End of the Dry

We are coming to the end of the dry season in Timor-Leste. That is a busy time for people working in the field of agriculture. Seed for distribution needs to be packaged up, new seed needs to get into the hands of the right farmers, and new plans are made to improve productivity. I’ve recently looked back over the last three years of working with my friend Lino on improving his corn yield. The good news is that every year his yield has gone up. We estimate that in the 2010/11 season he harvested around 0.8 t/ha (tonnes per hectare). Then in 2011/12 he harvested 1 t/ha. In 2012/13 this went up by 30% to 1.3 t/ha. Last year, he was very happy with his harvest of 2 t/ha. He’s been trying a number of new things on his farm such as improved seed from Seeds of Life, increasing organic matter with a bean vine, planting the corn closer and using a little urea. Its hard to say which technique has led to the most increases in yield and also how much the weather has had an impact. We hope the improvements we’ve introduced have made a real difference but in the end I am thankful to God – it is God who makes things grow. As well as increasing the yield we are working on decreasing his labour. A great story from this is the corn shellers which take the kernels off the corn. I’ve recently been asked to order a 40ft container of these and some corn grinders to distribute to farmers (funded by IFAD). This brings the total to almost 6000 shellers – which means 6000 households that can shell the corn more easily! If you’ve tried to do this job you’d understand how excited we are.
This season Lino is ready to make some big changes. Two of his big challenges are all the weeds and the white grubs that seem to be eating the roots of his corn. Unfortunately, I am turning to chemicals to try to resolve this problem – roundup and furadan. I’ll be working with him to limit the impact of these chemicals to just the weeds and those who want to eat the corn but I can’t help feeling that my clean, green soul is slowly ebbing away. My rational head says that using roundup may result in less ploughing which means you trade diesel fuel for roundup. The careful use of the toxic furadan might offset the heavy use of chemicals on imported foods since there is higher local production. I think your head can go round and round on this stuff. In the end we’ll just try to be as careful as possible and hope that the chemicals are a temporary arrangement. We’ll also have a crack at a fancy seed planter and increasing the plant density which is still quite low at 2.2 plants per square metre. He’ll be trying about 1 quarter of his field with this new technique and we’ll get the results by around April next year.
A very cool little story: my neighbour Anen has finally repaid his home loan for his three units. This is a great achievement after 4 years of work to build then rent and manage three units for foreigners. Like a previous neighbour, Amena, Anen also got the opportunity to build a fourth investment house during this time as a spin-off from the first 3. He has demonstrated a beautiful principal that a poor person, given the opportunity of finances and guidance, can completely change his future prospects. He has been very faithful in making his repayments. During this time he’s also invested his earnings (he always collected half the rent) in renovating and expanding his own house, taking on teenage student borders, putting his children into good schools, improving his neighbour’s house who is a widow and helping his extended family in the mountains. The ripple effects from this one family can only be known by the good Lord. We’ll be discussing a new project for him next year.
Personally, I’m feeling a little dry so I hope that soon the dry season will end for me too.

Happy fish.


Nervous fish.

Trip to Ulmera

Sometimes we find it hard to know what to do on a weekend.  Its not like we’re stuck for things to do but sometimes we look for an opportunity just to take a break.  This weekend we settled on a little drive to the mountains to a place called Ulmera.  You head west from Dili along the usual scenic coast road, then head up into the mountains.  At some seemingly random point hang a right and you’re off into the bush with a little 4WD touring – in the dry that is.  In the wet it would be more serious.  We come to a sweet little cluster of houses related to our neighbours.  We sat and chatted and exchanged the usual cup of Timor coffee for a bunch of goodies from our standard kit:  clothes & things donated from Oz, a couple of cook stoves, a few Bibles.  We also checked out the water source which is the usual hard luck story of a little spring way down in a gully with an arduous hike to carry it up to the house.  For entertainment, I ask why the heck is the water downhill and the houses uphill?  Why not build the houses below the spring – it would be a whole lot easier to sort out their water.  At least two NGOs have looked at it and walked away.  We might have crack at it.  I haven’t done a water system in so long I’m beginning to go through withdrawals.

