Training Centre for Liquidoe

 

We’ve had a great visit from Rob and Chris a carpenter and builder from the  Gold Coast, Australia.  Rob has come a few times to Timor already and blesses us with his practical experience and caring heart.  Another plus is that he speaks Indonesia so they can operate fairly independently.  We just help to coordinate the next job, line up a few materials and they take it from there.  This time they built a training centre for the Serving Our World school at Liquidoe.  The function of this building is to provide a training room with either sewing machines or computers or both in a clean and secure environment.  A recent advance for the school was getting electricity which has made a facility like this possible. There is also a space for a school office, storeroom and cooking in the verandah out the back.  After trying to get mudbricks made up for a year by locals without success we resigned to using a stud frame plywood construction (eating up more Indonesian rainforest – o dear…)  The building went up pretty quick – within a few days. 

Rob and Chris employed around 15 locals who got an opportunity to learn a few new building skills.  I will go a one or two more times to finish electricity and lining the inside where needed.  Then we think it may be enough building for a little while in Liquidoe – its time to concentrate implementing more lessons and using the facility that they have more effectively.  A big thanks to these guys who have the courage to hop on the back of a truck and travel up into the bush with a few supplies and live rough in order to help the locals.

Our family is going great after some recent sickness.  Xakira is now crawling and cute as ever.  Her arms are bandaged with splints 24/7 now to stop her scratching an itch we think is fungal based.  Without this she would scratch until she bleeds.  So, like I said, going great.

Some other cool news:

A Tetun Terik translation of the whole New Testament was launched in West Timor.  Some people in East Timor speak this language and will benefit.

Jesus Comics are finally on there way to Timor after an 18 month campaign to get them.

Water filters have just arrived from America and more are on their way from Oz to provide clean drinking water for Timorese.

The Youth House is moving forward with the roof getting done.

We’re coming into a tight time for the small farm business in Los Palos where the group has a very short window to get registered into a new seed system before being allowed to sell their 1.7t of corn seed. 

More cook stoves are going out to villagers.

We built a pizza oven the other day so next time you come we can have some yummy pizza.

A corn sheller for Timor Leste

A while back now my sister brought a corn sheller from America for me to take to Timor Leste.  Its a cast iron machine that takes kernels off the cob.  These things were invented about 100 years ago or more by some Aussie guy (I dont really know actually but figured we Aussies should take the glory because its such a fine invention – and we dont mind stealing things).  In Australia, we stopped using machines like this about 50 years ago.  The technology is forgotten by most people and it was never passed on to people in developing countries who are left doing the job with their bare hands.  There are actually a bunch of ideas like this that can help bring practices out of the middle ages and into the 20th century.

I’ve finally had the chance to take it out to Lino to give it a run with some of his corn.  If you check out the video you might notice it was pretty hard to take the smile off his face while he was cranking this machine.  It took him about 20 labour days to shell nearly 2 tonnes of corn last season.  We reckon with this machine he could cut it down to 5 days.  Sturdy technology like this helps to make Timorese famers more efficient in their work and hopefully makes the whole farming business more viable.
We’d like to get this machine out to a heap of farmers across the country which will likely happen through connections with NGOs.

Now that I’ve wow’ed you with yet another cool idea… lets get a little D & M.  Is this actually a good idea?  What does it mean for a human to have more stuff?  Should the farmer buy it or get it for free?  Will this mean he gets hooked on our developed country’s vicious treadmill of always looking for the most efficient way of doing things?  What does production of this machine mean in terms of a carbon footprint and more mining to make all that steel?  Shelling corn can be a very communal activity where a bunch of family members sit around together for a number of days and all help to shell the corn while telling stories.  What will mechanisation do to that cultural activity if one guy is sitting there trying to rip through the cobs as quick as possible?  And before we jump to condemning me as a culture destroyer, what if I thought it was a nice cultural activity but they saw it as a tedious task struggling to get it done while it belts down rain knowing that the other family members will want to take more than their fair share of his corn in return for having shelled it? 
It would be pretty hard to get to the bottom of all these questions.  In the mean time, Lino looks pretty happy.

Keeping Busy

If this spot doesn’t get updated its probably because I’m too busy.  It also means my office is super messy because in the list of things to do, this comes before that.
Its been very busy and I dont have time to tell you cool stories so lets let the picture tell the story…

The cool great wall finally came and is getting put to hard work – here its carrying palm leaves for a little cubby-come-guest accommodation.

 
Some holey sheet (dont say it too fast) 100 of them, finally came from China to make more seed screens.  At $10 a pop it saves Tobias a lot of drilling.  My mate Tobias will attach timber frames before they go to farmers to prepare seed – part of Seeds of Life.

Cynth taking art classes – shes very good at what she does.

