week nineteen | atauro island, timor-leste

Part three: Atauro Island 

For those of you that read my blog or interact with me in the real world you might know I have the tendency to declare pretty much anything as ‘the best thing ever.’ This is purely a reflection of my positive and cheery nature rather then everything really being ‘the best thing ever’ because only one thing can be the best, and that thing is Atauro Island.

Paradise on earth and two hours by boat from Dili Atauro stole my heart from the very second we saw it clearly from our boat. It’s as dry as the rest of Timor but scattered with trees and houses along its crystal clear shoreline. Atuaro is today what I imagine islands off Thailand’s main land where back in the 70’s - untouched gems that very few people know anything about.  There is power for only 4 hours every evening but for the most part you don’t notice it, it’s calm, friendly and perfect.

We were lucky enough to stay at staff accommodation with our partner where we were presented seaside views; morning and afternoon swims and fresh coconuts cut right off the tree in the yard. There is just one place that you could stay as a tourist called Barry’s place which is a all inclusive eco resort on the island. It’s stunning and for anyone on the hunt for romantic getaways I couldn’t think of anything better.

Atauro is also a old colonial Portuguese port and so a stroll through the old town presents views of lovely old buildings, churches and houses built with big rap around balconies, evoking images of ladies sipping cool drinks and watching the sun set over the water.

Our stay on the island marked the last couple of days of our work trip, and so we headed to the beach on our last evening to have a chat about the impact of the trip both in a professional sense but also for us personally. By this time it felt like I had been in Timor-Leste a lifetime and I had learnt more then I could possibly have thought would be possible. This place will hold really precious memories for me and I’ll hopefully be back for years to come.

TRIP RATING: 5/5 FRESH COCONUTS 

week eighteen | alieu, timor-leste

Part two: Alieu. 

Part of my wonderful job at Oaktree is working with Plan Timor-Leste on a project that works in Dili and in Alieu. Alieu is a district in the mountains about 40km or a two hour drive from Dili. The two days I spent in Alieu were some of the most interesting days of my life.

We set of early on Tuesday morning – and started our rickety journey up the mountain. We were loaned an Emergency Sex (it’s a book mum don’t worry!) style white Toyota development truck and a driver whose skills will continue to impress me till the day I die.

The trip was much less ‘road’ and much more dried riverbeds and precarious mountain tracks. It was bumpy, it was slightly sickening and it was a great lesson in trust both in our dear driver, and also in the very rocks and mountainside we were balancing on.

Alieu is both the name of the district and the small town (probably better to read ‘village’ to get a better picture) with lots of kids (classic Timor) lots of chickens, lots of bright buildings and lots of dust.

Our time in Alieu was quite busy, in and out of meetings and conducting interviews. But we also got to spend some time back in the car watching the world go by. It was amazing to get out of Dili for a little while, and to meet and talk to people who we hear about through reports and data. I was incredibly proud of our program, the staff and especially the impact that the project is having on the lives of young people in the area. This particular partnership also works with young people the same age as I am so our discussions about finding our place in the world and our paths for the future were humbling and emotional. 

We ate simple local food at the same small restaurant every mealtime, and spent our night at a small guesthouse that sounded (all night) like it was home to two hundred people and a few too many roosters. Village life sure is different from the way I live in my tiny quite flat in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

Our visit to Alieu was short but powerful. I came away feeling uplifted by our project, disheartened by the enormity of Timor-Leste’s very real systemic problems, and craving to do more all at the same time. It is a tricky place to work but I wouldn’t have it any other way. While there isn’t anything “to do” in Alieu, which means most travelers will not head there, I do hope that this little post inspires you to learn more about Timor-Leste and perhaps hang out with me and talk more about the work I’m lucky enough to be involved in.

TRIP RATING: 4/5 ROOSTER WAKE UP CALLS 

week seventeen | dili, timor-leste

It’s now been exactly a week since I stepped off the dusty tarmac into our small plane flying us out of Dili. I miss Timor-Leste more than I can possibly describe. My next three blogs will be a collection of short stories from my trip to Timor. They are by no means an extensive collection, nor will they truly reflect what I and my travel companions were doing there (because all work things will be left out for obvious reasons). However I do hope they paint a picture and convey some of my extreme love for Timor-Leste and its people.