Xakira surveys the scene at Ulmera, climbing the ladder to a mango tree.

Folks sit at the spiritual house on the left, the small chapel on the right and the spirit post front centre surrounded by rocks:  gotta keep all bases covered.

An unfortunate possum with an uncertain future tied up around his hips at a local house
Some other pics…

MAF continues to save lives in more ways than one – 44 gallon drums will save many tonnes of farmer’s corn.  How many can you fit on one ute?

Cynthia and Emmy packing 100 hygiene packs for women – made by Bele Kria, funded by Rotary for Bairo Pite Clinic.

Joseph gets 4 laptops for training uni students.  Thanks to the kind folks from the Clarence for arranging this.

The Burden of the Funeral Ceremony

  
Last night was the big funeral ceremony amongst our Timorese family called “Kore Metan”.  This means “cutting the black” or taking off the black mourning clothes.  It was this time last year that my closest Timorese friend suddenly passed away.  It was a very difficult time for us.  The widow was left with 6 children to raise and many young people that they were supporting through school and university.  She has been living mainly off the proceeds generated through a house investment that I started with this man, Maun Je, in 2008.  One year after a person dies they have a special ceremony.  This ceremony is bigger than the actual burial ceremony and preparations for it have been going on over the whole year.  The grave itself has become a monument to local Timorese art.  I know of at least 24 families that are involved in this and each have specially agreed obligations for what they must give and receive around the time of the ceremony.  Lots of cows, pigs, goats, chickens, rice and alcohol have exchanged hands.  This requires substantial logistics to transport all the gear including various cars, trucks and even our boat going to the island (for cheaper pigs).  I have taken this opportunity to start my veggie patch as there is so much cow poo around and I know the animals will all be dead soon.  Extra kitchens and sleeping huts are built to accommodate the families coming for the festival.  Lots of sitting around, gambling, smoking and drinking (bingo for the kids) occurs in the days leading up to the festival as a sort of social activity.  At the time of the ‘festival’ itself, a large, 4-tier cake was prepared, 300 chairs hired, massive speaker stacks  and a huge feast was laid out on long tables.  A ceremony is performed where flowers are placed, prayers are recited and a ribbon is cut.  Traditional weaving is exchanged between the two main divisions of family groups.  The last of the mourning takes place and the black clothes are removed.  After formal speeches, we ate dinner at 10 o’clock.  (If you’ve ever read Asterix and Obelix comics as a kid then you’ve got some idea of what the feast may have looked like.)  After dinner, the music is cranked up and the party really starts.  All the young boppers dressed in full night club gear come out and boogie.  If you thought you were a party animal staying out dancing ‘till 1 or 2am then these guys will give you a run for your money – they dance all through the night until the sun gets up (6.30am) and then some.  Its not a real party unless you dance ‘till sunrise.  Don’t bother calling the police at 10pm for noise issues.  As far as parties go, it went fairly well.
Ok, thats what I call a fairly objective take on the whole deal.  But we, from the developed countries, are prone to making judgements so I will let a little out.  I think it was a bit over the top really – all this effort and expense (more than a year’s wages) being poured into a one year anniversary of a person’s death.  That’s trying to describe my thoughts mildly.  During the preparation a few days ago one of the three main ladies involved who was 7 months pregnant started to bleed and was taken to hospital (working too hard).  Her husband, the last remaining man of the three main families we live with went to visit her, taking Cynthia’s main sewing lady, Sinta, and had a motorbike accident on the way. 
We will support the two widows over the next month or so with money for basic food to survive as they have no money left and have even gone into debt to put this party on.  Sometimes people look down on Christians who go to other countries as ‘missionaries’ and try to change culture.  I’m not claiming to be a missionary but I am saying that, in the name of Jesus, if I could somehow influence these people just to take it back a peg or two and put a bit more effort into the living and a little less effort into the dead then I will.  Before you ram cultural tolerance down my throat I’d suggest you come and put your life on the line alongside these guys and see just what grips them.  On the theme of cultural judgements, I think we in the developed world could learn something from the Timorese and give a bit more attention to the dead.  Tucking away our rellie’s ashes into a neat box in a brick wall seems a bit too efficient and tidy for my liking.  I’m speaking about general things and not individual situations so I apologise if I’ve offended you.  I’ve probably just succeeded in offending the whole world… oops.  It has been quite painful watching our Timorese friends around us carry this burden so we are glad in a sense that it is over.  I too will try to move on from losing my good friend so suddenly last year which was who this ceremony was for.
This picture shows the detail on top of the grave – Jesus carrying the burden so we dont have to.  Thanks God.

