Wednesday 18 April 2007, Dili East Timor

Finding my feet and my way round.

My driver John (Joao) finally plucked up the courage to admit that I was a bit of an oddity for a number of people. I looked slightly Timorese (to the extent that some people start talking to me in Tetum) but I don't act Timorese! He said that I looked and moved aggressively! That is the first time someone has said that about me! I'm going to take that to mean though that I come across as self-confident and self-assured, not rude and overbearing :-)

He also said that he expected me to be white since I came from Africa! Talk about perceptions. The head of the project, Dr Weyl although German is actually resident in Zimbabwe, hence the connection I guess. The third expectation that I managed to burst for John was that he was expecting an old person, so he was rather surprised to be confronted by this rather young face at the airport.

So I will have to make the most of this unsettling ability I have on people. So far I've been quite warmly received by everyone.

The poverty is endemic here. Everywhere there is the evidence of violent scars. Burnt out buildings that once were houses, bullet-ridden cars and piles of rubble that's the only memorial of a once-thriving store. Animals roam free but uncared for. Kids out on the street in the middle of the day can only spell a crisis for the long-term development of Timor-Leste. We've been reaping the 'benefits' of a "No education before Liberation" policy in the Eighties...The development needs are clearly dire. What I would question though is the presence of so many different agencies for a population of just over 1million people spread over an island that is arguably as large as KwaZulu Natal. That's the population of Khayelitsha in Cape Town. And yet we have several UN agencies, the Portuguese Riot Police, the Australian army and a coterie of INGOs and NGOs. All clogging up the potholed roads with their huge SUVs...

All wanting to help....

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