Merry Christmas 2008

To our wonderful friends and family,

Two thousand eight has been a big year for us and it wouldn’t have been remotely as fun and exciting without you. Thank you. We miss you a ton and are incredibly grateful for your love and support. Here is a quick recap of our year that started in sub-zero temps in Montana, then got warmer, then hotter, until the tropical monsoons of East Timor finally provided just a bit of relief.

January—below zero
We got engaged in below zero temps during a full moon ski near Lolo Pass outside Missoula. We climbed up to the top of a clearing, sat in the snow, and celebrated with alpines and frozen champagne, talking and laughing in the moonlight. Finally we skied back to the car where we realized we’d been out in the sub-zero temps for four hours and never felt cold...

February—the snow is just getting better
Chad flies to Baltimore for an all day interview with CRS, an organization we’d barely heard of.

March—great skiing in the mountains
Chad heads to Memphis to present at the American Society of Applied Anthropology conference. A few days into the conference he gets an email offering him a job with CRS in East Timor. Chad calls Laurie. Laurie tries to look up East Timor in her 1990s era atlas but despite an index that takes up half the book, East Timor or Timor isn’t even listed. We madly research East Timor and try to decide if we want to move to a small tropical island nation in southeast Asia that just became a country in 2002.

April—starting to warm up
We learn that East Timor has had recent unrest including Feb 2008 assassination attempts on the Nobel Peace Prize winning president and the Prime Minister. On google earth we see internally displaced people camps in the capital, a result of violence in 2006 and 2007. Also on google earth we see beaches ringing an island with a mountainous interior of peaks close to10,000 ft. Chad accepts the position. Then he defends his dissertation, the culmination of five years of hard work and we leave with friends for a week of backcountry skiing in Canada.

May—spring time in Missoula
Chad graduates with a PhD and Laurie finishes nine years of work with incredible colleagues and students at the University of Montana Wilderness Institute. Laurie spends ten days floating the Missouri River with a great group of students to complete her year of classroom and field teaching in the Wilderness and Civilization program.

June—getting warmer
Chad is the best man for Adam and Erin’s wedding and we spend most of the month celebrating with them and hosting Chad and Adam’s raucous college friends. Laurie’s womens ultimate team wins the Eugene Solstice tournament. Yeah Special Forces.

July—85 degrees
Chad goes to a week-long training for his new job. We get married on an incredibly beautiful day on the banks of the Missouri River in Montana. We’re surrounded by wonderful friends and family who make us feel really lucky through and through.

August—90 degrees
We have our wedding reception in Caras Park in downtown Missoula with an amazing community of family and friends. And a few Hells Angels. We leave for nine days of backpacking in Glacier National Park. Back in Missoula, we get ready to move to East Timor, which includes painting our house the day before we leave. On August 31 we get on a plane for San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Bali, and finally, Dili.

September—95 degrees
We land on a tropical island that looks really different than Montana and listen the global financial crisis unfold via BBC radio.

October—100 degrees
Chad gets acquainted with a non-grad school work routine. Laurie looks for work; experiences unemployment. We practice Tetun (ami hanoin kona ba imi barak). We get scuba certified and proceed to explore the oceans and mountains of our new home.

November—100 plus degrees
We spend election “night” (our mid-day) at the US Embassy with a festive crowd of people from all over the world. Laurie finds a job working on the natural resource component of a water supply project. We have fresh fish for Thanksgiving dinner and spend a long weekend on the beach of Timor’s first and only national park.

December—95 degrees, 95% humidity
The rains finally come and cool things down a *little.* Thunder storms boom and nativity scenes go up every 100 meters complete with bamboo, thatched roofs, hip hop music, and an occasional Christmas tree. We spend a full day walking from the mountains to the ocean dropping over 1000m (about 4000ft) in 25km (about 15 miles). We experience our first Timor flash flood.

