first moved.

As the women prepared food under a makeshift tarpaulin, we journeyed into town to have lunch at the Bali Sunrise which during the unrest moved from the beach road to behind the government building to take up residence beside two long established restaurants: the Erli Restaurant and Alpha Omega.

Bali Sunrise offer a buffet which has an excellent vegetarian selection. I ate beans and carrots, a leafy green vegetable, mixed vegetables, tofu and mushrooms, a piece of marinated tempe and white rice. During my stay in Australia, I really started to miss this kind of food, particularly the tempe which is possible to buy in Australia but generally only as a tempe vegetarian burger patty from the supermarkets. I also like the simplicity of this Indonesian influenced Timorese food. (Although, it is difficult to eat every day as you soon grow tired of it and want some variety, hence the inclusion of Indian food in our diet.)

After lunch we walked from the restaurant to my German colleague’s home which is opposite the now occupied (by Australian military personnel) heliport. Along the way we walked down one of the main commercial streets of Dili and where Daniel works in Komoro. The street was festooned with banners proclaiming unity and peace. I have included photos of these here with translations.

Long live! one Timor only

Carry peace

Peace can give peace for the future

A poster advising of the role of the international Stability Force in Timor

An Australian soldier (whose face we hid) surrounded by pirated DVD and cigarette sellers on the streets of Komoro in Dili

One of the Australian army's bases in Dili. This one is at the heliport opposite where we are staying during the week in Ai-tarak laran, Dili.

As we came to the Komoro junction, we turned a corner to find a horde of men standing around a tall Australian army officer trying to flog him pirated DVDs. It looked however as if he were surrounded and I was just glad that their attention was on him and not me because one of the things I most dread about coming back to Timor is feeling once again that I am under siege.

My colleague greeted me warmly and was genuinely happy to see me again. She had remained in Timor during the unrest and had to fight for her right to do so as the German Embassy in Indonesia had demanded the evacuation of all their citizens. My colleague is paid by the German government through their Peace Building Program to work in Timor for three years with the Timorese NGO we both work at. She is about to sign another three year contract to enable her to continue working with our NGO. There are currently another three people (all women) on this particular German program in Timor. All four of them elected to remain in Timor and negotiated with their sending organisation (AGEH) to stay. Only my colleague is based in Dili; one is in Baukau and two are in Aileu.

My colleague is leaving for a very much needed eight week holiday to Bali, Germany and Switzerland (her home for twenty years) tomorrow and has offered to let us stay in her home during her absence. We have decided to partially take her up on her kind offer by staying at her house during the week and returning to our home on the weekends. Her home is within walking distance to both our workplaces and given the lack of transport after dark we thought it less stressful to stay at her place part of the time. Moreover, she has a television and a DVD player and during our holiday in Australia, I believe I accidentally damaged the LCD in our laptop’s screen which has left us with a small amount of screen space. As I had gone on a DVD shopping splurge in the months leading up to our evacuation, we have rather a lot of DVDs to watch!

My colleague and I were picked up by her driver (yes, she has a driver and a car, something completely alien to me as a former AVIer which is a no frills experience) and taken to our NGO for its ninth birthday celebration which was to include a discussion on recent events. I was a little apprehensive about seeing my colleagues again for fear of how they might react after my prolonged absence. They appeared however in the main to be genuinely happy to see me again which was a relief. One of my colleagues who was always eyeing off my personal possessions didn’t disappoint, she immediately stared at the sunglasses on my head (a new pair as I had lost the previous pair in Cairns) and there her eyes remained during our brief conversation!

My Timorese colleagues are truly remarkable women: brave and steadfast in the face of a crisis; they have continued to support women and children during the past two months despite their own often precarious personal situations. For example, three of my colleague’s homes were burnt down, for reasons unknown and two of them, along with their young families are living at our work place. (In fact the outside aula (meeting room) was full of IDPs related to our colleagues.) One of these colleagues had also become acting Director in my absence as I learned that our Director who had given birth to her third child in late March and who was due back at work three months later, had taken her three children to Australia to stay with family in Perth. She will return in September. My colleague who had given birth a week later remains living in Baukau and is not in good health since she lost a lot of blood after having an induced labour. I am told she is receiving medical care but I wonder about its quality.

