Turning 30 in Timor Leste

I was born on my father’s 33 birthday.

Sharing birthdays with my dad have been some of my best memories. Double the cakes, double the fun, double the love, what’s not to like?! After my parents divorced it wasn’t always easy to be together on our day since we didn’t always live in the same country. I remember when the night before my 13^th birthday I woke up in the middle of the night and I saw my dad at my bedroom door, I was in the US at the time and he was supposed to be in Portugal, he came to surprise me. And when he was in Macau and I was in New York, we had 12 hours difference between us but he would always wait until it was both our birthdays to call – I could never wait to call him! I miss sharing my special day with him. Ever since he died, 7 years, 2 months and 2 days ago, enjoying my birthday has become hard, knowing that he isn’t here to celebrate with me, knowing that he will never again celebrate with me…

 The first time I really celebrated again was when I turned 26, on the 26. But the hardest, I would have to say, was turning 30 and knowing that he isn’t around to see me reach this milestone. He would have been 63.

But I still turned 30, in Dili ( I got the authorization to travel at the last minute!) And I still managed to have a wonderful birthday, thanks to the new friends I have made here in Timor! It’s always hard to spend your birthday away from your loved ones and good friends – for me anyways – but it was very well spent nonetheless! Dinner on Saturday with friends, old and new, finished with opening ‘champagne’ (it was Australian, unfortunately!!) on the beach at midnight – yes, we did check for crocodiles beforehand! Followed by a lot of dancing and quite a bit of drinking, as it should be! Did I mention I had spent the entire afternoon at the beach?? Well, the next day, my actual birthday started with lunch (I slept in, finally!) eating Cozido à Portuguesa (very traditional and delicious Portuguese dish) and then back to the glorious beach where I stayed for as long as I could, enjoying some great snorkelling – even saw a huge purple starfish! – finished off by dinner at a friends’ house. I even got presents! Although, and not to lessen my appreciation for the presents my friends gave me, I think one of the biggest presents was having a HOT shower on my birthday (ah, how it's easy to please when you don't have a lot!) 


Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for more considering where I am! My new friends here have truly made it a memorable weekend, Thank You! Now I just have to plan another party in Maliana to celebrate with the team here, shouldn’t be too difficult ;)

"If you die, we die"

Words from our dear District Administrator (DA), Mr Domingues, when talking about the safety of using UNVs for nightly activities...
!!!!!

Today we had a visit from our bosses, who came all the way from Dili with the chopper to check up on our preparations for the elections. We had a town hall meeting with our bosses from UNEST, from STAE, and with UNPOL and the DA. In this meeting we went over our concerns and what has been done so far for the elections. Everyone got a chance to speak and our dear STAE boss (read as you wish), for the first time and in front of our UN bosses, decided to tell us that the UNVs needed to be more flexible with their time and expect to work at night...now, I'm used to working late, in the EP we worked sometimes until midnight if need be, but here, working at night means travelling in very dangerous and dilapidated roads to get from one suco to another, which goes entirely against UN security rules, so on the one hand we have our UNPOL telling us not to travel past a certain hour and to not go where they advise us not to go and on the other hand we have our national counterparts getting mad at us because we won't risk our necks (literally) to support them in their activities! Luckily, our UN bosses have been UNVs themselves and know the limitations of this country...where people might be worried about violence we're out here worried about the damn roads! Our big UN boss, in answer to the STAE's request for us to work at night and very long hours said, "First, comes their security and then their mission, we need to maintain good working conditions for our UNVs" and to this the DA says "You should support us no matter what, besides, if you die, we die, so we don't want you to die"!!! Not very reassuring words if you ask me!!

Well, camp manager, please issue me a tent because it looks as if I might just need it!
Meanwhile, trying to get an MOP to get to Dili for my birthday is proving to be very difficult indeed but Dili, you will be seeing me again very soon, logistics training on Monday, here I come!

Things are heating up, pun intended!

