The 16th of this month will mark 4 months since I've been in Maliana and nearly 5 since arriving in Timor. In these past 4 months, there has not been one night where I can say I have slept well. By well, I mean, well...when you wake up and you do not feel tired or riddled with back pain and where your eyes look fresh and aren't puffy or sore. I can honestly say that the last time I slept really well was back in New York, in the biggest and noisiest city, of all places...
To be true, I am a city girl, always have been. I like my forays into the country, picnics and camping and to my father's country house or my mother's but the most time I ever spent there was usually one week, consecutively, in the summer, when you don't have an alarm clock to wake you out of peaceful slumber.
I live in the country here, Maliana is the biggest city in Bobonaro, hence it is its capital but it is still the country by anyone's standards and it comes with country afflictions. I tend to wake up with murderous thoughts on my head of killing the neighbor's cow, let alone its roosters! All I can say for Timor roosters is that at least they don't start at the god forsaken hour of 4am like the Lao roosters tended to do. But start they do and apparently have a really hard time stopping... Being an avid reader of Asterix in my childhood (okay, I admit, I still read them!), a rooster to me always had one very specific purpose, to crow when the sun comes out...apparently this isn't the case or otherwise their biological clock is messed up because the sun hasn't even shown its head and they're already off crowing away much to my chagrin!
But if it were only the odd rooster and the blasted cow...they are part of nature, I have to endure them, unless I actually do turn into Rambo and sneak into the black night and kill them...no, never mind, I don't think I'll be doing that (must be the effect of reading The Road that has brought these urges on!) but unfortunately my lack of sleep is mostly manmade, much like climate change!
In Lao PDR, when a Lao is throwing a party, his biggest concern is how loud he can get his sound system to go. I'll explain, it's a symbol of wealth if you can get your loudpseakers to sound in a radius of 1-3km from your party. it means it is potent and therefore expensive. Yes, it will probably disturd the neighbors (if they haven't been invited) but it is the custom so there! But the Lao at least are fair...they turn up the volume as loud as possible for an excruciating number of hours but they never go past 1am or 2 at the latest. Not so in Timor! When they throw a party, they really throw a party and they last until dawn...
This past weekend was no different. Our colleague - well, actually the head logisitics officer - in STAE just came out of mourning. Here in Timor, when a family member dies you mourn them for a year - yes, a year - and you do so by wearing black. Women will use a black scarf on their head and men will dress all in black, for an entire year. And by the end of the mourning year you throw a party. This party will most likely put you in debt as you have to invite and feed everyone, not to mention the beer and alcohol that you have to buy. Our colleague threw his 'end of mourning' party this past Saturday, hence I didn't get to sleep until about 6am (my only respite came when the electricity failed and the party would go silent until the power came on again - this happened about 3 times that night)...as just as I was finally dozing off, our guards decided to sing! Unfortunately they do this VERY often. We have had to politely tell them on numerous occasions, such as on a peaceful Sunday afternoon when you are trying to nap and catch up on the lack of sleep to please keep it down, but they still keep singing - very badly at that - and at any given hour of the day...
So, already after having faced a weekend of no real good sleep I was looking forward to Sunday night. I actually slept alright, no major coil digging its way into my twisted back. I had even planned to wake up and go jogging - the landscape is most beautiful just as the sun is coming up - but alas, at 6am, our neihgbor's guard dedides to go for a walk while listening to the radio right outside our door!! It was the last straw! With rage I jumped out of my bed, only to find M, my roommate with the same thought in her head, kill the radio! I marched outside in my PJs and begged that guard to shut off his radio!!! He did luckily, while apologising profusely - "no need to apologise just don't do it again! Please!" and made my way back into my lumpy bed to try to find sleep again for the remaining hour until the alarm went off...
This is a constant battle between nature, the guards and me...considering I'll be leaving in a month I don't think I'll be the winner of this fight but I do know of a bed in Brooklyn that has my name on it!
To be true, I am a city girl, always have been. I like my forays into the country, picnics and camping and to my father's country house or my mother's but the most time I ever spent there was usually one week, consecutively, in the summer, when you don't have an alarm clock to wake you out of peaceful slumber.
I live in the country here, Maliana is the biggest city in Bobonaro, hence it is its capital but it is still the country by anyone's standards and it comes with country afflictions. I tend to wake up with murderous thoughts on my head of killing the neighbor's cow, let alone its roosters! All I can say for Timor roosters is that at least they don't start at the god forsaken hour of 4am like the Lao roosters tended to do. But start they do and apparently have a really hard time stopping... Being an avid reader of Asterix in my childhood (okay, I admit, I still read them!), a rooster to me always had one very specific purpose, to crow when the sun comes out...apparently this isn't the case or otherwise their biological clock is messed up because the sun hasn't even shown its head and they're already off crowing away much to my chagrin!
But if it were only the odd rooster and the blasted cow...they are part of nature, I have to endure them, unless I actually do turn into Rambo and sneak into the black night and kill them...no, never mind, I don't think I'll be doing that (must be the effect of reading The Road that has brought these urges on!) but unfortunately my lack of sleep is mostly manmade, much like climate change!
In Lao PDR, when a Lao is throwing a party, his biggest concern is how loud he can get his sound system to go. I'll explain, it's a symbol of wealth if you can get your loudpseakers to sound in a radius of 1-3km from your party. it means it is potent and therefore expensive. Yes, it will probably disturd the neighbors (if they haven't been invited) but it is the custom so there! But the Lao at least are fair...they turn up the volume as loud as possible for an excruciating number of hours but they never go past 1am or 2 at the latest. Not so in Timor! When they throw a party, they really throw a party and they last until dawn...
This past weekend was no different. Our colleague - well, actually the head logisitics officer - in STAE just came out of mourning. Here in Timor, when a family member dies you mourn them for a year - yes, a year - and you do so by wearing black. Women will use a black scarf on their head and men will dress all in black, for an entire year. And by the end of the mourning year you throw a party. This party will most likely put you in debt as you have to invite and feed everyone, not to mention the beer and alcohol that you have to buy. Our colleague threw his 'end of mourning' party this past Saturday, hence I didn't get to sleep until about 6am (my only respite came when the electricity failed and the party would go silent until the power came on again - this happened about 3 times that night)...as just as I was finally dozing off, our guards decided to sing! Unfortunately they do this VERY often. We have had to politely tell them on numerous occasions, such as on a peaceful Sunday afternoon when you are trying to nap and catch up on the lack of sleep to please keep it down, but they still keep singing - very badly at that - and at any given hour of the day...
So, already after having faced a weekend of no real good sleep I was looking forward to Sunday night. I actually slept alright, no major coil digging its way into my twisted back. I had even planned to wake up and go jogging - the landscape is most beautiful just as the sun is coming up - but alas, at 6am, our neihgbor's guard dedides to go for a walk while listening to the radio right outside our door!! It was the last straw! With rage I jumped out of my bed, only to find M, my roommate with the same thought in her head, kill the radio! I marched outside in my PJs and begged that guard to shut off his radio!!! He did luckily, while apologising profusely - "no need to apologise just don't do it again! Please!" and made my way back into my lumpy bed to try to find sleep again for the remaining hour until the alarm went off...
This is a constant battle between nature, the guards and me...considering I'll be leaving in a month I don't think I'll be the winner of this fight but I do know of a bed in Brooklyn that has my name on it!
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