Most of the rest of my colleagues were in attendance for the celebration. We had a two hour discussion in Bahasa Indonesia mixed with Tetum, some of which was translated for me and my German colleague into English. I was also able to read a summary in English of a report about the current situation of women in Timor written by my NGO. I read the report with some emotional distance as I really didn’t want to suffer another breakdown as I did after reading many harrowing documents about the brutal occupation of Timor by both the Japanese (WWII) and Indonesians (1975-1999). It surprised me how I could read such a document without being drawn in too far.

The situation of the IDPs is of concern as there are approximately 100,000 (10% of the population) still living in camps throughout Dili and the districts with only small numbers electing to return home. (In early May, soon after the events of 28 April, there were approximately 30,000 IDPs.) Many visit their homes during the day but return to the camps in the evenings. There are a number of issues which mitigate their returning home apart from the obvious one that some have no home to return to as they were burnt down. Firstly, some do not feel safe in their communities as they fear retributions are still to come. Furthermore that they cannot rely nor do they trust that the vastly reduced PNTL (police) will do their job of keeping the peace; and that a culture of impunity has been established in Timor which extends back to the failure of the government to pursue justice for the occupation of Timor by the Indonesians. People believe that if you commit a crime, you’ll probably just get away with it which does not make for a safe and secure society. Secondly, people are being looked after in the camps, many better than they can take care of themselves at home; food aid is given out regularly and some eat better than they would normally. Thirdly, even if they do go home and although the government has promised to provide these people with food, they do not believe this will happen. The IDPs have more confidence in the INGOs to deliver them food than they do in their own government.

The issue of why angry young men became ready arsonists was also discussed. It appears that many people are jealous of those who have done well since independence. Thus any person with obvious wealth (eg small business people) were targeted. Often these people are from the east as that part of Timor is, for various reasons to do with geography and history, wealthier than the west.

We concluded the discussion with a shared meal of bananas, sweet potato, cassava, tomato and chilli salad, fried pork, cakes and ice cream. As I had eaten a large lunch combined with the fact that I do not like to eat large chunks of unappetising starchy food, I simply had some appetising cake and ice cream. Upon leaving the celebration I told my colleagues I would come in on Monday morning as a true volunteer (unpaid) and attend to anything they might need doing. At least one task is to complete fixing the virus problems that plague the computers and USBs. I’m no computer expert but Harry the Indonesian who owns/works at I-Market Computers, was an enormous help before I was evacuated so I will pay him another visit. Daniel collected me in a taxi at 6:30pm as we were conscious of getting home before dark when taxis all but disappear from the streets.

As we walked down our street we came across Robert, a lovely and handsome young Timorese man who lives on his own. He was very happy to see me again. He is studying English at university and is currently volunteering with the Australian military as a translator. In return they give him food. If after two weeks they are happy with him, they will offer him paid work. I told him I hoped that he would be successful.

Upon entering our home we heard many little children next door singing happy birthday over and over again. I thought perhaps the party was for a child rather than an adult but had witnessed very few parties for children (other than the three christenings they undergo throughout their childhood) as Timorese in general do not celebrate birthdays. I wondered who the celebration, and in whose name the life of the goat was taken, but for the moment was glad that the party ended early.

We again went to bed early while listening to the BBC World News Service.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Return to Timor

This morning I caught the 7am Air North flight from Darwin to Dili. There were 19 people on the flight, mainly malae including a number Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers who had taken R&R in Darwin. As we were escorted from the airport across the tarmac where we were advised to follow the white stripes, one of the two AFP officers directly in front of me looked behind her and then said to her colleague: “there’s a lot of people on this flight; why would anyone want to go to Dili?” Apart from the fact that I thought her comment rude given there were a handful of Timorese on the flight, I also thought how lacking in insight the officer had about Timor. Most of the malae were almost certainly United Nations (UN) personnel (in fact there were at least two from Kenya) and International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) staff. Then there was me: a former volunteer with Australian Volunteers International (AVI) who was evacuated from Dili on 25 May and was now returning under my own steam as AVI had decided to suspend its program in Timor until further notice (ie until the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) had reduced its travel advisory warning down from category 5 (the highest) to at least 4).

The plane was an Embraer Brasilia 120, a very small aircraft that vibrated when the propellers started. I wondered whether we’d ever make the 500km journey over the Timor Sea and then the next leg over the mountainous terrain of Timor island. The air stewardess was in-training and being watched over by two colleagues; she was very nervous and would regularly consult her notes. This further added to my apprehension. When she finished her safety announcement, I started clapping and the other passengers followed suit. The man next to me said something about her being very nervous and I retorted with “now I just hope we don’t go down!” He laughed and began asking me questions and I likewise inquired about his reason for visiting Timor.