Timor Leste is a volatile country. It may look peaceful but the situation can change at any time, and it's a very politically oriented country so political tensions can run high.
We have just experienced one small preview of what could happen if the elections don't go well. Yesterday both CNE (National Electoral Commission) and STAE (for whom I work) were victims of molotov attacks and one UNPOL car was burnt. All of this was in Dili, so don't worry, everything in Maliana is calm and quiet, for the time being anyway...
We don't currently know who was behind the attacks but some predict that it was the work of Angela Freitas, the 14th wanna-be candidate to the presidential elections. Her candidature was refused because she was missing the necessary criteria, but now she is accusing the goverment of denying her the right to run for office. She is also the widow of the man responsible for the attempted assassination of Ramos Horta and Xanana Gusmao in 2008! She, herself, is predicting more violence during the elections so the situation could become ugly...There are also some tensions among the other candidates, but hopefully, but unfortunately not likely, this will be a solitary incident. We hope that the Timorese will come to their senses...they want the UN out (especially UNPOL), so politicians are calling on all citizens to be calm and peaceful during the elections to show the UN Security Council that Timor can take care of itself. The UN is hoping for this as well so that UNMIT can come to its rightful end, as planned, in December of this year. We just have to wait and see and hope for the best...

Bobonaro from the skies!

Today I went on my first helicopter mission to assess landing sites in the Bobonaro district so that we are prepared on election day - many sucos (villages) are hard to access, especially if it rains so we have to be sure that sensitive electoral material can get in and out of the sucos on election day...yes, work is very hard around here!

We took the district coordinator for STAE (Electoral Technical Administrative Secretariat), and also my immediate boss here in Bobonaro, along for the ride, here is some of the amazing scenery we saw:

Everybody on board

And we're up!

We even had a steward, Russian of course!

  

Assessing the first landing site

Our district coordinator

We had an audience at the second site!

Photoshoot or work mission?

a view of Maliana from the skies

and back down again!

Work like this is welcomed by me any day :)

Mana, I would like to buy a packet of cards

I have now been in Maliana 3 days...
I'm currently in the office, on a Sunday, just to enjoy electricity and the internet...

There is electricity at home from 7:30 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning...we don't have a generator and therefore only have the luxury of public electricity...
If it rains a lot (which it has these past few days), the roads are impassable and you are left stranded in Maliana...
So, you're wondering, what is there to do on the weekend, then!? Do you remember a time when internet didn't exist and kids would go out biking and playing outside instead of being stuck in the house watching TV and playing videogames? Well, I do but I can't do any of those things 'cause its bloody hot here during the day! ;p
Instead, we learn to enjoy the simple things in life, like reading, going for a walk to discover a canal or contemplating the scenery - it is beautiful here in Maliana with the rice fields - or just talking and telling stories...
On Saturdays it's market day so everyone is off to the market, we go in search of fruit - there is a lack of fruit in the districts since everything gets shipped off to Dili, damn you Dili!! We have bananas, and if we're lucky papayas and avocados but those are very rare!
C and I, having just arrived, went looking for the little things that would make our lives here more pleasant. I went in search of tais and batiks (colourful fabrics from the region) to make my box furniture look a bit more homely. In the process, we must have bumped into every single Malay (foreigner) in the city...I am happy to inform that there are more international women in Maliana, uff!Like I said, there isn't much to do and Saturday is market day so we bumped into the same Malays constantly!
We also found playing cards - I had been looking all over Dili and hadn't found them, take that Dili (although I would prefer fruit!) - there were boxes containing 12 packets of playing cards, the vendor showed us the box with the 12 packets, we took out one and we enquired the price, Mana told us "3 dollars", seemed reasonable so C asked for another packet and we handed her 6 dollars, to this she says "No, Mana, it's 3 dollars", we don't understand and show her only 2 packets and the 6 dollars, she then shows us the entire box and says "3 dollars" !! We only wanted 2 packets but she woulnd't sell them separately so we had to buy the entire box and it only cost us 3 dollars!!! I think I know what I will be handing out at the next UN party ;)

Tomorrow I get to take my first helicopter ride in Timor to assess the landing sites in the district for Election day! Ah, work is hard here in Maliana!

Maliana, I have arrived!

After 5 hours of not so perilous drive (I was expecting A LOT worse!) we arrived in Maliana, the capital of the Bobonaro district, exhausted but safe and relieved...seriously, we were expecting the roads to be a lot worse but the ride was lovely in terms of the scenery, with just a couple of very large and annoying potholes, and since C (my Colombian colleague also assigned to Bobonaro) insisted on doing all the driving, I laid back and enjoyed the ride, taking lots of photos, which I will attempt to upload later!

