Bibles, slaves and smelly things

Here’s a little catch up on our recent frivolities in East Timor. 

• There’s been  a Youth Conference in the Catholic Church where young people from all over the country came to Dili for three days.  The exciting thing for us was that we have been coordinating with a group to sell Bibles at the conference.  We’ll let you know what the interest was like.
  
• We also helped move the last of the MAF gear (Mission Aviation Fellowship) including a heavy generator requiring 9 guys straining to lift it.  We also assisted with a bit of plumbing.
  
• We’ve got ourselves a slave! … er … servant girl  … er … young lady staying with us who helps out with the cooking and cleaning.  Her name is Emmy, and its great having her help with the chores which frees up Cynthia to teach and run the sewing room.  She gets a small income and gets to learn English and foreign culture plus she gets food and her own room which is more than where she came from sharing two small rooms with six young men, a 12 year old girl and a baby – eek.  She is very happy to be here.  She is from Atauro and attends a business college here in Dili.  Youth accommodation is a big problem in this city and can lead to unfortunate situations like prostitution in order to survive.
  
•    We’ve had some church meetings in our hew house.  I gave a talk on Nahum in the Bible – its the sequel to Jonah if you’re interested.  A nice piece of wartime poetry.
  
• We also had a baptism and a wedding at our place so Cynthia reckons I should just go and get some minister’s licence.
  
• 
  
• We tried to go on a holiday which didn’t really work out as I got stuck renovating someone’s kitchen and bathroom in the mountains. 

 
We did manage a visit to some incredible hot springs tucked away in a remote location amongst old Portuguese ruins.  It was very hot water and a bit smelly with that sulphur (Shrek fart) smell.
 
 
Leaving the hot springs we planned to continue on down the road to Zumalai but decided, pretty much off the cuff, that we’d had enough and decided to turn right instead of left and head home.  Quite convenient really as that night and the following day several people were murdered in Zumalai and over 100 houses were burnt down.  I am tempted to use this outcome to justify my workaholic tendencies (had I not spent too much time working we may have ended up in a the middle of a little bloodbath) but I should really just say it was God and his angels doing their thing yet again and keeping us from a rather nasty event.  We’ll try to go on holidays again some time but I dare say it wont quite be the same as your average aussie venture.

Just some pics to fill the gap

While Samuel is off gallavanting around the island, I thought id do a little of my style of blog update...

Feregrina - pointing up to Serenity who was taking the photo from her upstairs bedroom.

Israel surrounded by beauties - Naomi and Feregrina

the missionary kids science lesson - building a flashing lighthouse! The 4 of us mums take turns every week.  Sometimes its a little daunting, but they are all such sweet kids!

Serenity took this lovely picture of Cynthia holding Israel, the corner of Atauro on the far right.

"Our" beach :) there were about 50 small outrigger canoes fishing where the river flowed into the sea.

Serenity the model! well she was looking at Israel.... This is what our front yard will look like when the new building is finished.

This is the view from the side of the new building - a little swampy from all the heavy rain, and lots of coconuts to fall in heavy winds :)

Asika the bright eyed beauty - we cant resist taking photos of her!

Serenity and Asika standing on the upper floor of the new building with the beach in the background

The freshwater creek altered course a little after some large waves, and ran parallel with the beach for 50m or so. Very Picturesque.

Israel and Asika making a fishing line - the blue boat in the background is ours.

Well i thought i better stick up a photo of me too, just so you know im still alive :)

The back of the new building - a small verandah leads to the office, with a storage room to the right for all Samuel's annoying tools :0

Hope you enjoyed the images.  I am sure Samuel will have a story or two to add when he returns from Los Palos!  Stand by for more exciting news.....

After one week

After one week (trying to take it easy) things are already shaping up to be busy.

Some opportunities and things to do:

- Book shelves for school in Hera

- Water project for mission ladies in Atabai – hopefully providing fresh water to neighbouring houses

- Starting Timorese water business (very difficult) in an attempt to tap into the Governments millions of dollars (highly unlikely)

- Possible coastal development to assist another Timorese family

- Teaching maths to Ag scientists – a paying job!

- Assisting investment in a scrap metal business that supports an epilepsy program

- Developing a student work booklet for the gospel of Mark as an education resource.

We ended up buying the truck and went snorkelling with friends and family.

A little story – on the way to survey the Atabai project we drove through an interesting looking roadworks site on a very steep slope/cliff that dropped a 100m or so down to the ocean. I made the comment that I wouldn’t like to drive through here during road works as the rocks above looked very loose. So ofcourse, on the way back they are doing road works. There was a stop/go sign of sorts which comprised of a couple of young boys sitting by the road waving us on. A large loader was just moving rocks off the road and pushing them down the cliff. He cleared the road and we moved forward only to find that excavators working above us were rolling down rocks ahead of us. The slope above us was very steep and cliff like. Things were starting to look a little dodgey. Then two cars pulled up behind us. The excavators continued their work and I wasn’t entirely sure that they knew we were down below. I hopped out to assess the situation to find that dirt and rock was beginning to come down toward the cars behind. I motioned our car forward but the road ahead was littered with large rock. The two cars behind panicked (as you do), passed us and figured they’d take their chances on the fresh landslide ahead rather than the looming landslide to their side. I hopped back in the car and there was not much else for our driver to do except panic and try to follow. Unfortunately, the driver was a missionary lady, not trained in rally driving. “We can’t make it! The car is two small! The rocks too large!” She was crying out in her broken English. But not to worry, she had two male back seat drivers who egged her on as if their lives depended on it (in their most coaxing way). And, hey presto, we bounced our way through and lived to tell the story. It probably wasn’t as dramatic as all that but I reckon it makes for a good story.  Check out the video below.

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