The man was originally from Malaysia but immigrated to Australia where he has lived for nearly twenty years. He was around 40 years of age and lived in Sydney where he worked for a leading Catholic international development and relief agency. His work was focused on Indonesia and particularly the provinces of West Timor and West Papua but given the recent events in East Timor, he was being sent to Dili for two weeks as part of his organisation’s emergency program in Timor. He was quite apprehensive about arriving in Dili as he had spent two and a half years between 2000 and 2003 living and working in the exclave of Oecussi and when he left, he never imagined he would again have the opportunity to visit Timor. Moreover, upon his departure, the country was on a high as independence was a reality and a new government had not long been sworn in. Now he was visiting under very different circumstances. One interesting comment he made was about the international stabilisation force currently keeping law and order in Dili. He said he was glad that they were mostly Australian soldiers as he did not have much faith in either the soldiers from his birth country (Malaysia) nor the Portuguese, the latter of whom he reserved most of his criticism. This was based on his experience with these particular nation’s military (among others) during the time of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

As we approached Dili International Airport we flew past Tasitolu Peace Park and I noticed with glee that all three lakes were still quite full. Just before we landed, we passed our little white house and again I was happy to see it and the surrounding community still standing. From the window of the plane I noticed the large Australian military presence which had grown since the day I was evacuated when the military had first landed in Dili. There were trucks, helicopters, tents and personnel not to mention freshly washed military fatigues hanging on fences drying in the hot sun.

As I was able to utilise my two year visa to re-enter the country I was able to proceed quickly to the small baggage carousel. I took the opportunity to go to the toilet and soon noticed the stench. There were notices in English advising users not to flush anything other than human waste down the toilet and to put everything else into the overflowing bins provided. Unfortunately both toilets had been used by people either unable to understand the instructions or not literate in English and toilet paper and waste were clogging the system. I chose the least offensive of the two toilets available, duly put my soiled toilet paper in the overflowing bin, and promptly went to wash my hands. When just a tiny trickle of water emanated from the tap and then promptly ceased, I said out loud to myself, “welcome back to Timor!”

Upon collecting my luggage and proceeding through customs, I was greeted by the many little boy children who hang around the airport helping passengers with their luggage in the hope that you will give them some money. I greeted them in Tetum and asked how they were which obviously surprised them as they all became very shy all of a sudden. I thanked them but told them I didn’t need their help and looked furtively around for Daniel who was no where in sight. After pushing my luggage trolley around a bit I gave up and sat down. I waited a wee while but still no sign of Daniel. I thought that an emergency must have prevented him from meeting me so I called Senyor Raphael and Virginia, the oldest child answered and said that Daniel had gone to work. Mmmm, I thought, that’s strange. So I telephoned Daniel’s workplace and soon I was speaking to him. He thought I was calling from Darwin and when I said no, Dili airport he was rather surprised! He had forgotten what day of the week it was and thought I was arriving the following day (he’d experienced two Thursdays instead of one). I was not impressed!

Senyor Raphael called me back and asked if I would like him to come and collect me on his motorbike. I thanked him but explained that Daniel was coming in a taxi. Needless to say when Daniel arrived, I did not give him a warm reception.

I noticed while sitting and waiting for Daniel to arrive the internally displaced people (IDP) across the road. Many temporary shelters made of tarpaulins with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) logo were erected for the one to two thousand people who live there. As we drove past the IDP camp an Oxfam Australia water truck drove past and women were lining up to fill their buckets. The branding by the INGOs was very noticeable.

We arrived home to a warm reception by “our” family. (I believe they were more effusive when Daniel returned the week before, which was to be expected.) They all looked well except for Senyor Raphael who appeared to have aged considerably during my seven week absence. Argentina’s beau Alberto was now living with “our” family which I assume was because he is from Baukau and therefore being an easterner in Dili, has not felt safe and so “our” family and our neighbourhood who are all from the west, had been sheltering him from any potential harm.

