Welcome to my new adventure in East Timor or as they say Timor-Leste. I left Saturday, Oct. 13 at 1am on a flight
from LAX on Eva Airlines (would highly recommend them) to Taipei (14hours), to
Bali (5hours) with an overnight stay there and finally arriving Monday, Oct. 15
in the capital city of Dili. I’m staying
at the Dili Beach Hotel on what I like to call Hwy 1 until my apartment is
ready around Nov. 1. It’s also on “Hwy
1” next to the US Embassy (it’s nice to have friends in high places).
I work
for Quality Schools International teaching six and seven year olds. I have eighteen students: American, British,
Australian, Korean, African, and Timorese.
I also have a full-time aide, Maria, from the Philippines. The teachers and staff are wonderful, already
including me in various activities. Last
night I tried my hand or feet at Tango lessons with some nice Portuguese
guys. Apparently, this is a very close
and tight expat community.
There
are plenty of taxis around (driving British style), but you need to negotiate
with them before driving off (I found out the hard way), but right now I’m
walking to school which takes about fifteen minutes and actually very
pleasant. Of course, I’m not dealing with
snow/ice and -40 degree weather, but it is hot and humid which can be draining. But those nice breezes do pop up.
When
I first arrived, I was taken by the friendly attitude of the Timorese people,
always greeting you with a smile. They
speak a combination of Portuguese and their own language.
Dili
is the capital with 200,000 people. And
East Timor has about a million. The illiteracy
rate is 67% and children are only required to attend school until second
grade. This is a third world country
that is changing. East Timor became
independent from Indonesia in 2002. They
are definitely in the birthing process.
The UN has been a presence for a while, but is scheduled to pull out in
Dec. There are different opinions as to
what that will entail. However, it’s
certainly interesting living in a place with UN vehicles everywhere.
I’m
new to this blogging and will try and keep it up with more text and
photos. Please join and make comments. You can also contact me through my email: dianeheight@gmail.com or Skype: bodhi14
Phone number here: 670 (country code) 78002895
To call me you need to dial 011-670-78002895, not sure it will work, but I was able to call my nephew.
As always,
Diane