Our car, which I had previsouly named "The Beast", actually already has a name here in Maliana and it's called "The Buffalo" because apparently there is an even bigger car already named "The Beast", I like how we name our cars here! But anyways, our car made the trip in style but slower than normal due to its load being so heavy - we were told you can find food here but not the food we 'like' so we were to bring all the nice comforts that we'll need so we loaded the car with a lot of alcohol, a lot of pasta, cereal and a lot of canned food :D

When we arrived we went straight to our colleague's birthday party where preparations were alredy under way...there is nothing to do in Mailana at night so any excuse for a party is welcomed! This place is called Risky Hotel!! Not sure it's a wise choice of name for a hotel ;)

C and I met our other colleagues, our electoral team is now complete. We also met some of the other UN staff based in Maliana...during this time, I found out that I am now the third of the entire women's foreign contingent in Mailana!! We are only 3 foreign women in Maliana, 3!!!!!! The FPU (Foreign Police Unit) here in Maliana is Pakistani, there are also a few Indians, Philipinos, Malaysians and Indonesians, Cameroonian, Cote Ivorian, Senegalese, Nigerian and so forth and all are men, apart from myself, my other portuguese colleague M and T, who is Indonesian and has been here for quite a few years already so she knows well the lay of the land! The party kicked off with delicious food made by the Indian colleagues and T and wine (brought from Dili by yours truly), we even had birthday cake and apple crumble and finished off with Karaoke, of course! Phillipinos and Indonesians LOVE karaoke, and they can actually sing! So that was my welcoming to Maliana, everyone seems very nice and accomodating so hopefully this adventure will be a smooth ride.

Our house, however, is another story! This morning, in the daytime, it seemed better but yesterday, when we arrived, I had a quiet moment of panic...if you can imagine basic living you still haven't reached my level of basic, but slap some furniture and it will look better I'm sure! in any case, I'm looking forward to decorating...my room as it stands is comprised of a bed, that's it...The kitchen and the bathroom are outside, there are 4 rooms in total plus the entrance hall and the dining area which is currently a mess with all of our boxes and cans but hopefully this weekend we'll sort everything out and it will look like a home, let's see...I promise to send photos ;)

that's it for now, time to start working!

The joy of a new pair of shoes

I'm still in Dili...
I still don't know when I will be deployed...
And I still don't know how, by air or by road!
Today I was assigned a beast of a car, a Toyota Landcruiser so it is to be assumed that I, along with C, my other colleague assigned to Bobonaro, will be driving 'The Beast' (the name I have given our car!) to Bobonaro. However, this afternoon we received an e-mail saying that Bobonaro people will be deployed by helicopter, so long story short, I have absolutely NO idea what is going on, luckily (because that's how I choose to see it) neither do any of my other colleagues!
I have spent this weekend going round all the supermarkets, buying bed sheets, pillows, food, pots and pans and all other little things people need to feel at home, and in the process I have spent more money in these last few days than in the first three weeks in Dili! I've already even sent an electric oven off this past Sunday with another colleague that was off to Bobonaro...yes, there is NOTHING in the districts so we have to get everything from Dili (except for Chinese stuff, that there is a LOT of, as usual!)

Amidst all this chaos I have found a silver lining... a boy named Antonio that 'works' on our street selling souvenirs when he's not in school. He's 19, so he says, although looking at him, you'd think 16 at most. Our relationship has been mostly one of me buying him dinner or lunch when I see him but yesterday it escalated when he asked me for a pair of shoes for school, he's usually barefoot when I see him. How could I say no when I've just spent so much on little pleasures for myself. So today after I was done with the last of my shopping, Antonio and I went off to find him a pair of shoes! I had seen one shop close to our hotel but he told me 'Não senhora, ai é muito caro!' (No Miss, there it's too expensive!) and so we went to another store where he had seen some shoes he liked that were cheaper. After much perusal and trying of different types of shoes he chose a green and yellow pair of trainers with the flag of Brazil on them. His smile was priceless! That's all I needed to get my head out of the chaos that is our life here in Dili!

We tend to take certain commodities for granted, like a new pair of shoes...how many shoes do you have? I know I have a LOT, more than I need, and yet Antonio took a long time choosing his shoes because he knew he probably won't have a new pair for a long time...I know talking about a good deed negates it but his smile was so honest and beautiful I needed to share the experience, just in case one of you ever finds yourself being asked for a pair of shoes, it's worth it!

The verdict is in, I'm off to Bobonaro!

We FINALLY had our deployment briefing today! By briefing I mean our bosses read off the districts and the people that are going to them. Before I go on, I must remind you that we have now been in Dili for nearly 3 weeks, the other batch of UNVs that came before us have been in their stations for more than a week now. We were waiting to be interviewed by the team leaders (our bosses) in order for them to decide where we would go...To be honest, I don't really understand (and I know I'm not alone) what exactly the interview was supposed to define regarding where we would be stationed...I say this because we were asked where in the country we would like to be placed and in what position (STAE or CNE, logistics, monitoring, civic education or voter education) and I think about less than half actually got what they had asked and maybe the same amount (if not less) are actually happy with what they got!

