...I want to be a Rally Race Car driver!
You know, the ones that go in the middle of the forests and drive on mud tracks as fast as possible and do 360 degree turns and all that, yeah, that's what I wanna be, I think I'm ready for it!
Honestly! This week we're been in search of GPS coordinates...let me clarify: on our map we have all the polling stations and polling centres identified in terms of their coordinates, however, according to the big coordinate boss in Dili, some of our coordinates are wrong, in Liquica District, for example, at least 5 showed up on the sea! We, in Bobonaro had 13 wrong coordinates, some not too bad but others completely off the mark so we had to go there physically with our HF (high frequency) radio loaded cars and our STAE counterpart ('cause they actually know where each station is) and take the coordinates again.
Now I thought the roads in Laos were bad...they don't even compare to the hell that we have here! Timor is mostly mountain and the roads (when there are concrete roads) are very steep, very narrow and very curvy. Imagine doing a 360 turn going up with a truck coming down and taking up more than half of the road, and don't forget, it's rainy season, the roads are slick so going down one of these babies can make you see your life before your eyes! We get our cars serviced as often as possible but that slight panic button in the back of my mind when I hit the brakes going down one of these turns makes my hair curl! Off the beaten track the 4x4 kicks in, there is no point bringing music because all you can hear is the motor roaring with pain.
Yesterday I did my first solo run to Atabae...well, solo in the sense that my colleague, T, also a UNV and an excellent driver, wasn't with me because he had to go in the opposite direction for the coordinates, all I had was Mao Antonio from STAE. We left already later than planned - the sun goes down at 18:30-19 so you don't want to be on the road by then if you can help it - we got to Atabae in less than the time predicted (we have a carlog system that beeps everytime you go past 70, let's just say mine was beeping often!) But then the hard part came when we went off road to a Sede de Suco (Head of the Village), I was told it was 17 km away, the 'road' was mud, dirt and a LOT rocks, I had inclines where I had to get out of the car just to see where the road went, then you get down on 1st gear and you have to have enough strength just to go up again, in some places I really thought, ok, that's it, I'm gonna cry, my shoulders were killing and I still needed to get there and back. I went through 6 river beds, countless holes and I don't know how many up and down hills...just so you have an idea, it took me an hour and a half to do 17km...on the way back, it took me half an hour! This is what happens once you know the road and you know it's feasible! By the time we got the coordinates I just wanted to hightail it out of there before sunset! I was going 60 on the dirt roads, changing from 4th to 3th to 2nd gear and back as quickly as possible and I was actually having fun! Everytime we hit a bump, I would shout out 'Diak alai?' (All good?) to the STAE guys and they would just laugh and shout back 'Diak!' I'm telling you, I would be a great rally race car driver, so NASCAR, I'm sending you my cv ;D
And it was fun, but 3 consequetive days of roads like these is enough to make you sleep for another week, I get home, I'm so exhausted I can't even think; I've been stuck on the same page of the book I'm reading for the past 3 nights...and knowing that next week is just more of the same thing doesn't help...I swear the other night I actually had a nightmare with the roads of Bobonaro and of all the bad ways I could get my car stuck!
The UN provides us with counsellors...I think they should provide us with masseuses for our broken backs!
You know, the ones that go in the middle of the forests and drive on mud tracks as fast as possible and do 360 degree turns and all that, yeah, that's what I wanna be, I think I'm ready for it!
Honestly! This week we're been in search of GPS coordinates...let me clarify: on our map we have all the polling stations and polling centres identified in terms of their coordinates, however, according to the big coordinate boss in Dili, some of our coordinates are wrong, in Liquica District, for example, at least 5 showed up on the sea! We, in Bobonaro had 13 wrong coordinates, some not too bad but others completely off the mark so we had to go there physically with our HF (high frequency) radio loaded cars and our STAE counterpart ('cause they actually know where each station is) and take the coordinates again.
Now I thought the roads in Laos were bad...they don't even compare to the hell that we have here! Timor is mostly mountain and the roads (when there are concrete roads) are very steep, very narrow and very curvy. Imagine doing a 360 turn going up with a truck coming down and taking up more than half of the road, and don't forget, it's rainy season, the roads are slick so going down one of these babies can make you see your life before your eyes! We get our cars serviced as often as possible but that slight panic button in the back of my mind when I hit the brakes going down one of these turns makes my hair curl! Off the beaten track the 4x4 kicks in, there is no point bringing music because all you can hear is the motor roaring with pain.
Yesterday I did my first solo run to Atabae...well, solo in the sense that my colleague, T, also a UNV and an excellent driver, wasn't with me because he had to go in the opposite direction for the coordinates, all I had was Mao Antonio from STAE. We left already later than planned - the sun goes down at 18:30-19 so you don't want to be on the road by then if you can help it - we got to Atabae in less than the time predicted (we have a carlog system that beeps everytime you go past 70, let's just say mine was beeping often!) But then the hard part came when we went off road to a Sede de Suco (Head of the Village), I was told it was 17 km away, the 'road' was mud, dirt and a LOT rocks, I had inclines where I had to get out of the car just to see where the road went, then you get down on 1st gear and you have to have enough strength just to go up again, in some places I really thought, ok, that's it, I'm gonna cry, my shoulders were killing and I still needed to get there and back. I went through 6 river beds, countless holes and I don't know how many up and down hills...just so you have an idea, it took me an hour and a half to do 17km...on the way back, it took me half an hour! This is what happens once you know the road and you know it's feasible! By the time we got the coordinates I just wanted to hightail it out of there before sunset! I was going 60 on the dirt roads, changing from 4th to 3th to 2nd gear and back as quickly as possible and I was actually having fun! Everytime we hit a bump, I would shout out 'Diak alai?' (All good?) to the STAE guys and they would just laugh and shout back 'Diak!' I'm telling you, I would be a great rally race car driver, so NASCAR, I'm sending you my cv ;D
And it was fun, but 3 consequetive days of roads like these is enough to make you sleep for another week, I get home, I'm so exhausted I can't even think; I've been stuck on the same page of the book I'm reading for the past 3 nights...and knowing that next week is just more of the same thing doesn't help...I swear the other night I actually had a nightmare with the roads of Bobonaro and of all the bad ways I could get my car stuck!
The UN provides us with counsellors...I think they should provide us with masseuses for our broken backs!
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