The garden was looking very trim and Senyor had begun a market garden. We now have many tube stock plants which he has created from cuttings. As there became a serious food shortage, those that remained in Dili began in earnest to be more self sufficient in food. During our absence we had transferred $150 AUD to a former AVI colleague’s bank account who had elected to stay in Dili and therefore be kicked out of the program, and asked him to buy any food he could get his hands on and take it to “our” family. He had done this twice, first of his own violation and secondly after a request from us. As we were in regular telephone contact with Senyor Raphael we knew their food situation was serious and they needed someone with a car to bring them supplies. In the end they were delivered rice, soup-a-mie, eggs and vegetables which staved off any serious hunger for the family and many of our immediate neighbours. If they had gone to an IDP camp, they would have been fed. Staying in one’s house has other benefits such as less chance of contracting communicable diseases but it can also be very isolating and leads to lack of access to essential items such as food.

The little asu (dog) which we had adopted since the family next door had abandoned it upon fleeing to the districts, died while we were away. I left the dog food behind and told “our” family to keep feeding her but she had in the days leading up to our evacuation, moved further a field which made it difficult to locate and feed her. Senyor Raphael said that one day she came to our veranda, laid down and died. I was very sad to hear this news but also do believe that she is much better off in doggy heaven. She was crippled by a car accident and ants infested her body which caused her much suffering. She was a fine little dog and I miss her but take comfort in the fact that she no longer suffers.

Our adopted asu outside "our" Timorese family's home before she died

“Our” family now have a young dog of their own. This dog just turned up one day and didn’t leave so they have adopted him. He is a dark golden colour and seems amenable enough. I am sure that I will soon get to know him. We have noticed the stark drop off in dogs around the neighbourhood. Before we were evacuated, there were tens of dogs, particularly puppies, roaming the neighbourhood scavenging for food as their owners had fled to safety. It felt as though the dogs had taken over. Now we hardly notice them, perhaps because our attention is also focused on the people who have returned and perhaps too because many of the dogs have died (and even eaten in desperation for life sustaining sustenance). Our AVI colleague and his partner who live down the beach in Tasitolu have lost their beloved dog. She disappeared during their absence despite him giving money to their security guard to feed it. I would not be surprised in the least if it had been captured and eaten as well fed dogs (of which there are few) are a prized possession during times of hunger.

As I unpacked my belongings I heard the sounds of many little children playing alongside the twittering of the birds. It made me smile to again hear these sounds as during the weeks leading up to our evacuation, most of the children had fled with their families. What wasn’t so pleasant was the sound of the Australian military helicopters flying overhead at regular intervals as they came and went from the airport next door. Before there were a mere three aeroplanes a day along with an occasional UN helicopter, now it feels like Bourke Street!

There are a number of new faces in our community, including many children; I assume they are related family members of our neighbours.

I was really hanging out for a rich, thick banana lassie from one of the two Indian restaurants in town as during my seven week absence, I only managed to have a banana lassie/smoothie twice as the availability and cost of bananas had soared due to the devastation that tropical cyclone Larry reaked on the banana growing region of Australia and which we travelled through. We caught a mikrolete (minibus) which was unusually uncrowded and paid 25c each for the ride, a 5c rise in the cost of a fare since May. On the journey into town we passed one of the hardest hit areas of Komoro near one of the two major markets in Dili. Shop after shop was burnt down and the market was closed. Women and men had set up temporary market stalls on the street but the volume of fruit and vegetables on offer was much reduced.

Upon seeing the burnt out shells of former small businesses, I was reminded of the same carnage wreaked on Tasi-tolu in late April, and how the young angry male arsonists were only causing more hardship for themselves, their families and communities. These small businesses supplied them with essential goods and services such as fresh food and vegetables, cooked lunches for $1 a plate, non perishable items such as personal care products, motorcycle and bicycle repairs. Now they have nothing.

The “pink palace” restaurant as we affectionately call it (its real name is the Sun Restaurant) was empty but it was a late lunch we were partaking in so this was not an indication as to the lack of business. One of the Timorese women who normally serve us was still there and the Indian owner said that they had remained open throughout the unrest.

I noted on the menu that the price of lassies had risen 50% and now cost $1.50 US each. It’s still a very good price for a lassie although with the abundance of bananas in Timor and the cost of them therefore being low, I expect the price increase has something to do with the rise in petrol prices and perhaps, dare I say, taking advantage of the inflow of new cashed up malae.

