Harries Happenings: Blog #2: Two Birthday's and a New House

The Harries family inclusive, has now been residing in Timor Leste for nearly 3 months and what a crazy, busy, overwhelming and fun time it has been so far including 2 birthdays and a new house since the last Blog installment! Work being the focus for Steve of course, and for me, keeping 3 hungry boys feed, watered and entertained taking up the majority of daylight hours for me (and sometimes night-time hours too).

Accommodation
After a full 7 weeks in THE one bedroom cozy cabin situated on the World Vision compound we've finally been able to move into our house. Well worth the wait as we've been blessed with finding a new place situated semi-rurally, but still not too far from town and World Vision. It is ideal for our family of boys who have quickly made friends with the neighbourhood kids and can run free with the chickens, pigs and goats. It's peace of mind for me as the only cars on the dusty dirt road are ours other than the odd motorbike.
Our house is a bit short on furniture so for the past few weekends Steve has been swinging a hammer instead of pushing a pen creating a variety of cupboards, shelves and tables in the WV workshop. The security guards on the compound are very impressed with his abilities as am I. We are still awaiting a bed & dining table from a couple who are leaving shortly, so we're sleeping on a mattress on the foor and having picnic dinners (very Asian).

World Vision
On the work front......... never a dull moment, which keeps Steve's job challenging, fulfilling and frustrating all at the same time.

Completing WV TL's National Strategy for the next 5 years has been at the forefront of the agenda. The sectors include; Health (Watsan, nutrition, improved access to primary heath care services, Maternal & Child health with a strong focus to reduce malnutrition for children under 5yrs); Education (mostly early childhood); & Community Economic Development (increased household income, increased house-hold capacity to achieve food security).

In alignment with the strategy has meant a National Restructure over the next 3 months, where 108 positions have been made redundant and over 100 new positions created, including recruiting 4 new expatriate staff. This is a huge undertaking for the HR team and will require good communication with all staff to create an atmosphere of positive change in a country where trust is hard to come-by.

With fiscal year 2010 approaching securing funding and donations has also been a priority. There have been some positive outcomes of negotiations over the past week. For the past 3 weeks World Vision Timor Leste has been has been undergoing an in depth routine audit of it's projects, spending, documentation, offices and staffing. It was great news & relief that WV TL was awarded the highest rating after all the hard work Steve and the WV staff put in to prepare for the audit.

To keep things interesting, a Swine Flu scare is adding another dimension to Steve's already packed schedule. One of his expatriate staff has been in quarantine after coming into contact with a confirmed case. With minimal laboratory tests available here, all specimens have to go to Darwin for definitive results. A precautionary waiting game.

The boys

On the 5th of July we celebrated Mace's 1st birthday, and a very long 11 days later Noah was finally allowed to have his birthday and turn 4 years old. So for the past 2 weeks our diet has been made up of cake, cake and more cake, much to the delight of the kids in our community. As Noah (unfortunately) is now in the know when it comes to birthdays we had a little party with a bit of a 'rent-a-crowd', played a few games, blew out candles on the requested 'spider-cake' and ate pizza, chips, popcorn and lollies for dinner – yum?

Roman has been a good sport with all the attention going to his brothers (poor-middle-boy!) but has told me more than once that he's now three and he needs a birthday too. We haven't started that count-down yet as January is a bit too far away!

Mace is not yet walking but is sure getting around, too fast for my liking. On more than one occasion he's made his way down the steps, over the gravel, out the gate to the neigbours house only stopping to eat dirt on the way. The young girls there adore him which is very convenient for me right when I'm trying to cook dinner.

Speaking of dirt, my boy have turned into dirt magnets! I know I should not be surprised, but they end up covered in either dust or mud from head to foot, every single day!!!! There are now strict house rules about where dirty boys can and can't go, much to their dismay. The couch is off limits unless they are in their P. J's.

Language
The barrier of language has once again made me very empathetic towards foreigners in my own home country. The learning process can be fun but also extremely frustrating and there always seems to be too many accept ions to the rule..ahhhh!! Steve and I are having short lessons twice a week, but for me its only making me realise how much I don't know and still need to grasp. Patience & practice! To give you some insight, to say the time is “12:25pm” is goes like this.... “Jam dua belas lewat dua puluh lima menit”.
I've now grasped very very simple conversation around the house (as the lady who is helping me speaks no English at all) and at the market which is accompanied by much gesturing and pointing. Much like a game of chiraids (sp?).

Another funny language blunder...... As we left the World Vision compound a couple of months ago, instead of saying “good-bye” Steve told the guards to “have a good sleep!” - hahaha!! something guards don't need any encouragement to do, especially from the National Director. Hopefully we've come a bit further than that now!

Dili
Dili is slowly becoming more like home as we get used to the sights, smells and as the unusual things around us become more ordinary. However, there still doesn't seem to be a day the passes by without observing something interesting or amusing.

To list a few:

4 live pigs hanging and squealing from a horizontal pole over a man's shoulder. I had a hard job convincing him that a live pig was not on my shopping list for that week .
2 massive marlin being transported in the back of a taxi (see photo)
Local hazard – falling coconuts (see photo)
A bike piled so high with plastic good, brooms and wares that I could hardly see the bike-rider. I not sure how much he could see, but this didn't seem to worry him as he wobbled up a very busy one-way street against the flow of traffic.
Goats being herded up the main street of town.
Cock-fighting, not a very pleasant sight or sound.
A motorbike with mum, dad plus 4 children. It is law for adults to wear helmets not for kids. I cringe every time I see kids on motorbikes!