Measles

The World Health Organisation says that 700,000 children die anually of measles.  Many suffer eye complications and become blind due to poor nutrition and the compounding affects of diarrhoea often associated with measles.  Vitamin A drops can be given to help repair the eyes if given in time as well as a dose of tetracycline.  I thought measles was just one of those uncomfortable sicknesses you didn’t want to get.  You got spots and took a few days off school.  Apparently though its a big killer and its why in Australia they try to immunise babies and children from the disease.  Cynthia didn’t get immunised.  NSW Health issued a warning in March about the risk of measles especially from those who’ve recently returned from an overseas trip.  It seems as though this disease is ripping through south-east Asia at least.  For us, in Beto Tasi, it means many children and young people brought down with a terrible suffering sickness – high fever in the hot tropics, vomiting, diarrhoea, intense coughing, increased heart rate for extended periods and very sore eyes.  Basically, its something you just don’t want to get.  We thought we were safe as we watched people dropping down around us.  But 10 days ago it hit Cynthia.  She doesn’t have the biggest sort of body so she doesn’t have a lot of reserves.  In our family, she seems to get by with not too much sickness but this time she was hit hard.  She also has a hole in one of the valves in her heart.  For these reasons sometimes I feel bad about bringing her into a world like this.  We took a couple of the sick to a clinic in town but there was not much to be done.  Some of them made an arduous journey way up into the mountains to seek medicine from what you might call a witch doctor.  For Cynthia, it was a case of taking panadol and laying in a dark room with the fan on (while the electricity works).  Unfortunately the electricity was bad enough during this time that the villagers resurrected the old hand pump to get water.  The usual way of getting water here is from a bore with an electric pump.  We have an inverter and some car batteries for back up power for times like this to drive a fan. But of course, it was during this time that I was lending our inverter to a local micro-finance organisation to test as a battery backup to drive a computer to manage small loans for the poor.  Ooops.  Needless to say we are desperately looking forward to moving down to the new house.  We plan to install solar panels and batteries and an inverter (which I wont lend, I promise).  It also catches sea breezes, which you might think is a luxury, we see it more along the lines of an asset especially valuable in times of sickness.  Cynthia is recovering but her main complaint is very sore eyes.  The room must be almost completely blacked out and she is going a little crazy in the mind with nothing to do as she can’t use her eyes for reading or using the computer and she certainly cant go out of the house.  She’s a bit scared but I think she’s going to be ok.  I have issues with positive thinking which I am also trying to deal with. 
On a lighter note, I took the kids to a party with the theme of wheels.  All the kids had bikes to ride and last night we were oiling chains and pumping tyres in preparation for the big day.  Serenity made a cape in the sewing room from scraps as a present for the birthday boy.  Israel loved the challenge of riding around a big concrete circle with about thirty other little kids all teetering on the edge of having a mass pile up.  Dad on the sidelines was pretty worried but they did him proud and came away unscathed. 