We enjoyed a very delicious meal of marinated eggplant, vegetable korma, garlic naan, vegetable martabak (fried roti stuffed with vegetables) and rice washed down with a not so rich and thick banana lassie each. The meal cost us $11 US. While in Cairns, we spent around $45 US for a similar but not as delicious meal in one of that city’s finest Indian restaurants. We commented at the time that it wasn’t as good as our “pink palace” meal in Dili.

I noticed how quiet Dili was; not many people or cars on the streets. Importantly it was also peaceful, however fragile this peace might be I did not notice any tension in the air. As a result I feel comfortable here.

We caught the mikrolete home again and spent the rest of the afternoon talking and resting and went to bed early. As I closed my eyes, I thought how fortuitous it was for me to arrive on the day that the new government of East Timor was sworn in with the former Foreign Affairs Minister and Nobel Laurete Jose Ramos-Horta as Prime Minister, and DFAT reducing its security level for Timor down from 5 to 4.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Romanticising pre-modern societies

The night we arrived in Darwin was half price movie day and I really wanted to go as it is one of the many things I miss about living in Timor (there is no cinema). I spent a mere hour at the farewell dinner at a way too loud bar/pub/restaurant, where again I felt decidedly old, but did manage to win a schooner of beer and a free meal after answering correctly the theme tune to the television series The Muppets (my era the 70s) and promptly gave both prizes away to a fellow traveller as one, I don’t drink beer and two, I had absolutely no intention of returning to the joint for the free meal (the queue to eat would really have tried my patience!)

Bored by the evening, I asked the woman from South Korea and two young Dutch women if they would like to join me at the cinema as I guessed (rightly) that they were a little bored too. We saw Rolf de Heer’s Ten Canoes, the first movie filmed entirely in an Indigenous Australian language and which has a purely Indigenous story without any reference to white fellas; really quite remarkable. I enjoyed the film but it brought up for me many issues which I have encountered in Timor, particularly around polygamy, promised young brides to old men and brothers inheriting their dead brothers wives. As one of the two Dutch women whispered in my ear, “men are all the same wherever you go”, again, I thanked the goddesses that I was a modern western woman. I wouldn’t for a moment want to live in any (Western) romanticised idea of a pre-modern Indigenous or Timorese society.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Nationalism, Regionalism, Internationalism

Daniel left a week later for Darwin where he flew on to Dili. I stayed in Cairns a few more nights before catching a four day/three night tour bus across the Savannah Way to Darwin. We did 3,000km in four days so as you might guess, we spent most of the time sitting on a bus but it was worth it despite having to rise at 5am every morning in order to fit in 750km a day! I fell in love with the red earth, endless blue sky and diverse native landscapes which included many colourful and beautiful flowering trees and shrubs, not to mention the abundant bird life. The highlight was Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park where we only had two hours but I spent it well canoeing up the lake and swimming in its cool waters.

The people on the tour were an interesting bunch of mainly backpackers from Europe on one year working holidays to Australia (England (3), Belgium (1), The Netherlands (5), Germany (4), France (1), Italy (2), Switzerland (3), Sweden (1), Slovenia (2)), Canada (3) and South Korea (1). I befriended the South Korean woman (the only person from Asia on the tour) and she turned out to be the only person to ask me anything about East Timor! The rest simply showed no interest and instead (understandably), broke off into regional and language groups. The Europeans talked a lot about the European Union and after having just read Peter Singer’s One World: the Ethics of Globalisation decided that the world had a long way to go before its citizens considered themselves internationalists and not nationalists or regionalists.

Despite the presence of a retired Dutch couple in their mid 60s and a father in his late 30s/early 40s and his 12 year old daughter from Slovenia, the average age of the group was around 22 and I felt decidedly old. I took my first group tour 14 years ago (at the age of 22) in the USA and Canada and still remember it well. Even then I knew I had an internationalist orientation and in fact got into an argument with two Scottish lassies who were incensed that I held two passports and told me I had to make up my mind which country I wished to belong to. When I explained that I was a global citizen, I think it just went over their heads.