Now we’re packing our bags for our Christmas honeymoon in Indonesia. We miss you and are wishing you a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Love,

Laurie and Chad

New Slideshow -->

Check out the new slideshow of our life on a tropical island including such highlights as—Chad’s new attire, Laurie helping the fishermen, playing with the local kids on Mt. Matebian, an industrious salt-making family (it’s an amazing process, we currently have a lifetime supply of salt we bought for a dollar), cows grazing by the ocean (this isn’t Montana…), and Laurie on the ferry with President Ramos Horta looking over the railing behind, he’s wearing the white shirt and has the camera… After taking this sneak photo a plain clothes security guy with a big radio told us that we could just ask the President for a photo. With the security guy's "encouragement" we went up to say hello and ended up having a really nice conversation with the President on topics ranging from East Timor’s history to Obama to the future of the Millennium Development Goals. It was awesome.

Also see photos of Timorese fishing boats and gardens, and our hike up Mt Manu Koko on Atauro Island just north of Dili (and our break on the decent eating coconuts on the side of the road).

I guess what these photos don't show is Chad going to work every day (he really does) and Laurie looking for work every day (she really does and has a few good leads at the moment).

This afternoon we're going to buy our plane tickets for a Christmas honeymoon in Java, wow. It doesn't seem remotely like Christmas here but the local kids have begun setting off fireworks occasionally which apparently is a Christmas tradition in East Timor.

Timor Highlights

Highlights— sitting on the beach under the moon, incredible sunsets, brilliant snorkeling, speaking Tetun when it’s working, lots of local veggies all the time, climbing mountains, learning about the world of international aid/development, meeting interesting people from all over, Timorese coffee, breakfast on the beach with friends...

Tough things— not knowing the language, missing all our amazing friends and families, the oppressive heat from 8am to 6pm, the brutal history of Timor and the current struggles Timorese face...

Funny things— chickens are ENDLESSLY crossing the road here, for no apparent reason, I’m not kidding, it’s really funny (and goats, pigs, and dogs as well), families of 4 on motorbikes everywhere, the city’s tree pruning efforts (climb the tree below the power line and hack branches with a machete until ragged stubs of branches remain, Australian accents (gudonya), the traffic cooperation and noncooperation at the broken stoplights, the lack of any credit card infrastructure so even when buying a plane ticket we have to use cash...

Where We Spent Election “Night”

On November 5th (yup, 5th) we headed down to the US Embassy at 10:30am to see the results come in. Vermont and Kentucky had been called but everything was still on the table. We joined a noisy crowd surrounding a projector and screen that showed the AFN (Armed Forces Network) and CNN depending on which was coming in. Timorese staff served coffee and asked if they could get Obama buttons (they could until they ran out). The mood was high and kept getting higher, at times it might have even felt a bit like the Union Club. Seeing Montana in the yellow for so long had us cheering (we were alone in this) every time the Montana results came up. After Obama’s speech everyone cheered. Then went back to work. We were so elated and also missing election night in contrast to our election mid-day, one of the disadvantages of being 16 hours ahead of Montana time.

The Timorese we’ve talked to are Obama supporters but they also say they are so impressed with McCain’s speech. In this new democracy (since 2002), there is plenty of tension among parties, which permeates everyday life here. The largest party (but one that isn't part of the ruling coalition) is threatening to pull out of parliament and an upcoming "peace march" by the same party has people worried about more violence. Thus McCain’s message of support for Obama really stood out to people. For now I’ve haven't pursued the follow-up discussion with folks, about the reality of US partisanship, and instead let us all enjoy the feeling of this election for awhile. See the story below written about our election night.


2008 Elections Celebrated in Timor-Leste: "The U.S. has shown us all a lesson!"
November 4, 2008

Ambassador Hans Klemm hosted an Election 2008 reception at the residence. It was attended by over 200 guests, including American citizens, representatives from diplomatic missions in Dili, Timorese and international NGO representatives, Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres, members of the Cabinet, members of parliament (MP) from all parties, and local media representatives. Campaign memorabilia from the State Department's Global Publishing Systems was in high demand by the guests and ran out by the end of the event.