I got Bobonaro (district capital: Maliana)...I tried to be very flexible during my interview, I said that I had been in Laos, which is a landlocked country so I would REALLY appreciate being placed on the coast but that I didn't care where on the coast...I got the middle of the far west...Mountains, with the nearest beach at least an hour away by car (roads permitting)!!! Remember, Timor Leste is an island, I don't think asking for ANYWHERE on the coast was that inflexible but oh well, Maliana is supposed to be beautiful so I guess I'll make the best of it...goodbye diving though! Maliana is also one of the 5 regional focal points for the UN so there is a big UN presence there (ie. internet won't be a problem!), I needed something positive out of this! For those that are interested in seeing where your dear friend will be for the next 6 months (!!) here are two maps to help you out:


Bobonaro in Timor Leste (red area in the middle - remember the left side of the map is West Timor which is part of Indonesia, except for Oecussi, the
enclave in white)









Bobonaro itself

 

Frustration is slowly setting in

We have finished with our two-week training and briefings, we have passed all the driving tests but we are still in Dili and with no date of deployment in sight...
People are telling us, "at least you get to stay longer in Dili" ( remember, in the districts there is limited electricity, no running water and if you're lucky one or two restaurants)! I wouldn't mind if it just wasn't as expensive as it is! We're already going to be paying 600 USD for a hotel room that doesn't have hot water, hardly a window, boring breakfast, roaming cockroaches and apparently shower doors that can fall on your head at any moment!
You may wonder, why haven't I changed hotels but, incredibly, here it becomes cheaper the longer you stay since they have monthly rates and nightly rates! Not to mention the restaurants...we're not cooking, we have no means to do so, so we're going out for lunch and dinner and all that adds up... I also wouldn't mind starting work, that is what I came for after all!

Today I had to go to the Portuguese Embassy where I registered in the consular section...that is, after I had to go make a lot of photocopies of my numerous identity papers - no, there is NO photocopier at the embassy! I also had to ask for a new passport...I still have a year and a half before it expires but unfortunately I have run out of free pages...this wouldn't have been a problem until they told us that when we take R&R (Rest & Relaxation) it is mandatory that we quit the country!!! That was another unforeseen expense...I wanted to use R&R to see the country, when else am I supposed to do it? At least I can now travel to the Philippines and Indonesia (I only managed Bali the last time around), which were the two missing on my 'What to visit while in Laos' list - Burma, of course, is another story...

We also did some more sightseeing...that's about all we can do other than twiddle our thumbs while waiting for a decision to be made regarding our deployment. We visited the Alola foundation, which was created by Xanana Gusmão's wife (Xanana is the current PM) to help vulnerable women in Timor and teach them how to make handicrafts...His wife is currently fighting for a very ridiculous notion to allow children to study in their mother tongue...at first,  it seems like a fair notion but there are more than 30 dialects in Timor Leste, how are they going to manage to go to university if they don't learn at least one of the official languages (Tetum and Portuguese), how will they be able to compete internationally if we're cutting their legs from the get-go! A lot of Portuguese speakers in Timor feel like this is a direct attack on the Portuguese language, I tend to agree...

We also visited the Santa Cruz Cemetery, or attempted to until a drunkard came running after us, grabbing us and scaring us out of our wits! If you don't know the significance of this cemetery, you should! It was the turning point for Timor's fight for independence against Indonesian invasion.
On November 12th 1991, the Timorese were holding a pro-independence rally/funeral procession  for a student that had been killed by the Indonesian army. The cemetery was surrounded by Indonesian army during the funeral and suddenly the Indonesian army started firing at random into the crowd killing everyone in their sight. The Indonesians claim that their general had been stabbed prior to the shooting but there are many accounts that counteract this version. The massacre would probably never be known to the outside world but luckily two journalists were present and were able to film the entire thing, you can find this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HkktBcIDzg. The killing of a New Zealand citizen that had been among the protestors also helped raise the outcry of the outside world and support for Timor's independence. The date is still celebrated today as the turning point in Timor's struggle...you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_massacre

I'll get back to twiddling my thumbs now...more from Dili (unfortunately) soon!

The shock of shattered glass

Ok, I believe that after tonight's events I am ready for anything this country can 'throw' at me!