Unfortunately on this trip I also encountered at least one nationalist: this time a Canadian. Now normally I really like Canadians, after all I lived there for two years and it is my favourite country in the world, but this one drove me crazy. I made what I thought was a humorous comment about the number of Aussie flags I had encountered in Queensland both outside private homes and on caravans in parks (the former is a rare sight in my home state of Victoria) and that I wondered whether there were so many simply to remind me which country I was in because I might forget. She came out with her rah, rah, let’s all fly the Canadian flag and be proud of our nation drivel, and I really had to hold my tongue from saying, “which province are you from again, oh, that’s right, Calgary, Alberta, home of the Reform party”. (It turned out that her mother proudly flies the Canadian flag outside her home in Calgary.) The woman from Sweden had just commented that in her country the flag and anthem are now so entwined with racist groups and parties, that no one else can use these symbols of nationalism without being tainted a racist. I thought how sad and noted the irony of the Canadian woman’s nationalistic fervour as being a good thing in her eyes, when for most (particularly now in Europe) it is seen as a sign of racism and exclusion. I don’t think she drew any links between the two.

The Canadian then went on to say that her government wanted to changed its constitution to remove the word God. When I said it was obviously a political issue she said no, religious. I asked, “how’s that?” and she said that religious minorities were agitating to have it removed and that in her opinion, the constitution was good as it was and should be left in its original form. I daren’t not say well actually, the decision to change the constitution is a political not a religious one and that the government was probably endeavouring to be more inclusive and that religious minorities did not have enough political clout to change such an important document. She then piped up with her defence: “well, I stay well out of politics” but continued to profess her very uninformed political opinions. When I brought up the fact that Canada had changed both its national anthem and flag she looked at me blankly. When I asked “so what do you think about that?” She replied she had no idea what I was talking about. When I, an Australian had to explain to a Canadian, her country’s history, I knew right there and then that Western civilisation was in peril! Canada changed its flag from one with the British Union Jack to the current maple leaf in1965 and its national anthem from God Save the Queen to O Canada in 1980. She had no idea and yet propounded all these nationalist, small minded, uninformed views that in the end, I simply dropped the conversation. As much as I would have liked to, I certainly was not going to try and discuss Peter Singer’s ideas about globalization! (I feared that she did not know much if anything about philosophy let alone who Peter Singer is, and I didn’t want to embarrass her further; I’m simply not that much of a sadist.) And when it became obvious that she had a crush on our likewise Aussie nationalist driver, I wanted to dry wretch. Still, I thought they’d make a good pair but I could well imagine a few arguments ensuing as to which country they’d live in and then which country’s flag would ultimately take pride of place outside their home.

Needless to say, I was relieved to get off the bus in Darwin!

Millstream Falls, Queensland

Termite mounds along the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Termite mounds and colourful flowering tree along the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Gregory River at Gregory Downs, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Pretty native pink flora, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

Yellow wattle, off the Matilda Highway, Gulf Savannah country, Outback Queensland

From the top of Caranbirini Conservation Reserve in Outback Northern Territory, the moon rose ...

as the sun set

The historic Daly Waters pub festooned with glorious pink bougainvillea in Outback Northern Territory

Red bougainvillea against a cloudy blue sky

Mataranka natural hot springs near Katherine, Outback Northern Territory

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

A well needed holiday

Being evacuated from Timor enabled us to have a mostly enjoyable holiday in Tropical Far North Queensland, the Savannah Outback of Queensland and the Northern Territory and Darwin. Neither of us had visited these parts of Australia before so it was educational as well as enjoyable.

I learnt from this experience that holidays are very important; they can and should have a restorative effect on one’s well being. And despite the mostly atrocious weather (rain, rain and more rain) I was very glad that we took the opportunity to explore this part of Australia after landing in a chartered military plane in Townsville. My seven week stay in Australia, after being absent from the country for eleven months, made me realise how easy and pleasant life is for most people, unlike Timor, where life is a daily grind and battle for survival.

The people in Townsville were incredibly friendly and helpful, especially Sol who ran a local Internet café in the CBD. He graciously gave all evacuated AVIs free access to the Internet for as long as we liked. Our surreal week long stay at the Jupiters Townsville Hotel was made easier by the likes of people like Sol and the staff at the hotel who were very accommodating.

We spent a wonderful three days on Magnetic Island and stayed at the YHA in Bungalow Bay near Horseshoe Bay. The weather was sublime and the secluded beaches spectacular. We did a number of walks on the Island and encountered the following animals along the way: allied rock wallaby, koala, green tree snake (which scared me silly), laughing kookaburra, rainbow lorikeet, bush stone-curlew, white bellied sea eagle and brahminy kite to name a few.