Back in Australia

The last week in East Timor was hard work.  It always is after you’ve been going at it for several months and you’re trying to tie up projects in preparation for departure.  Firstly, we should continue Cynthia’s saga with the late night boogie dancers.  It seems as though two weeks of dancing through the night is just not enough.  Although not continuously all day and night, our neighbouring party animals were going hard and loud long into the night for the third week and Cynthia had had more than enough.  So Cynthia, all 82 pounds of intimidating beauty went out into the night … 2 am … alone … to meet her destiny.  Now it happens that the main switch to the power (including loud speakers) is on our side of the church building.  Sneeky Cynthia went up and flicked off the switch and shuffled back home before getting caught.  All was silent, with Cynthia peering out on the dark scene from the safety of an upper window in our house.  She thought she had won when, after a little while, a light bobbed around the corner and flicked the switch back on again.  Drat.  Hmmm … Plan B (note that samuel would surely have been a little more valiant had he not been fast asleep).  So Cynthia, feeling bolder from her previous sortie, decided on a new manoeuvre.  She walked back out into the dark and walked right up to the boys who were fast asleep in the middle of the amplifiers which were all pointing outwards blasting the music across the village.  Nervously she turned the volume switch and it quickly dropped to silent.  One of the boys stirred so she sweetly explained that she couldn’t sleep.  So he just said “Ok” and went back to sleep.  At last the torture was over!  In fact, that was the end of it!  They decided they were over it and didn’t need to keep everyone up night after night anymore.  Hallelujah!
The main job for Samuel was to get the units finished which after lots of hard work and pushing the guys we finally got them completed.  Though the exterior paint was still wet on the last day of work.  He built and installed the solar hot water system and installed the solar pv system (electrical) to one unit and set up wires and materials for the other two to be installed by the now trained Timorese.  Samuel always thinks they are quick learners.  Thankfully, on the last day before leaving we finally confirmed that we had a tenant for all three units.  He’s an Aussie bloke who cared for me when I was very sick in 2008.  He works for the government and if I revealed too much more of his identity then I’d have to kill you, so I’ll spare you the details.

I think I forgot to mention that somewhere a month or so back, the little white suzuki featuring in our history of work in water and Bi ble distribution has been very generously donated to our work.  It is our sincere hope that this little beauty can deliver many more Bibles to the Timorese people before it reaches retirement. 
Another interesting turn of events was that we bought a boat this week!  It was an offer of a quality boat too good to refuse and should prove very valuable in helping the Timorese.  Without inspecting the boat (a minor detail) I agreed to buy it and actually never saw it again after the money transaction of $900.  I immediately entered into a contract with another young Timorese fisherman without even talking to him.  He will rent the boat on a monthly rate so he can use it to catch more fish than he usually would in his little dugout.  It perhaps seems a little foolhardy and it probably is.  I hope to return back next year to find this a successful proposition.  I am still naive enough to believe it is better to trust and take a chance than not to try at all.  You can judge me later on this.
Cynthia has received an order for her ladies sewing group to make simple cloth library books to assist in literacy in a library in Gleno.  This is a new, exciting and very creative opportunity on top the women’s products that the Timorese ladies are producing.  Also on our brief stopover in Darwin we met a very encouraging lady.  She has now  approached some government connections in the Northern Territory with the possibility of providing reusable sanitary pads to Aboriginal women in remote communities.  Its all quite new and unknown but just the idea is exciting enough to write about.

So after some sad farewells we finally shoved a few belongings into our bags and left our friends and projects all behind in East Timor.  We shall see how it all pans out when we hope to return in Jan/Feb next year.
We had a great stop over in Darwin for the weekend reuniting with old friends from almost 10 years ago and getting our first opportunity to share our work with two Darwin churches.  They were very encouraging to us.  Some of them believe that God is asking them to help East Timor.
We finally got home to the grandparents.  Samuel pretty quickly came down with a convincing round of diarrhoea and Cynthia is now suffering with a yukky fever.  She went to hospital for blood tests which we are waiting on mainly to cancel the possibility of malaria or dengue.  Israel is getting over his boils and Serenity appears fine.  Cant complain really, drinking water comes out of the taps in Australia and you can have a hot shower (and even drink the shower water if you want to – lucky country).
We will probably not update the blog with news for some time as most of you know that life is pretty mundane in the lucky country.  But Samuel is cooking up a little miracle with the Lord.  Problem is, its so darn crazy he’d prefer to keep it a secret until he pulls it off (with a lot of help with God).
So its good to be back … in Australia!
God bless, Samuel