Also a bit of a public service announcement, I will be canceling all upcoming plans and commitments and plan to move back some time next Tuesday.

Part one: Dili

We arrived in Dili early Friday morning, not knowing exactly what to expect and feeling more than a little apprehensive. Charlie, Katie and I also realized during the short flight from Darwin that while we had be preparing for this trip for the better part of two months, we were woefully unaware of many aspects of Timor-Leste itself. Almost everything (apart from complicated development theory and Best Practice M&E stuff) was destined to be a ‘learn-as-you-go’ sort of thing.

A couple of my very first reflections of Timor-Leste itself happened before we even landed. Looking out of the plane window at the rocky dry hills rolling into crystal clear blue water I was struck by how dry, and just how wild this country was. In my naive state I had perhaps been picturing a tropical paradise and was disarmingly met by sun bleached rock and dust. We were soon to become quite at one with the heat and the dust and by the time we landed it was wonderfully exciting rather than scary. 

Dili is a very strange place. Nothing like the big Asian cosmopolitan capitals I am familiar with. Dili is designed on a simple grid system, with a couple of major roads and is set right on the beach.

We were setting up shop at a tiny (and one of the only) backpackers hostels run by a really sweet lady called Rita. Rita was more than delighted to tell us where to visit, the best places to eat and also happened to own a highlight of our trip – her nutty but adorable puppy Achilles who enjoyed nothing more than sneaking into our room and chewing on shoelaces. 

I don’t know how well I understood the place until our last couple of days, with the phrase “WHY TIMOR WHY” being lamented by the whole team in relation to pretty much everything for pretty much the whole trip. Basic rule of thumb: nothing is what you’d think it is, and nothing really works in the way you’d expect – and should not fret but just “let it go”.

Despite all the flack Dili gets, it did have some pretty special ‘not to be missed’ things. My top three picks are

1) The beach and Giant Jesus at Cristo Rea. There was no logical explanation as to why there is a large Jesus statue casting a watchful gaze over Timor’s capital but I think that’s part of the charm. You can walk right up to his feet and get a great view down over Dili because Jesus is located at a tip of land with coves to either side. The beaches are just gorgeous and became of safe happy place during our rest days as we sipped fresh coconuts and floated in the clear water. There was no way to be stressed and I have done much life planning and self-reflection gazing back at the shore and the brown mountains behind.

2)  My Number 2 pick is actually a bit of a funny one because, in classic Timor-Leste style it was shut for no apparent reason the weekend we were due to visit. The National Resistance Museum is, by all other accounts, a “must see” - perfectly presented history of Timor’s struggle for independence and a reflective look back on the horrors that followed. Timor-Leste is a very young country, and the wounds are still very real; they fought a long, hard battle and the sense of peace and freedom was evident in every aspect of Timorese life.

3) My 3^rd (and final pick) would be the community art collective called “Arte Moris”. It is set in the grounds of an old run down dome-shaped building and filled to the brim with art – on every wall, in the small studio spaces, and with gardens filled with sculptures, murals and veggie gardens. This communal space was the most peaceful place in Dili and a lovely cool place for a quiet stroll. We had had a pretty tricky couple of days in the lead up to our visit there and I’m so glad Katie convinced us to leave the hostel. It also reminded me of a similar art collective I visited in Tallinn in Estonia with some friends a few years ago so perhaps it’s time for me to find one closer to home and break out my poor under-appreciated paint brushes again.

In short, Dili was incredible and reminded me a lot of cities in Mozambique - dry and dusty but filled with warm people who are proud of their strong history and their fight for independence. It is so clear that Timor-Leste still has so long to go, but it is a beautiful and wonderful place and I’m so lucky to be able to work with some its people.

TRIP RATING: 5/5 MICRO LETS