We then took a long distance bus to Cairns where we hired a Wicked campervan for three weeks. We spent two nights in a very crowded (with backpackers) Cairns before heading north to the Daintree National Park. Along the way we stayed in the public caravan park on the beach at exclusive Palm Cove (just south of Port Douglas) and Mossman, the cane sugar growing town of the Tropical North, and there it began to rain and did not stop for about ten days straight.

Our home for most of June

The Daintree was absolutely gorgeous; the only tropical rainforest left standing in Australia and justifiably classified as a Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. We stayed at the only National Park campground at Noah Beach for a week and despite the terminal rain, managed to enjoy many walks along the near deserted beaches, and boardwalks that dot the area. I cannot speak highly enough of the Daintree; it is simply stunning. We encountered the following animals: the highly endangered Southern Cassowary and its chick, Australian brush-turkey, orange footed scrub fowl, spotted cat bird, red-capped plover, kingfisher, laughing kookaburra, emerald ground dove, black butcherbird, double-eyed fig-parrot, spectacled flying fox, saw-shelled tortoise, Ulysses blue butterfly, Four o-clock moth, green tree ant, potter wasp nests, damselfly, northern jewelled spider, and one dead feral pig and three live ones to name a few. We were fortunate not to come across the estuarine crocodiles that inhabit the many waterways of the Daintree.

While trapped in the campervan due to the relentless rain outside, I became a little obsessed with these two amorous flies. A little voyeuristic perhaps?

These comic road signs in the Daintree also conveyed a serious message. The endangered Southern Cassowary was threatened not only by destruction of its habitat, but also by people driving cars irresponsibly. Although we were blessed to see one of these magnificent birds, our photos turned out blurry due to taking them from our moving campervan.

Light through a fan palm

A grey and miserable but nevertheless beautiful Cape Tribulation. Just imagine what it looks like on a sunny day!

Estuarine crocodiles live in this river near Cape Tribulation

Upon leaving the Daintree, we spent another night or two in Mossman and headed for the Kingfisher Bird Park on the Atherton Tablelands. The park was replete with a host of different birds but instead of trying to figure out what they were, I merely listened to their melodious calls as I read The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. This book had such resonance for me having lived for a year in Asia’s poorest nation and I commend it to you.

Next we headed for Mareeba, a big town which claims to have 300 days of sunshine a year. It didn’t disappoint and we finally began to dry out after growing webbed feet in the Daintree. Our reason for staying here was that we wanted to visit the Mareeba Tropical Savannah and Wetland Reserve, a private non-profit reserve for migratory waterbirds. The place was beautiful but just about devoid of birds. Due to the heavy rains brought on by the severe Tropical Cyclone Larry, the birds had yet to arrive but we met a delightful staff member (originally from Melbourne) who told us about the birds that were there: pheasant coucal, willie wagtail, welcome swallow, the majestic black-necked stork (Australia’s only stork), little pied cormorant, great cormorant, green pygmy-goose, comb-crested jacana and the very beautiful and colourful rare Gouldian finch which were being bred in cages for release into the wild. We highly commend the Mareeba Wetlands.

The endangered Gouldian finch which are bred in captivity by the Mareeba Wetlands folk

The Mareeba wetlands replete with water lilies but sans any water birds

The Mareeba wetlands under a different light

Our next destination was Granite Gorge Park which has been privately owned and operated for thirty odd years by Jack, an octogenarian who continues to live in his caravan while his daughter in law “helps” out with the parade of visitors. Again, the weather here was sublime and I was so enamoured by the endangered Mareeba Rock Wallabies and birdlife that we stayed longer than we planned. We encountered many birds but without a reference book to hand I could only name the following: peaceful dove and tawny frog-mouths (photo below). On the way to the Park, we came across the most astonishing sight, a majestic wedge-tailed eagle (Australia’s largest) standing on the side of the road (no doubt it had spotted some road kill).

Our well camouflaged, two resident Tawny frog mouths. Can you spot them?

Foot prints at Granite Gorge

The endangered Mareeba rocky wallaby

Unfortunately our few days of sunshine soon came to an end as we ventured back into the Atherton Tablelands where it had rained every day except for a handful since the cyclone in March. It was so wet, muddy and dreary that my patience soon began to wear. However, we encountered a lovely caravan park host at Lake Eacham, memories of whom I had to extract upon encountering the caravan park host from hell in Millaa Millaa (she was not a happy person as was evidenced by the many rules stuck on paper all over the place along with a strict 10am departure which we flouted and soon encountered her wrath!)