Heading Home

We have just a few days in East Timor left.  We are looking forward to heading back to Australia although the feelings are a bit mixed.  It has been a very hard time for us in the last month or so.  We look to God to give us strength and wisdom. 

Thanks for those who post a comment - we do read them its just we dont know how to respond.

Cynthia continues to get requests in her sewing group.  The latest one being a set of cloth books for literacy in a library in Gleno.  Very exciting but the range of materials here is limited to cheap, plasticky stuff (I once worked as a fashion designer in France so I should know).

The party by the Church is lingering on - it seems they just love to dance the night away.  The main show moved to the next suburb.  It was stormed by a not very smart machete wielding drunk who took a swipe at a few peolpe for some reason.  Then he took off leaving his very new looking car behind to get completely trashed by the mob that was there for the mass cum dance thing.  A few different riot police gangs showed up along with some Timorese Police - decked out in full black with balaclavas and a rifle with scope they looked more like assassins than peace keepers.  I hoped this would partially justify my anger at the strange arrangement around the Youth Cross but the Timorese logic seemed to flow in quite the opposite direction as they began to think that the solution to all this would be to block the road with bigger logs.  Oh well. 

I am finding it really hard to get men to work in construction.  Makes it hard to feel sorry for some people who cry poor.  But God has been kind and gracious with us, especially me and my attempt to save the world before the end of the week.  I wonder if He finds it amusing.  I have dropped just about everything to try to get these investment units done which should provide income for a couple of poor families.  My work team seems to dwindle every day but we press on and with just 4 days left we have hope that we might just make it.  I still need to install my home made solar hot water system and install two solar systems, finish off the waste water, earthworks, touch up, windows, blah blah blah.  I will try to post a pic of the finished product.  I will also try to get out to Beraka and do a few other things  along the way (yeah right)

Israel loves his new found skill of riding a push bike. He loves burning around the sea side tracks.  Serenity is really coming along with her reading and starting to read books for her own enjoyment rather than for school.  Woohoo!

I'm pretty tired, I think I'll go home now.

Taking a Stand

Getting about on the island with Graham and co.

It has been a difficult time for us over the last two weeks. There has been a rather bewildering event put on by the Catholic Church. I like to believe the best about the Church but sometimes my faith gets a little stretched in that area.

Without warning the road to our house was blocked for two weeks for the Youth Cross. This is a special timber cross about 1.8m high that started its journey soon after the infamous 1991 Santa Cruz massacre. Briefly, a young man was shot in a main Church ground in Dili by some pro-Indonesian forces in 1991. The burial was massive and many pro-independence Timorese used the event to make a protest against Indonesia. The riot squad was brought in and they opened fire on many innocent people. Within the crowd were a few brave reporters who braved the blood, shot footage of the whole thing and buried their rolls of film in the cemetery. They returned later, dug up the rolls and sent the awful images around the world. This created widespread publicity for the plight of East Timor and could be seen as the beginning of the end of Indonesian rule in the country. Fast forward 20 years and we have this memorial cross that has taken on a life of its own. All the major martial arts groups are given the role of protecting this thing taking turns around the clock. They took it upon themselves to close the road and threaten any vehicle trying to enter. Beside the cross a round stone altar was built. In this was erected a sacred pole. In the lead up to the cross arriving the elders performed various rituals including sacrificing a goat, a cow and a pig. I didn’t see all of these sacrifices but I presumed they took place because the fresh bones of these animals decorate the pole. All this is set up on the grounds of the sweet little Catholic Chapel next to our house. A pretty good program has been running each night to encourage the young people to seek peace, consider how they fit within the mission of the Church and how they might improve their lives and their community. Then the priests, nuns and youth workers leave and let the young people have a dance party all night with the large amplifiers and sound gear set up for the Church. This has been going on every night for two weeks.