25000 Scriptures finally arrived for Wycliffe.  We’ve got about 6000 now so we’ve got plenty to do in getting them out to the people. Plus it keeps the great wall busy.

Polenta (ground corn) is another food product being done by a group in Los Palos to develop small business.  Looks great in the packaging but has subsequently grown weevils. whoops.

Piloting a pizza oven for another brain wave of ours together with Chris Hollonds and the Ahisaun group.


We had a great group of folks from Brisbane area come to tour the country and be our friends – thanks guys. They took Serenity for a hike up Mt Ramelau, over 3000m high (Kozzie is around 2200m). Pretty cold up there. Serenity did it a lot barfeoot.

The top of Ramelau with a nice statue of Mary.

Back home, Jack tries in vain to work out how to open a coconut.  Eventually Emmy sets him straight.
Hopefully next time I can write you a better story, sooner.

The Rocket Stove

Every once in a while I run into a sensational concept that is worth backing, and the rocket stove built by Ahisaun Concrete Products is certainly one of those ideas…
Imagine going home to cook with no electricity and no gas.  What would you do?  Really?  Go out the back and light a BBQ?  Where would your wood come from?  And then where would it come from next week? 
This is a problem for Timorese.  In fact, supplying the cooking needs of 1.1million people in Timor Leste is one of the biggest causes of de-forestation.  Not only that, their stoves are usually just 3 rocks on the ground to support a pot on an open fire.  Extremely inefficient and it can lead to lung cancer for the unfortunate woman who has to bend over it day in and day out to cook for her family.
We’ve tried biogas (and its still worth pursuing) and we also tried woodgas stoves (sorry it didn’t fly Ro).  But rocket stoves are a proven technology that Timorese can handle and actually keep using.

The cool thing is that there’s a small business right here in Timor Leste that has refined the production of these things using materials sourced in the country.

 

Preparing clay for casting and firing.

 

On top of that, its a business that provides jobs for people with disabilities.  How cool is that?!

So what’s a rocket stove?
Its basically a way of burning wood in an enclosed, insulated chamber so all the heat is directed straight to the cooking pot.  It burns hotter and cleaner and uses far less wood than traditional methods.  There’s less smoke and less chance of getting burnt while cooking.
The stove itself has 4 main parts:
1. The inner clay chamber:  just the right sort of clay is sourced from the mountains of Timor Leste and mixed in the right proportion with saw dust then cast and fired in an oven (heated by, you guessed it, 2 rocket stoves).  The result is a clay chamber filled with little airpockets (it can float in water) to create an insulative layer.

Casting the clay, fired inserts in the background

2.  The outer concrete layer:  The inner chamber is then cast into the outer concrete layer to give the whole thing strength and stability as it will have a long working life on a dirt floor kitchen.
3.  Steel spacers:  these are cast into the stove and allow the heat to come up around the pot.
4.  Metal grate:  a special piece that supports the wood so air can enter the chamber from below.

The whole stove including casting, firing, and welding occurs in a small business enterprise called “Ahisaun Concrete Products” Which is part of the Ahisaun Disability Foundation.

How much does it cost?  One of these babies will set you back $15.  They’re so good we’ve just bought 20 of them. I’m putting this info up here to entertain your inquisitive mind and also to say that if you want, you can chip in for some.  I’ll leave it with you.  We’re pretty excited about it so we’re going to start getting them out into the communities.  (For those folks who already put in for things, this is one place where funds will go.)

To contact Ahisaun directly about this or find out more:

Sabino Soares 7729 2425     abino_56@yahoo.co.id
http://disabilityetahisaun.wordpress.com
Facebook:  Ahisaun Disability Foundation

If your in Timor, Ahisaun Concrete Products is just near the Comoro Bridge, 100m to the left of Esset and the Ministry of Agriculture.
We’ve got other cool ideas sprouting up too, like Moringa seedlings to distribute … but that's another story.
Bibles, drums, laptops, sanitary pads, prayers, good vibes and other odds and sods are still coming and going.

One perfect day

On Saturday, I got up at 5am to head off to Atauro.  The main plan was to check on the progress of the construction of the first cabin for “Emmy’s Place” – a low key tourist accommodation set up. A friend called Dan came with me and we loaded up 6 more drums from MAF (for corn storage) and 2 bags of cement.  I took a bunch of tools ready for a big day’s work.  On the way we had to pass through a pod of dolphins. 

Before getting to the beach we leaped into the water for a bit of a snorkel.  Atekru has some great little crevasses to dive through (with a big lungful of air).  Got to see flashing fish again, and flying fish come standard with the journey.  I was surprised to find that the locals had already started building the cabin with local timbers.  It looks great, and they followed the design well except that they forgot the veranda – oops.  And so ensued a long discussion about how they’d forgotten the veranda, and then some more talk for quite some time about the whole thing and finally after much discussion in their local language they came to the conclusion that they had indeed forgot the veranda. 