In Malanda, along the river we saw tens of saw-shelled tortoises which we had previously encountered in the Daintree but not in so many numbers. There were babies, juveniles and adults – quite a sight to behold.

Near Millaa Millaa we stopped at the Mungalli Creek Dairy biodynamic farm to partake in some dairy products (we had been eating vegan for most of the trip) as I had discovered their sublime yoghurt in the local supermarkets. They utilise two indigenous fruits to the FNQ area (Davidson’s plum and lemon Aspen) in their yoghurt to great culinary effect.

We had planned on undertaking a number of bush walks in the Wooroonooran National Park but the rain prevented us from doing so. We also discovered a number of the tracks had been closed due to damage sustained during the cyclone. Thus we decided to drive out of the wet and miserable Tablelands and over to Innisfail, the worst affected area to be hit by the cyclone, and stayed a little farther north at Brampton Beach where we again dried ourselves out.

Upon returning to Cairns where we spent a week, we had the most delicious meal at the Red Ochre Grill. It serves up a bevy of native animals and bush foods but we stuck to the vegetarian options and they were incredibly good. It had been such a long time since we had enjoyed a really good meal (Tarazo in Ubud, Bali in January) that we didn’t mind footing the bill (you get what you pay for I reckon). Highly recommended.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

AVI closes its volunteer program in Timor

As expected, given the ongoing political crisis in Timor, Australian Volunteers International has made the decision to close its volunteer program. Thus we are now both officially unemployed.

We are currently in Cairns having returned here a few days ago after (mostly) enjoying our much needed holiday. However, most of the time that we were in the hired campervan enjoying the sights of tropical Far North Queensland it rained, and despite our loathing for Timor's sweltering humidity, we were desperate for some of its sunshine.

Daniel flies to Darwin on Wednesday. From there he will catch a flight to Dili. The NGO where he worked will probably give him a month or two of work and pay him the equivalent volunteer allowance. Once in Timor he will scout around for other work as he would like to continue working there in the short term. If no work can be secured, he will volunteer until his meagre financial resources run out and then return to Melbourne.

I on the other hand am very much relieved to be back in Australia. As some of you would be aware from following the blog, I found living in Timor incredibly difficult and although things were starting to get a little easier, I am not keen to return living there under the present circumstances. (I'm afraid that my mental health would suffer further.) However, I would like to return for a couple of weeks in order to bid farewell to my colleagues and "our" family, as the manner in which we left the country has left us both with many unresolved feelings.

Thus, I will leave Cairns next Saturday and join a small tour on the Savannah Way to Darwin. This four day tour will take me to some of the remotest parts of Australia's outback and after green, green, green and rain, rain, rain I am looking forward to red, gold, orange, blue and desert, desert, desert. The trip includes time in the spectacular Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park .

Once in Darwin, I will consult with Daniel who will have been back in Dili a week, to assess the situation in Timor and if it satisfies my comfort level, I will catch a flight to Dili. I plan on being in Timor no longer than a few weeks, then I will return to Melbourne.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)

(East Timor Problems) UN food program forced to cut supplies

"The United Nations says funding shortages have forced it to cut back food rations to an estimated 150,000 people who have fled their homes in East Timor.

UN spokeswoman Kym Sithies says there is still enough rice to go around, but relief agencies have had to cut back on supplementary supplies of food, which add nutritional value to the meagre diet.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) has so far only received $US2.2million of the $US5.2 million it sought in an emergency appeal to donors.

"The problem is the delay, in some cases, and lack of funds from other donors," Tarek Elguindi, WFP country director for East Timor, said.

"Children are born weak and they are surviving, but any shock that comes will break them."

The WFP began cutting some rations on Friday.

The price of rice has risen by 60% in some areas amid short supplies, markets have closed and household chicken stocks have nearly halved as families struggle to make ends meet.

There are 66 camps in the capital, Dili, alone where people began fleeing in late April after fighting between rival factions of the security forces sparked gang warfare.

UN humanitarian coordinator Finn Reske-Nielsen says "the displaced population is incredibly vulnerable and the camps have the potential to become flashpoints if we cannot continue to provide basic humanitarian needs".

The crisis sparked the resignation of prime minister Mari Alkatiri. His successor has not yet been appointed."

If you want to make a donation to the UN World Food Program in East Timor, click here (and select East Timor from the drop down menu).

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)