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 3rd (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
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