I have a major issue with mixing sacrifices, altars and ancestor worship with Church functions but I thought that this was not the time or place to say something. I am not sure if this is right. I also have serious concerns about the Church asking martial arts gangs to guard a Church function but I chose to be quiet on that as well. But when they decide to block the road and blast the night away for two weeks I think that perhaps they are going a little too far even in the lower realms of human sanity. So Supersam, bald and short as I am, decided to take a stand. I started with the boys themselves, went on to the community, then the leaders, the village chief, the secretary of the martial arts alliance (if you’re thinking some timid pen pusher you’ve got another thing coming, this guy is a night owl and the meeting took place at dawn, he is the second in command) and then on to the UN police. All we wanted was freedom during the day to enter our home with our vehicle without fear of intimidation and the freedom at night to sleep. Seems as though it was a little too much to ask. But at least we got access a few times to run our various projects and we got through it all without physical injury.  Just this morning Cynthia got so angry about the noise she started climbing ladders at 7.30am pulling down their tarps and shifting their amps while they all slept.  They all seemed to accept that after over two weeks it was time the party stopped - she's my hero.

The kids have been suffering from some tropical diseases such as fever and boils. We put our Community Development worker back to 1 day a week. The people from Maquili have put in a proposal for a small business making coconut oil but its ringing with warning bells so I probably won’t go ahead with it at this stage.

Cynthia: “Sewing project, busy, only Sinta and me. Starting a second experienced sewer this week, arranging everything so Sinta can manage it while we are in Australia. Had many problems with treadles, Got to a point where both were unusable, and it was a black out so we couldn’t use the electric machines. Samuel spared some of his time to do a big overhaul on them and tightened up a number of loose bolts, and re-aligned some pins, so at the moment they run lovely! Praise God!
Delivered our first bulk order to an NGO. (Unfortunately, they were not yet able to pay us which puts a rather large dampener on the excitement of the delivery.) Sinta was very amazed to see the invoice come to $215! (Mind you Samuel took me to buy more fabric supplies and he insisted I spend up) So $240 of fabric is sitting under our table and getting sewn into bags etc.


The mending jobs keep coming in with up to 6 jobs a day. With each of those bringing in $1-2 plus with sales of bags we are easily covering expenses and Sintas wages with a small profit.

Who would of thought we could start an enterprise that runs at a profit within 2 months?

Not me! I give thanks to God for all the gifts that enabled it to start, and for finding such a suitable employee.”

I have had to put most of our work on hold to complete the beach front units. I have been working very hard on this in the midst of all the aforementioned dramas. The evil spirits really know how to put up a fight. But I know a good bloke who once made a stand and died in the effort. When all seemed lost he came back to life. I’m holding out for a miracle from him.

We have drawn up a chart of our structure which I will endeavour to get on this blog.  It shows the different things we are involved in, hope you can read it and if you cant I am sure it looks impressive:

We are returning back to Oz on October 30.  Thats just over a week away.  Those who are familiar with my stupidity will know that I will be working myself to the bone.  Predestination - gotta love it.

Sorrow and service

We had two Aussie men arriving Monday morning the 16th
We were a bit concerned about the arrival of these men as our truck was still in at the mechanics waiting for the brakes to be installed.  We had waited 3 weeks for the parts to arrive from Australia, and then they were too big, so they had to be filed down and adapted etc.  We were asking God to let it be ready so we could take the men to Los Palos for the week. 

