Sonrei House

Well, The place has a name, and even a sign!
    So first, of course, some details about the name… (pronounced sun-ray)
We have combined English and Tetun to make our own new word :) The obvious meaning is sunray!  Then the word rei in Tetun can mean kiss, so it also means sun kissed.  Rei also means king. On the other side of Dili is a large statue of Jesus and the place is called Christo Rei (Christ the King).  So Sonrei also can mean son of God the King.
           
We really hit the ground running, welcoming our first visitors on Friday morning after moving in Thursday afternoon.  The house felt full and happy, and coped really well.  (Mind you there are still a few little things that need work!  Are buildings ever really finished?) They felt very privileged to be the first visitors, and we were blessed with their friendliness, generosity and awesome humour!  For Madagascar fans, one guest entertained everyone with a perfect king Julian impersonation.  Serenity was a real sweety and translated for the group on a few occasions. And israel and 5 yr old Josiah had great times together! 
 
Our outdoor dining room is just lovely.  We all love hanging out there with the cool sea breezes and ocean view.  We plan to get Bellekria to sew some cushions for the concrete seats running around the sides.  And of course one day we hope to have some hammocks swinging!!  With 14 people our little six person table wasn't enough, so at 6am the morning the group were to arrive, Samuel was building an extra 8-10 person table. 
       This is the door from upstairs out to the verandah.  In the sea just north of East Timor, lies a very deep channel (3km).  Apparently blue whales swim through here, amongst other whales, dolphins and the odd American submarine.  Samuel designed a blue whale tail cutout in the door to let some light through.  As they installed the door, Serenity and I were enjoying the view, and guess what?  We were sure we saw a whale swimming past!!  Honest!  (It may have been shadows on the waves….)
Storage!! Storage everywhere!!  In the days before moving Samuel stayed up late building a large desk/book shelf for the office, and a set of shelves for our clothes.  Which meant that as we moved in things could go straight into place rather than fill the floor with boxes!!  The only lack was Samuels store room, which meant that all his tools and pipes and electrical gear was spread over the office floor.  So yesterday the guys all pitched in for a quick build shelf.  I was hovering ready to throw boxes onto the shelves as soon as they were screwed in place!  Ta Da!!!  

Teaching maths

Samuel had a weeks work teaching some maths to some agriculture staff working for Seeds of Life (see links page).

Some of the staff went from late year 6 level to perhaps year 9 and above.  It was lots of fun teaching them.  Since they were ag scientists studying peanuts - we got to eat a few peanuts to demonstrate % of crop lost.  Great to get a paying job as we were living on the edge last week.
Interestingly, across the road from this building was a massive government warehouse filled with rice.  The villagers can pay $12 a sack to their chief and supposedly the government will deliver the rice.  This is about their 4th week of waiting.  The rice seems to only get delivered to businesses to resell to the people at $15 a sack.  All this rice is imported from Indonesia.  Hmmm...

First a holiday!

Well, Samuel really tried hard to do nothing much, and spend lots of time together as a family.  The heat is very oppressive, so we spent the first 2-3 days sleeping, swimming, eating.
We have been swimming at least once a day, often twice.  Its so lovely in the water - I wish we could conduct all our life while floating there! :)  Also our lovely neighbours have been cooking lunch and dinner for us, and sometimes buying us some of the small loaves of bread for breakfast (a child walks around the village selling them in the morning.)  So it has been a pretty decent holiday for us.

The other kids have been a little shy, but gradually they are warming up again, and they love the fact that they can go swimming with us!

Israel was very excited to help the kids cut up the Tali for pig food.  Its a palm tree trunk.  (Dont worry, those large knifes are blunter than butter knives.)

Like I said Samuel really has been relaxing and enjoying himself, but we have had lots of friends to catch up with and each of them have put in requests already!
On our first day, we had a few first aid issues to assist with.  At least 3 members of our family group have had an eye infection.  So Samuel fixed up a bike and rode to a chemist to get some antibiotic eye drops.  While he was out and about, he visited Esperance (Hope in Portuguese) - The christian mission WEC.   He was able to speak a young nurse (who happened to be there), about another neighbour who is suffering from a swollen stomach and feet.  Most likely a damaged liver, as he is an alcoholic. There is not much to be done for him, although increasing his protein intake will assist balance the fluid.
While at Esoerance, Samuel also gave some technical support as they were having trouble with their data projector which they use for their children's program.

He also checked out a few trucks and was happy to find some available for $5000- $9000.

Arrival Day!

We have arrived in East Timor! I have to say that this air trip was the least stressful of any so far… We breezed through checkins and customs etc, even with a screw in Samuel’s pocket (they saw the funny side) and Israel’s water damaged passport (not even a mention!! Praise be to God).

Samuel took a photo as we flyed over the island - on the point is the statue of Christ.

We had a lovely welcome at Dili airport by Brad (MAF pilot) and his two gorgeous daughters – Emily and Brianna, who were very excited to have Serenity around again. They chatted and giggled all the way to where we are living.

Samuel tried to do a map using google earth.  But it doesnt show any reference points for you.  Oh well...

Our address goes something like this: (mind you don’t try it on a parcel;)

Maun Samuel ho Mana Cynthia,

(Big brother Samuel and big sister Cynthia)

Malai hela iha Beto Tasi,

((The) foreigners that live at Beto Tasi)

Ba Maun Je nia uma.

(At big brother je’s house.)

So we live at Beto Tasi.(pronounced bet-orr, tassy)

Oh what a feeling for me to return, it washed away all my fears and doubts. Seeing them all and greeting them, sitting around their table to eat fresh mandarins, bananas, small bread loaves and fried peanuts. Along with the standard black coffee, of which I tried to drink almost half the cup to compensate for being awake for most of the previous night.

Samuel chatted with Maun je for a few hours, and we were both surprised at how much of the language we could understand. Thank God, we have not forgotten much.

Little Israel just grabbed the first toy he saw and started playing. His little friends were at school when we arrived. Serenity soon caught up with her friends and we all had a quick dip in the ocean to refresh ourselves.

 

UN helicopters! Israel couldnt stop looking at all the planes and helicopters.... 

  

 The rest of the day has been unpacking and sleeping in shifts