After a great day in Dili, which included a bit of sightseeing and a chill out session at the beach enjoying the sunset, we came home to take our respective showers and do some film sharing (we'll need all the films we can get out in the districts!). I had just stepped into my shower and turned around to close the door when suddenly a shower of glass came tumbling down and I found myself holding the shower door surrounded by a river of shattered glass all around me!!! I had the door, or what remained of it, in one hand, I was using the other hand against the wall for support so that my feet wouldn't touch the ground too heavily and get cut and I couldn't get out of the shower because the glass had gone everywhere! I was trying to gently put the remains of the door against the wall to free my hand when my next door neighbor, another UNV, X, knocked asking if I was ok, to which I responded a very weak and nervous 'no!' (I was shaking and in shock!)...You're probably thinking, that must have been awkward being that I was in the shower and probably naked but luckily, very luckily, I still had my bathing suit on, which I was going to wash in the shower! So X comes in , followed closely by T, my other neighbor, and helped me out of my very awkward and scary position! X then asked me why I hadn't screamed when the door fell, to which I didn't know what to reply, I hadn't thought about it! I'm usually not hysterical and quite reasonable but this situation definitely called for a scream of some sorts! I was probably in shock and trying to rationalize how I was going to get out of that situation without cutting myself further! And the funniest thing is (if you can call it funny!), the landlady didn't even find it strange that it happened!! The door was already broken so it was just a matter of time that it would come off its hinge and onto someone's head, it just happened to be mine's! But I'm ok, no worries, only a little teensy bit of flesh was ripped off of my finger and I have now only a partial door to my shower, luckily the water pressure is so low I don't think it will even matter!

Did I also mention that yesterday we also had rocks thrown at us?!

Rocks are the Timorese's weapon of choice. Every time a situation escalates into conflict out come the rocks and stones! Yesterday we went out at night to a concert and then to a party. I think pretty much all of Dili's expat community was there considering there aren't that many places for entertainment out here. The party was also full of UNPOL (UN Police) and GNR (Portugal's National Guard) who look, as a Brazilian expression would say, 'closets' because they are literally the size of closets due to probably an extensive amount of steroids, testosterone and weights! And what is it about buffed up guys and stretch t-shirts, do they really think it's pleasant to see because I (and I think every normal woman) can guarantee you it's not!! Being 'surrounded' by them (no, I was not alone at the party but their group outnumbered ours!) I don't know if I would want them to protect me or rather run away from them, they're scary BIG! This party looked more like a massive hook-up session - yes, there were prostitutes there! - than a party to be honest! But anyways, we stayed at the party until the end - let's face it, out in the districts we'll have a curfew and likely nowhere to go so if there's a party in Dili we're gonna go - and when we were leaving we started walking towards our car when a group of Timorese boys started throwing rocks at us, they hit my foot and T's hand, we picked up the pace and reached our car but it was a tense moment to say the least...we're not quite sure but we think that what happened was that because we hadn't parked the car around the party the boys wouldn't get their coins for having watched the car in the first place so they 'retaliated'...I hope that's all it was because if it's anything more serious, like hatred for the Malay or something like that I'm not sure I feel very welcomed anymore...And where were the UNPOL and the GNR during this, being picked up by their non-drunk designated drivers in their armored cars, couldn't give a toss about the safety of the rest of the party-goers...so much for protection!

Hopefully that's as much 'excitement' as I'm gonna get out here - I did say it was going to be an adventure, but I'm crossing my fingers for a pleasant one!

A sense of familiarity

Like with everything, there are always two sides to a story, two sides of a coin...The sense of familiarity I feel being here in Dili has also two sides, one positive and one negative...

The people of Timor, from my very limited two weeks' experience, are kind, warm-hearted people. They smile with you if you're smiling, and it's a beautiful smile, you know, a real smile instead of a 'yellow smile' (that's actually a Portuguese expression) used more to appease than to please. Another thing that the Timorese have is that everyone is family, even a Malay (foreigner in Tetun) like me can be their family. Everyone treats you like your brother or your sister, by the Portuguese diminutive of Mana (sister in Portuguese) or Mão (short for irmão which means brother). And if the person you're addressing is older than you (I mean considerably older because you can't always guess their ages), they become Tio or Tia (uncle/aunt in Portuguese). So this means I spend my entire day addressing Timorese by the kind and familiar Mana and Mão! And they address me as Mana Filipa, I mean, how wonderful is that!? And being an only child myself it's even cooler, I just adopted an entire extended family the size of a country :D

That, of course, is the positive side...