Then our neighbour developed a severe headache in the early hours of Sunday morning.  He awoke with a scream, got out of bed and vomited, then walked a little way before falling over.  He improved slightly, enough to lay on a couch.  The severe headache persisted all day with no help from medication..  We urged and urged them to go to hospital, but he and the family resisted.  We put Serenity and Israel to bed, and sat up at the table trying to pray, read, sing.  I (Cynthia) heard some strange noises, and soon realised it was Maun Je's breathing - laboured and gasping.  I knew then it would not be long.  I started to cry.  I was so angry and sorrowful, I could not stop sobbing.  Samuel took me up to bed where I sobbed for a while before quieting down.  Samuel soon returned and urgently insisted i get up and get the children into the car.  As soon as the family became aware that Maun Je had stopped breathing they would commence their loud wailing throughout the night and the next day.  We both knew i was in no state to remain waiting for that to commence.  As we drove away all i felt was anger.  But the further we drove, the calmer i felt.  I no longer had to wait for the start of the wailing.  we called a lovely missionary who lived 5 mins away (thankfully she was still awake at 11:30pm).  She welcomed us around, and Samuel dropped me off to try and get some sleep there with the kids.  I lay weeping for a long time and finally drifted off for a few hours sleep before waking before dawn.  I knew there was no way he had lived.  Tragically he died around 11:30pm that night.  It was such an intense shock to us all.  He was Samuels’s best friend here and assisted Samuel in many projects.  He was fit and strong and didn’t smoke or drink alcohol.  He left 6 children behind in ages from 13yr old twin boys to a 3 yr old girl.  We now have 2 widows out of the three families living here.  Praise God Maun Je had worked with Samuel in 2008 to create 2 apartments which will continue to provide an income for his family. 
Samuel spent the night with the mourning family and drove to the airport at 7:30am to pick up the two men.  We were able to take them to the MAF house to do some internal painting.  Samuel was busy for most of the day helping witih various jobs related to Maun Je's death. Praise God our truck was ready to use again in the afternoon.  We then drove to Hera and stayed the night.  In the morning Samuel took the men to the preschool and built a cupboard with them.  In the afternoon we drove back to Dili for the funeral.
The next morning (Wednesday) we headed to Los Palos.  Samuel, Nick and Graham worked really hard to lay tiles through almost the whole house, including the "bathroom", and also brought it to lock up stage, with front and rear doors built and installed, 5 internal doors built, all windows fly-screened and security meshed, and a new slab out the back for a laundry space.

As it takes us a full day to travel each way, they only had 3 working days at Los Palos, so they really pushed themselves, working till after 9pm on the last evening!  Sunday morning we joined in the church service and Samuel preached a great sermon (more below). We drove back to Hera on Sunday afternoon, and stayed overnight there at Branca and Sorayas house.  In the morning Samuel checked on the water projects at Beraka and we also managed to visit Sidara.  We drove to Dili, did a bit of tourist shopping and then Samuel quickly showed Nick and Graham around our place and our projects, before driving them to the airport.

Samuel had been reading through Isaiah every morning.  On Monday morning he read up to 41:9.  On Tuesday morning feeling very sad and discouraged he read only 41:10.  He asked God whether he could take it on.  Then he walked out to the breakfast table.  His phone had received a message.  It was a text from a good friend in Australia, giving some encouragement, and ending with "read 41:10".  Thanks be to God.
So do not fear; for I am with you: do not be dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteousness right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

UN to the Rescue!