Amongst all this the conversation variously skirted around how the roof line would need to be extended and the possibility that the cabin could be a little short for foreigners and how the flooring would be completed.  But in the end, they had to concede that the veranda was forgotten and that meant we needed two more posts.  Two young fellows were immediately dispatched to bring back some posts.  Occasionally, I’d offer to dig a whole for the posts but got the feeling that I shouldn’t rush into such an ambitious task.  After 1 1/2 hours, two sweaty boys returned with a rather heavy post which had to be trimmed and shaped before being considered worthy for the cabin. 

I could see that this was not going to be one of those days where I was going to achieve an incredible amount of construction.  But in some way it felt ok, that the main reason for being there was to encourage these happy people.  By this time it was definitely lunch time – a meal including local pumpkin and octopus with morungi leaves and some sort of bean.  (If you haven’t heard of morungi its one of those wonder foods you’ll have to google) 

After lunch it was decided that we’d find the second post so we set off with the happy Atekruans into the bush and made our way through the rocks at the base of the limestone cliff.  In a gully we had to scale a short but technical little cliff which was a bit slimy.  Dan particularly struggled with this.  In an effort to encourage him, I pointed out a large hermit crab who was also climbing the cliff near his hand, and said, “Look at the crab, just follow what he’s doing!” Unfortunately, at that moment, the crab lost its footing and after bouncing a couple of times down the cliff face, plunged to its doom … oops.  Fortunately, Dan decided not to take my advice and after a nervous moment made it to the top. 

A straight log was duly located and trimmed in the forest.  This is a technical procedure carried out in an attempt to make the log straight by trimming the outside of any curves (I actually like curves).  It took a very long time and Dan and I considered looking for another log as this one looked like it was going to be trimmed down to a pile of wood chips.  Eventually, it too was deemed worthy and we took turns to haul it back down to the beach.  Back at the building site I suggested we might stand up the posts but no, the day was getting on and besides, wouldn’t it be best to let the posts dry out for a few days?  So, that's building in Atekru.  I wouldn’t exactly call it efficient but who would want to be efficient when you can have so much fun being inefficient?

Dan and I decided that rather than attempting anything else of a practical nature it would be much better to go and have a snorkel and photograph the sunset just so you could see it too.

We finished the day with some corn and fresh fish – we had to try it boiled and fried to be complete. 

So I didn’t ‘achieve’ much in terms of building but felt that these island folk had taught me better how to value relationship over achievement.  This day was so good I am not sure which part makes it perfect but I left the island wondering when I could get back there to do basically nothing all over again.

Getting back into the Game

After 3 weeks in Oz, we have returned to Timor Leste.  For some reason, I found this place to be so stinking hot that I wondered what the heck we’re doing here.  One of those mini-philosphical crises that I try to mostly ignore seemed to become a little stronger.  Possibly related to a very nice and cool late autumn experience in Oz.  Anyway, back to the game at hand … homeschooling is on while managing bub and Cynthia does a fine job.  She also manages to run a weekly art class heartily attended by homeschoolers from various nationalities – Brazil, Canada, America, Kenya and Australia. 

Belle Kria managed to finish a large order of bags for Seeds of Life research department for drying corn seed.  They also arranged the invoicing and receipt of payment – this is a big step as the sort of Timorese we work with are quite shy about walking into a large, sophisticated organisation to request payment.  They’ve also made some very colourful cushion covers using locally woven tais material sewed onto colourful cotton material.  If anyone wants a bright set of cushion covers made with love from Timor Leste just let us know.  ($15 each)

We’ve just passed another independence day – 20th of may, 11 years old.  You know you’ve made it as a nation when you’ve got google.tl (seriously, took a while!).  People are very happy generally.  The locals are enjoying volleyball and tug-o-war competitions.  The government is just about to open a big bridge of the main river in Dili and test runs are happening for a big fountain near the airport (all very important stuff).

We’ve got access to possibly another 800 scriptures which we think are all Acts (had been hiding in someone’s shed in Dili) and Bibles are getting out on the move again.  Here’s Joseph, my new friend from Kenya getting a couple of boxes of Bibles.  He also gets a laptop to go towards his computer classes with uni students.

Xakira and dad doing laps in the back yard.

Serenity and dad doing laps on the Gold Coast.  Life’s all about how many swims you can put in.

Israel going driving in Noonamah during our overnight in Darwin.  Needless to say the further you get from civilisation, the lower the standards for vehicle registration.  Israel is the lighting operator – convenient as an interior light for map reading or spotting possums in the Top End bush.  He wears a seat belt not to prevent him going through the windscreen (there is none) but so he doesn’t fall out where the door should be.

This little beast does actually go.