Timor, where??

I'm assuming that most of you, when you read that I was going to Timor Leste, looked up where it was on the map but just in case some of you are still wondering where in the world is Timor Leste here are 2 maps to help you locate your dear friend ;p

Where in the world

and Timor Leste itself

Timor Leste is composed of mountain regions and coastal areas, it is divided into 5 principal regions, 13 districts, including Oecussi, which is actually an enclave in Indonesian West Timor, 65 sub-districts and 442 Sucos (villages) and 2225 Sub-sucos (aldeias). During the colonial wars between Portugal and the Netherlands for control of the Indonesian islands, the Treaty of Lisbon agreed the boundaries of land between PT and NL and it was also agreed that PT would keep Oecussi given it's historical significance as the landing site of the first Portuguese caravela (naval ship) in 1511. 

How about that for a little bit of geography! :)

Land of the sleeping crocodile

You're probably wondering why I have 'crocodiles' in the title so here goes... The Timorese are mainly Catholic, given their Portuguese history, but they are also animists. Legend has it that a giant crocodile was transformed into the island of Timor, with the ridges on its back becoming the high mountains that separate the north from the south (and if you look at the topographical map you can kind of understand why). Crocodile is also the national symbol and you can find statues of them everywhere around Dili so it is the closest thing to a sacred animal they have! Crocodiles also abound (unfortunately) in the seas and rivers of Timor...so for all of you thinking "Oh yeah, she's going to be going swimming all the time instead of working!" think again! Just recently the crocs have even decided to migrate north towards Baucau and Dili instead of staying south of the mountains and to make matters worst, you can't even kill them (given their national status). The rule is, if the Timorese are swimming then it's safe to swim, but that doesn't stop accidents from happening between locals and crocs, there's a couple each month at least!
Where is crocodile Dundee when you need him, eh?

The unbearable lightness of a cold shower

Before we were deployed we were given a telephone interview! I had spent the entire night before studying up on the country, reading the last electoral report, familiarizing myself with the districts just in case and then at 7:30am on a very cold day in Brussels I got a call from Timor with 5 simple questions: 1)Why are you volunteering, 2) Do you think you can live in a country with very basic conditions, 3) Do you know how to drive a 4x4, 4) Do you think you can live in a post-conflict country and 5) What is your understanding of voter registration, by the time they asked me if I had any questions I was so stunned that that had been it, that I had a hard time coming up with one!....Of course, after having lived in Angola and and in Laos, I found it very easy to answer these questions, apparently they seemed very easy to answer by all of those here present now, however, there is a BIG difference between saying it and actually experiencing it!

The situation here in Dili is considered basic but if you compare it to the districts then it's 5 stars, but it seems that some of us were expecting a lot more than what we got...

All this to get to the meaning of the title. So far, I've only had hot water on the first day, probably so that it wouldn't be a complete shock :p and from then on it's been cold water every day, which isn't a bad thing considering the temperature but if you're a girl you can sympathize that it ain't easy washing your hair with cold water! Here, I actually have a shower, in the districts it will be bucket showers, which I actually prefer to be honest, you get more water to the bucket!

Cold water, bring it on!

First impressions...

I arrived yesterday afternoon in Dili with 19 other UNVs...and the President of the Republic, Ramos Horta.

Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac, the humidity greats us with a punch. There are palm trees and we can see the ocean to our right and the mountains in front. We walk on to the terminal towards a woman holding a 'UN Volunteers' plaque telling us to go get our passport stamped. The bureaucracy isn't much, they were expecting us anyways so we're quickly on our way to collect our bags and happily surprised that they actually made it through all the connections, except for Patricia, who came all the way from Brasil.
We are given our briefing packs and our sim cards and asked what hotel we want to stay at, apparently, the really nice one has already been occupied by the other batch of UNVs that arrived last week so we have to be divided into 3 different hotels.

On the road, on the way to the hotels, we traveled along the main road (there aren't many). The level of infrastructure and development is very low, lower than Vientiane... many buildings were destroyed, probably still remnants from the war.

The hotel I'm staying at is basic, certainly doesn't deserve the 35 dollars I'm paying per night, at least in comparison to all the other hotels I've visited in South East Asia (this one reminds me of the backpacker hostels that I stayed in with Isa in Vietnam and Cambodia where we payed max 15 and we shared). Apparently there are cockroaches in the rooms, I haven't seen them yet, only spiders...I also think I brought far too many clothes, typical!

I went for a walk around the hotel, the surroundings remind of Angola, and like all developing countries there is rubbish everywhere. Along the coast we see a few boats, people were lazing along, enjoying their Saturday afternoon, we walk around the block, we see the Government's Palace, the Portuguese Embassy, the European Union House, the University...we walked this block in less than 10 minutes...and that's Dili, the capital...to think that we are all going to the districts where the level of development is far lower really makes you want to enjoy the 3 weeks that we have in Dili! I'm not even sure I'll be able to continue blogging from the districts, let's hope!

