Stories from the Tropics #4

Prior to starting my blog I used to send my missives via email to those interested in hearing what I had to say. This is the fourth such installment of the 7 I sent prior to starting the blog.

January 28/09

Well the rains finally came and Malaria (and dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis) season officially begins. Friday night (Sat morning) was booming thunder and sheets of rain for most of the night – when I went out the next day the puddles were everywhere. As there are no sewers or formal drainage here everything flushes to the ocean if there is a path, otherwise it stands in puddles around town breeding one of our most hated pests. Yes I do take malaria pills, dengue though is based on luck of the draw and nothing for Japanese encephalitis – yet (I have been told by my Aussie Dr that a vaccine should be available in April and I will be called).

To add to that excitement the next day we had a little earth quake that woke me up from my sleep with a rocking bed – thankfully no damage done to me or things around town. It freaks you out somewhat after your mind finishes racing around trying to figure out what’s going on.

Joking aside I got a $3 haircut finally on the advice of my work buddy Shannon. For that price they do eyebrows too! Also instead of clippers to do the fine trimming they use a straight razor. I got the #1 on the side and #2 on top (or in tetum: lado ida, semam rua). Now I will see if I can resist temptation to just shave it all off again.

News of the day (week)

Well another new experience for me to behold – the car wash – as I may have mentioned one of the great perks of this particular post is having a vehicle at my disposal (2008 Toyota RAV4) which is mine to use to for travelling to work and just getting around. Notwithstanding the difficulties of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road (turn signals are where wiper switches are, and always getting in what is now the passenger seat) I am adjusting well with little road range which I will admit I was not immune too on occasion back home. I have developed a deep loathing for both the taxi drivers and the scooters but for the most part have been able to keep my emotions in check. Taxis because they go 20kph in the middle of the street, never use a turn signal and stop anywhere on the street in the faint hope a fare might be close at hand, and the motorbikes which either go to slow, too fast and weave in and about you indiscriminately. Anyway back to the car wash, Joa our Portuguese consultant (see new pictures posted – the good looking one in the pink shirt or the Brazilian (see the driver’s license story) came back from lunch one day and said he got his car washed. I inquired as to the procedure, and since the A/C was still on the fritz in our office I proposed a road trip for the three of us (add Zeneldo) to check it out with my vehicle being the prime participant. Off we went back to Comoro road (our equivalent of portage ave) to seek out the car wash. I was promised that any are good (there are several along the strip) and charge the same price $5. I was sceptical but for $5 bucks what the heck and my little red RAV needed a bath (plus I can expense it). First thing is to pull up on a ramp with a trench in the middle (like a Super Lube) made out of crumbling concrete. We evacuate the vehicle and take a seat in the lounge area (again see photo) as the boys go to work – first 3 to 4 guys soap and rinse everything (including front and back of mud flaps, wheel wells and muffler) then one guy goes into the trench to spray down the undercarriage. After this is complete I am instructed to pull off the ramp (much to the delight of the crowd accumulated to watch the mylie guy get his car washed, as I go to the wrong side of the vehicle) and eventually get my car parked to the side so the drying and detailing can begin. Well to my surprise no fewer than 8 guys were involved in this process at one time – doing everything from vacuuming, drying, and wiping amour all inside and out. The advantages of cheap labour! The whole process took approximately 40 minutes and for the effort I paid $5 plus $2 tip.

On Wednesday it was road trip day – while there was some controversy on this point our destination was Baucau (say Bo-cow) which I was told is Timor Leste second largest city (approx 50,000). The purpose is to show me an example of district & commercial offices outside Dili and see another generating plant. This one is significant as it also runs 24/7 as not all do. Other districts in the country run either 6 or 12 hours/day (rural electrification is still a future endeavour). Like other road trips getting there is half the fun. The journey according to the GPS was approx 120 kms but took 3 to 3.5 hours due to the tight, twisty, decaying roads. On this relatively short jaunt of just over a hundred clicks I saw a vast array of different landscapes; it included everything from our relatively dry area of Dili, to dense jungle areas, some bad-land type topography (i.e. Drumheller Ab.) to my first sighting of rice patties. Within all this scenery are villages nestled in the vegetation with the thatched roofs, primitive but neat at the same time. What is so neat about growing rice is how wet the area needs to be with its tiered stacks keeping each little field (no more than 20 or 30 meter box) full of water and providing drainage to the next patty when needed. This is where, much to my delight, is where they press the water buffalo into service – in order to churn up the mud to ready it for the next crop they run a herd of about 20 buffalo’s round and around this little rice patty. We stopped and watched this for a while as four guys chase and chant at these buffalo to herd them appropriately within the specific patty. What amazed me is that these guys will do this for most of the day jogging in muddy water that is up to your knee’s (photos attached and more of our journey). No wonder most Timorese people weigh in at around 80 or 90 lbs.

Baucau itself is a nice costal town with a lot of elevation changes as it is up on a hill about 400ft above sea level, and again, like Dili (at sea level), with not a street sign to be found. Oddly enough, Dan who needed money from an ATM for our journey found no money at the two (of three) ATM’s in Dili (ATM are frequently out of money – it is luck of the draw if you find one with bills) but did get lucky at the one ATM in Baucau.

Which leads me to the other oddity of this place – while we have no real postal service (with no street signs/addresses small wonder) it is also a cash society (exclusively US$). I have been told there are only one or two places in Dili that accept credit cards (I myself have not seen them). In NA where I would keep no more that $20-40 in my wallet for smaller purchases and the rest being either debit or credit card it is hard to get use to. I fully understand why MHI gave me the $3,000 in cash! We frequently joke among ourselves that we feel like drug dealers when at work we have to hand out $1,500 in cash for a purchase of some item – literally “wads” of cash.

On a sad note I haven’t mentioned the destruction of the place from both the 1999 and 2006 uprisings – while there weren’t any air strikes to speak of during the unrest – when the Indonesians pulled out, and some Timorence loyal to them left, they burnt everything they could in an attempt to destroy the place. So wherever you go (in Dili and the country side) there are buildings that were burnt and only the concrete shell remains. So sad and wasteful, yet a clear reminder of the destruction that war can inflict.

On that happy note I will say goodbye from the other side of the world (according to NWA which I flew to Singapore with, it was just shy of 10,000 miles – with my biz class bonus of 50% that’s almost enough to fly anywhere in the US one way)!