The negative dates from my experience in Luanda, Angola. Luanda is the most expensive capital in the world (!!) but Angola is one of the poorest countries in the world....that doesn't seem right, does it? Angola is corrupt, and indebted to their ears in petro-dollars to foreign companies. Luanda, for example, was built to accommodate 500,000 people, there are currently more than 2 million living there. The infrastructure is poor, the people hardly have access to services but the rich profit, and keep on profiting. Angola's money is reduced to 500 families, the others can suffer for all they care (yes, I'm bitter). The money is there but it's not in the hands of the people, so what good is it!? Timor, fortunately, is still too young and too innocent to have the kind of corruption that exists in Angola. But it reminds me of Angola nonetheless. The money from the offshore oil rigs is coming, but the change isn't coming soon enough for the Timorese people...the conflict in 2006 was partly due to this problem, the people can't see where the money goes, they still don't all have running water or 24/7 electricity and the roads and services are still not reaching the districts. People fear that Dili is becoming a mini-bubble of capital and that the government is forgetting the other parts of the country.Walking around the city, seeing what there is still to be done, you can understand their frustration. Why do you need fancy ministries if people don't have running water, waste disposal, safe roads or electricity?! Can someone answer this for me?

At least their smiles are genuine and they are worth being here, helping this young nation achieve their potential...if only it would stop raining ;p

Dili at a glance

The internet here is slow, snail slow, regular post slow so the likelihood of my being able to post photos regularly is probably very small but I promise to try!

Here is a first glance (and it really is just a glance because between briefings we've hardly had time to sightsee!) at the capital of Timor Leste, Dili...

the waterfront

                                             one of the local markets                                                             

The Government's Palace

The Lighthouse

                    

view from the statue of Cristo Rei

Cristo Rei

Praia da Areia Branca (White Sand Beach)

The irony of a flat tire

These first 2 weeks of work have been  filled with briefings, briefings and, wait for it, more briefings. It's the Induction Training Programme to prepare us for the hardships, hazards and upheavals of the mission in the districts. We've had briefings on sexual exploitation and abuse, how to operate the HF and VHF radios, how to use a GPS, aviation safety, fire safety (where we were actually asked what is fire!!), self-awareness, electoral management, gender, contingency plan (which didn't actually have a contingency plan when 3 computers and two projectors wouldn't work to show the presentation!) and so forth and so on. It just so happens that yesterday we had a briefing about defensive driving to prepare us for the absolutely horrible conditions of the roads in this country.

[Let me make an aside here: one of the requirements for this mission is to be able to drive a 4x4, which implicitly means being able to drive at all! For those that know me, you know I LOVE to drive and I had a lot of fun driving the 4x4 in Laos in the middle of nowhere trying to get to waterfalls and other hard to reach places. I know that my skill will be put to the test in these Timorese roads, I don't mind that (although some of the photos of accidents shown actually turned my stomach!), but what I do mind is having my safety in the hands of someone that doesn't know how to drive in these roads let alone normal paved ones!]

To get back on track, yesterday we had a briefing on defensive driving and Friday we'll be let loose in the mud with the 4x4s to try out our skills. Yesterday we were also shown how to change a tire in the UN cars: we will be issued either a Prado or a Hillux Pick-up but in Dili we currently have minivans. It was pretty basic and I now know that the Hillux carries its spare tire under the car itself, how many of you knew that? :)

So, you guessed it, this morning, irony of all ironies, we got a flat tire! More like a slashed tire actually! The sewage openings here are very dangerous for tires because they actually come off of the pavement. My colleague T had the bad luck to park next to one of these openings, slashing our tire in the process. So, here we were, 8 of us, thinking we're gonna be late for our briefing so we better get started changing the damn tire. We found where the spare was, the only thing that was missing was the jack! There was NO jack! And it's a UN minivan issued to us by the UNV support unit! So we called the UN mechanic, they told us to wait by the car and they'd come to us to change the tire. T decides to stay so that the rest could go to the briefings. Now, will you believe me that it took the entire day for T to get the tire changed and we still have to go back to the transport unit tomorrow to get a new spare and a jack!? Why, you ask, it was only a tire! Bureaucracy, my friends, bureaucracy! It turns out you have to fill an incident report, oh no, that's not right, it's actually an accident report, have it authorized by the investigation unit, copied and then sent to the transport unit...
Let's just say T was a little frustrated, a little tired and a great deal disappointed! It just makes you think, if it's like this in Dili, how the heck will it be in the districts?! Imagine our car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, where is the support then!?

Oh well, at least it was just a flat tire!