At night we went for dinner on the beach with the other UNVs (well, not all of them, only the ones that arrived last week...we are 200 in total including those that arrived 6 months ago). The crowd is tired but excited, lots of new faces, new stories and experiences, this promises to be good. After dinner some of us decide to go dancing, others are too tired...I decided to go discover the nightlife of Dili (there are A LOT of bars here all catering to the expats of Timor). Like in Portugal, the party doesn't really start until midnight and by that time I'm exhausted but unfortunately here you can't get night taxis (well you can but you're gonna be paying more than you bargained), there aren't tuk tuks either and it isn't safe to walk at night unless you're in a big group so all you can do is wait until a few are ready to go, in the vehicles provided by the UNV (they seem to dominate the traffic here).

Sleep was blissful, until about 6am when a massive tropical storm woke me up, luckily I was so tired I still managed to sleep through it. It's the wet season at the moment here so grey skies and rain will dominate most of our days!

Tomorrow we start with the training, apparently they're really boring, according to the other UNVs and then we get to take a driving test...one of the requisites for the job was the ability to drive a 4x4...we also need to drive on the other side of the road....luckily, my Laos experience gives me confidence with 4x4s and my experience in England and Macau also help with driving on the other side, I don't think the driving will be a problem, the fastest you can drive here is 35km anyways!

I promise not to make the posts too long so I'll sign off for now...more to come from Dili soon

This UNV has landed!

and apparently so has the president of the Republic!

The flights were long, as expected, but, after sharing experiences with the other volunteers, it seems I got it easy, only 2 hours of waiting time at each stop (Frankfurt and the Singapore) while others had to sleep either at airports or in hotels along the way. One girl started her trip on Wednesday from Brasil and unfortunately her bags didn't manage to follow her!
The only thing I didn't manage to do was sleep on the way...in more than 36 hours I only managed 5 hours of very light sleep...lets just say that the entertainment system offered by Singapore Airlines didn't help either! I watched 8 films in all: 'The Warrior' (recommend), 'Dolphin Tale' (recommend but if you're a softie like me you will cry), 'The Whistleblower' (which coincidentally is about a scandal involving the UN in women trafficking in Bosnia, totally recommend it), 'I don't know how she does it' (I think SJP is losing her edge, not recommended), 'Drive' (loved the music and the film was good but not spectacular), 'Real Steel' (fun family action), 'One Day' (recommend), and 'Our Idiot Brother' which apparently wasn't memorable because I couldn't remember it for the longest time but it was funny!

And then, much to our surprise, on arrival in Dili (the flight was packed with UNVs and other international staff) there was an army committee waiting for us with uniforms, rifles flag and all! Yes, I did have a moment's thought of "Wow, they really know how to welcome their volunteers" until the President of the Republic stepped off and was welcomed by the committee ;)

The mission...

...should I choose to accept it (which, obviously, I did) is to assist UN Electoral Support Team in effectively advising the CNE and STAE national counterparts in all 13 districts of East Timor in regards to the preparations, organization, conduct, monitoring and supervision of the 2012 National Elections. Monitoring on the activities of field officers and assisting them in terms of providing administrative support will be the challenge of the Electoral Team.

I have been asked many times since announcing my imminent departure what my functions will be but seeing as the Terms of Reference list is so vast and the fact that I will be placed in a team of 8, I have no idea, at the present moment, what my exact role within the electoral teams will be!

But that will all be figured out on my arrival, we have a month of training in Dili before actually being assigned a district so right about now there are more pressing things to deal with, like my luggage!

My bags are nearly finished (just need to decide what clothing is really necessary or just pretty - hey, I'm a girl, you can't expect me to travel to an island without at least 4 pairs of shoes and double the amount of dresses!) and my 'pharmacy' and medical kit complete. I have also taken all the necessary vaccines (polio, tetanus and typhoid...luckily I already have yellow fever and hep A and B otherwise I would have to get those too...oh, and I still have to take japanese encephailitis once I arrive in Timor, fun!)

Now I just need to make sure I don't miss my flights, all 3 of them...I leave tomorrow from New York with a stopover in Frankfurt before arriving in Singapore on Saturday where I will connect to Dili, the capital of East Timor. There are 14 hours difference between New York and Dili...should make communication with J a breeze!

For now, that's it, next post will be from Dili (hopefully!)

East Timor, what?!

So, the deal is I'm leaving New York and going to East Timor for 6 months as an electoral officer to follow-up and observe the presidential elections out there!
At this point, I bet a few of you are thinking, "can't this girl ever stay put?!", the answer to that is probably "No, doesn't seem so!". Some might be thinking, "she's nuts, she's living in New York, one of the coolest cities on earth and she's trading it for Timor, wtf!" and to that I might answer "True, true, but how many chances in your lifetime do you get to go to Timor??" and New York will still be here in 6 months with a glorious summer waiting for me and I get to escape the winter as well, so double bonus!
The truth is the job market in New York is not the best at the moment and I was given this opportunity to go to East Timor back in August, sure, the timing isn't perfect but I think it's gonna be a hell of a ride and a great experience!
I think the hardest part of this experience will be being away from J for so long, we've done it before but it's never easy! In the best of both worlds he would be coming with me, or I would find a great job in NY but that's not what's happening right now so East Timor, here I come!
And in the process, I will keep blogging, hopefully some of you will read it, some of you might get to learn more about Timor like I will, and hopefully come along on the adventure with your comments and whatnot, regardless, I'll just keep writing, like always...