Medal parades (when UN Police or Military receive medals for their service in the peacekeeping mission) and other food events. Seem to get a lot of invitations these days. Popular with the section chiefs too. It's only been 3 weeks since I have move to Dili. I think I met around 30 new people already. At the same time, I also lost some friends who left the mission and repatriated, two of my best friends here, Italians. They are both going to Nepal for the elections. I was supposed to go also, but I turned it down to stay here in this mission.

Know too many Italians. I need to learn Italian. I live with Italians too. So my goal is to learn it by the time I leave, if i am still in the Italian house. That will be also with Bahasa Indonesian and Tetum. 

In two weeks, taking my second Occasional Recuperation Break (ORB). We get a holiday every 8 weeks and we are strongly recommended to take it. I was going to skip it, but my supervisor strongly recommended that I take it. I am going to visit a French friend in Banda Aceh, where the tsunami was and where there was/is (?) some rebel disturbances. So I am travelling from one side of Indonesia to the other, horizontally. Was planning to go to Japan and passing through Bangkok for a haircut, but not enough time to plan it. Instead, decided to go from one conflict area to another!

For the Pakistani medal parade, I travelled by helicopter to Maliana, where I used to work. This is a picture of Liquica district, north of the district I used to work. The flight was about 20 min. Nice arrial view of the beach. It is dry season now. Hence, you see it is really dry...

Today, like most nights, I eat dinner with E. Today A joined us too. Somehow we got into a discussion about where we go on holiday.

At some point, A asked me, "so where are you going next? what will you be doing?"

I said, "not sure. no job really. but going to make some detours before I go back to Ecuador. I looked at my bank accounts and realized that I don't have as much money as I thought. I need to make it cheaper on the way back. I think I will fly through Bali. Then stay one night in Kuala Lumpur since the flight goes thru there. I want to pass through Bangkok to get my hair cut and also to buy a phone. From there, I will go to Japan to visit some friends and relatives. From Japan, buy a ticket to NYC to visit my brother and see fashion week. Then go to LA to see my parents and some friends. Then go back to Ecuador making a stop in San Jose, Costa Rica to visit some friends. I want to work in Lebanon, but not sure. Maybe Nepal would be nice. It depends what job I get."

The three of us just cracked up laughing. More because I said I wanted to go to BKK for a haircut.

For us, I guess it is reality, but it seems a bit surreal in a normal setting. E was saying how she is going to go to Bali for a week to meet up with her brother and then go to Australia for another week.

Our normal everyday lives here seem a bit strange to the "normal" person. I have my big Toyota Prado that I drive around here marked UN, which we have realized are quite shitty cars for the off-road mountainous driving. In the morning, we walk to the market for some fresh bread. The bread is just laying out in containers, not manufactured and sealed. The market has vegetables laid out on a sheet or blanket. I eat my breakfast on the balcony sometimes and watch the sun rise behind the high mountains in front of the house. Then I get into my big Prado and take the two minute drive to work. I could walk but i always bring lots of stuff so it is easier. Right now, nothing much to do in the office since elections are over. I have been writing reports.

For lunch, I go home to eat. There is only one restaurant in the village, so I try not to eat there are much so when I really don't feel like preparing food I can go there and eat. I usually cook my egg noodles and add a pack of Australian ration pack. Today was sausage and veggies. It was not too bad. Then I came back to the office. Working on and off on this debriefing report.

I went home for dinner and the generator was on so we had electricity. I cooked with E dinner and A joined us later. I am back in the office because I still have to send this report. But by the time I get home, the generator will be off and I would have to use candles to see. Usually at night, I spend some time looking at the stars and the outlines of the mountains. There is not a single light in all you see, so the stars are amazing. You actually see the Milky Way.

From today, I should write down what happens here. There are so many funny things that have happened but now I am forgetting. Maybe I should write this in Spanish or Chinese or Japanese. Too many people know English!

It is almost midnight here and I am still sitting in the office. Now that elections are over things have slowed down. No more running around like a maniac, a cool and calm maniac, for now. During dinner with E, we were just going over some funny/strange stuff that has happened. Some stuff that are so normal to us is not so to someone else.

Nothing really interesting happened. I sat in the office all day using the computer until it looked like my eyes would pop out. The highlight of my day was when I received an email from UNMIT Broadcast, general information for all staff, that the Chief of Transport will be on leave and the deputy will be in charge. Well, the deputy is the guy I returned my vehicle to on Sunday. My TL made such a big deal out of me returning it Sunday instead of Friday and said everyone from above is saying that I shouldn't be negotiating, blah blah blah. This was on Saturday. When a vehicle is involved when I am in Dili, there is always some sh*t that goes along with it stating why I don't need it. Anyways, it turned out that the person I returned the vehicle to was the deputy chief of transport. If I ever work in Dili, that could come in handy!

Timor-Leste

For those of you who don't know, I have been in Timor-Leste for the past two months. I have finally left Ecuador after almost four years there, although all my stuff is still there packed away in boxes. Timor-Leste used to be part of Indonesia. It is near Australia. The weather is tropical, quite warm with clear-cut dry and wet seasons. I had come at the end of the wet season and now it is the dry season.

I am here as a UN Volunteer working on the United Nations Integrated Mission for Timor-Leste (UNMIT). It is a UN Peacekeeping mission for a post-conflict country. I am working in the Election Assistance Section as a District Training Adviser in Bobonaro District, about 10-15 km from the Indonesian border. The UN mission is to advise the locals on the elections. The Timorese run their elections. However, this creates a lot of problems...

The first round of elections was held on 9 April. The elections was more or less okay. It took a while for the results to come, but given one week later.