Ok, here's an interesting story about the UN doing a rescue job in our village.  This is not to bag the UN so much.  I think they do a lot of necessary things somewhere.  So we have a UN worker who lives nearby.  He's a very nice man with a long term association with Timor.  He was driving home late Saturday night in his UN 4WD and ran off into the deep ditch very badly.  Next morning he calls the UN security rescue crew, who (with great damage to the car) gets the car out of the ditch.  It is a massive tow truck.  The driver, (a large sweaty Croation) then proceeds to turn around and comes all the way down to our house and enters the small windy track to the beach between our poor neighbour's garden and the local cemetery.  4 hours later, he is totally wedged between some graves he has run over and a tree.  The UN police arrive to oversee the swelling crowd of disgruntled and bewildered villagers and provide "technical' assistance to the driver.  They constitute a various mix of Asian, European and African cultures all with their own cultural tendencies and hand signals.  (common language is English, none of them speak Tetun).  As you can imagine, the Croatian driver gets sweatier and even more stuck.  He is now just staying clear of the graves but destroying trees and the fence along the other side.  4 hours later they call in a massive forklift to shift the back end of the truck around the trees.  Another 2 hours and the truck is out - at one time the truck and forklift were driving together in a weird articulated combo.  The villagers as yet have received no help or compensation for the damage even though it is promised.  The neighbour, whose husband is dying, asked if I could bring some nails so she could fix her fence.  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

Mayhem and Tranquility

1 sleep to go!

My brain is in overload... take this, do that, go there, see them, pay this, ring him, don't forget to.... ah...  um...what was it again?

These are some of the more positive things i can look forward to...

Peaceful sunsets admiring Gods gorgeous exterior colour schemes, sifting through pastel coloured pebbles, making small piles of white ones, finding the odd shell, watching the hand dug outrigger canoes land after a days fishing, chatting with fellow foreigners who may be visiting the beach, watching Serenity and Israel play for hours with the kids from next door.   

Also have to mention the lovely neighbours, the constant supply of fresh tropical fruits available (including yummy coconuts picked by the young boys next door whenever we request one).

Hmmm sounds nice hey.. 

I might just keep these thoughts forefront at the moment. ;)

A piece of tranquility.

Packing!

OK, so we have now officially packed 1 bag.  Its our largest one, and so far it weighs 22kgs, full of Samuels clothing, medical supplies and 1 set of flippers/snorkel.  We were able to purchase a large metal boxed first aid kit from ALDI (Gotta love their prices!).  So we have added to that to make it an awesome first aid kit, and then we have two other plastic shopping bags full of other stuff - like vitamins and mozzie repellents and sunscreen and all my homeopathic remedy's etc.  Im sure we will use a lot of it on our neighbours, and when we do mountain visits (sometimes while we deliver bibles or on water project trips we get asked to help ease a bad toothache or infected wound).  You may be interested to know that i use isocol (rubbing alcohol) on Serenity and Israels skin as a mozzie repellent.  I also use a bit of Vicks or the cheaper Indonesian versions.  they seem to work really well, and are nicer on their skin then RID etc.  We will arrive after the end of the wet season, so i am hoping the mozzies wont be too bad.

We are generally reluctant to use anti malarial tablets, however  Samuel has bought some Doxycylcin and i am going to firmly "encourage" him to take them daily.  I think his body needs a break from malaria.  Although of course Dengue has no preventative medicine, except perhaps regular doses of paw paw leaf and flowers.

So that is where prayer is really important.  Please pray for protection from serious illnes, and strength of body to resist and heal quickly.

I thought you may like to see this cool rainbow leaf smiley face.  On our recent trip south, we camped by a creek in a state forest, and the kids and me collected lots of different coloured leaves - From a pure deep green, right through to red/purple.  Serenity was inspired to create a face with some seed pod eyes :)

Gods creation is pretty awesome hey?

Wow! where has time flown?

Well, time is really flying now! in 15 days we will leave Brisbane, and arrive in Dili the next morning - the 9th April.  We returned yesterday from a 6 day holiday/trip to Sydney for Samuels brothers wedding.  It was great to get away and camp at some beautiful places, but also very tiring!

Today was back into school work for Serenity.  She will be missing a few days over the next 2-3 weeks, so we are trying to fit in as much as we can.

Last night Samuel emailed Maun Je (Our friend/landlord) to let him know when we arrive.  When i say emailed him, I really mean emailed a friend Rob Williams, (seeds of life) over there with a letter attached, and asked if he could hand deliver it. :)