July 1, 2001
Well, tomorrow will mark nine months since my arrival in Dili. We�re also just 60 days away from the elections, and as you might imagine, the pace of activities at work has been steadily increasing.
As for the biggest change in my life since last time, I�d have to say it�s the purchase of a bicycle. I was feeling like I was getting no exercise and was dependent on the schedules of others for going places. (We share a number of minivans among the staff, which can sometimes lead to real headaches in scheduling.) Anyway, having a bicycle has given me a sense of both getting some much-needed exercise as well as a sense of greater freedom. I had brought a headlight with me anticipating the bike purchase, and I�m able to use a flashlight that has a blinking red light for a tail light. I had also brought a whistle, and my helmet should arrive in the mail from Washington any day.
And while we still don�t have any working traffic lights, we do have traffic guards at several of the main intersections, particularly the three that I have to get through in order to get back and forth between home and work. While some of the traffic guards aren�t very aware of pedestrians and bicyclists trying to make it through the intersections, others fortunately are. And drivers, while not veryy skilled in general, are quite accustomed to sharing the roads with the thousands of motorcycles and scooters that are around, so a bicyclist isn�t a completely novel concept for them. My closest encounter was actually with another bicyclist who nearly cut me off one afternoon on the beach road as I was returning from my sunset ride. (Have I mentioned how stunning many of the sunsets are here?)
I�ve also noticed a significant increase in the quality of the cars on the streets of Dili. At least in relative terms, there are fewer really junky cars -- missing windows, side panels, or even doors or windshields, and more recent-model cars. When I commented on this to a colleague, she told me it was because Singapore actually has a law against anyone driving a car more than ten years old. Looking closely here, it does seem that most of the �nice� cars are roughly 1991 vintage, and most still have their Singapore license plates. The National Council here did recently pass legislation requiring all vehicles to be registered locally, so we should see more and more East Timorese license plates soon.
Another positive sign here in Dili is the continuing pace of new stores opening and older stores expanding their selection of merchandise. There look to be about eight locations within a few blocks of my apartment that are under (re-)construction or about to open. Indeed, in many parts of town, the sound of cement mixers is beginning to be more common than the sound of electrical generators. (Our power outages fortunately seem to have become less frequent recently.) The Portuguese bank, BNU, is reopening its permanent offices here after having been in temporary quarters since before I arrived. They�ve done a nice job with the building, and it even has an ATM. The ANZ branch also has ATMs (one in Hello Mister, another in a variety store in the old downtown area near me), and I�m able now to get cash on a more regular basis (and thus don�t have to carry it with me or store it at work or home anymore.)
Security at the office is slowly but surely being increased as we approach the elections. There have been a couple of protests outside the office -- including one by a group of people who claimed that one of the political parties had promised them money in exchange for signing their party registration application petitions (and apparently thought that the Electoral Commission should make good on the party�s promise!), but in general we have a good relationship with the party leaders. They�re probably more likely to attack each other than us.
We�ve been focusing a lot of effort on producing information materials to get basic information out to all eligible voters. In addition to the challenges of getting what can be complex information across to the illiterate, we�ve also had to deal with the fact that Tetum is still spoken and spelled differently by different people, not to mention in different parts of East Timor. We send text off for translation, get it back, pass it around to some of our East Timorese colleagues in the office, and end up with about six different suggestions for changes, some seemingly completely different from the original translation. And while I�m not able to speak much Tetum yet, I listen to the news once or twice a day in Tetum and am understanding more and more of it. This is a good thing, too, because the television programming includes less and less BBC and more and more Indonesian or local programming. On the news yesterday was a report that the TV tower in Baucau (the second largest town) has been repaired, so if people out there have TVs, they can tune in also.
As for cultural notes, one is struck by the number of people carrying roosters around here. Cockfighting is still apparently a popular activity. What is not particularly popular with the Timorese, especially older generations, is PDA. �Why don�t they like Personal Digital Assistants?,� you may be asking. But long before PDAs were something that people carried to jot down notes and keep their busy lives organized, I learned (when my brother was starting school at the Naval Academy) that PDA was �Public Display of Affection.� And it seems the (particularly older) Timorese are about as accepting of PDA as Naval Academy top brass were 25 years ago! I was particularly struck by this the other day when waiting for a colleague at the airport and witnessing an international couple, reunited after what was probably a lengthy separation, greet each other with a long kiss and embrace that attracted stares from all of the Timorese there.
And while they may disapprove of PDAs, many Timorese seem to have no compunctions regarding bathing outdoors. I suppose that�s more a matter of necessity than choice, though -- indoor plumbing is still not entirely common. On a number of occasions, I�ve seen people of various ages bathing and washing clothes at what seems to be a public water tap around the corner from my place. Quite a few people also show up there with water jugs to take water home.
Many of the young kids have discovered that many of the internationals are willing to part with their pocket change and so have started washing cars or providing �security� outside of popular restaurants in hopes of getting a dollar (Australian). What I�ve found a bit puzzling, given their prevalence in Latin America, is why there are no shoe shine boys, though perhaps it�s because the shine would last all of about five minutes in the dust of the dry season or the mud of the rainy season here in Dili.
Well, that�s it for now. I�m heading off to see East Timor�s soccer team (gold medalists in the recent Arafura Games in Darwin, Australia) play.
Ray