Americans supporting both parties traveled to the event from throughout Timor-Leste and reacted with hugs, tears of joy, and cheers as the results were announced. The mood was festive and marked by unity and patriotism by the American community, and admiration by Timorese guests. Timorese officials remarked "The Americans (from both parties) fly the American flag, not party flags;" "The U.S. has shown us all a good lesson in the democratic process;" "The candidates demonstrate America's greatness in both victory and defeat."

Today's edition of the Suara Timor Lorosae (Timor's largest newspaper, circulation 3,500) underscored the U.S. tradition of accepting democratically elected results in its headline: "Barack Obama Chosen to Become President of the United States; McCain: 'Obama is my President'"

Timor Leste’s President on Obama’s Election (Excerpts from Statement)

The perspective from Timor’s president who recently sat one table over from ours at a small open air Lebanese/Thai restaurant on the beach.

(President of the Republic and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, José Ramos-Horta, congratulated today the president-elect of the United States, Barack Obama, and the American people for the historical election of an Afro-American from a humble background to hold office as President of the United States.)

"The new American president must realize that the era of American and European supremacy is over and should take steps to build a new and stable international framework by inviting China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico to join the G8 and by leading the process of reform of the United Nations that would include the expansion of the Security Council with new permanent members such as India, Indonesia and Japan, for Asia, Egypt and South Africa, for Africa, and Brazil and Mexico, for the Americas. These are crucial tests for the new president of the United States."

"To president elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, their children and the rest of his family and close friends I extend my warm congratulations. I also congratulate the American people for this historical event."

Laurie's Morning Run East of Dili

We are really lucky to live on the edge of the busy part of town.  After 20 minutes running, or a shorter bike, we can be pretty much alone in the mountains or along the beach on a weekday.  Here are some photos from the morning I took a camera along.  I always say asalaam alekum to the Pakistani peacekeepers at the checkpoint and talked them into having a photo with me this day.  Part of the run often includes herding some goats.  I still think it's funny to see the goats, pigs, chickens, and cows hanging out by the ocean...  Right now it's still really dry and hard to imagine everything being green but apparently soon the rains will come and everything transforms to lush green.

Baucau Frisbee

Last night we made it down the beach in Baucau with Chad's colleague for a few minutes before it got dark.  (We're in Baucau for two days for Chad's work, the second largest city/town in Timor.)  The beach was deserted when we arrived but as soon as we took out the frisbee kids come running towards us.  I'm not sure they had ever even seen a frisbee before but check out this slideshow to see them perfecting the "alligator" catch.  It was an everyone throw to everyone kind of game but next time we're here I hope we can go back and organize a game.

News from Timor Leste #1

1. Although the capital of Timor Leste is reportedly home to nearly 200,000 people, the lack of infrastructure and density makes it feel like a town.  At night there are few lights and we can see the stars.  I can pretty much ride my bike anywhere (with helmet firmly attached) in 20 minutes.  The largest (completed) buildings are the University and Parliament house, about the size of the UM Social Science building.  Until recently a 4 story apartment building downtown (imagine something smaller than Missoula’s antique mall) was the tallest building in town.  Now the Chinese are helping build a new government building which will be the tallest at 6 or so stories.  Dust and burning of vegetation and garbage diminish the air quality at times but the breeze from the ocean clears it out and overall it’s not too bad.  We live on the edge of town with better access to the hills than we had even in Missoula and can run and bike to a few beaches.
   
2. We saw the biggest spider we’ve ever seen, and it was walking in our front door while we sat outside after sunset.  Including its legs it was bigger than my palm but not quite as big as my whole hand.  It had black and brown flecks and would have been beautiful if it wasn’t a spider and/or wasn’t crawling into our house on it’s enormous eight legs.  Chad smashed it with a shoe before it got too far.  We didn’t want to kill it but it was just too gigantic to let go wandering around our house and we just weren’t sure of the safety of any kind of removal method.  We’re such North Americans.  And need to learn lots more about the tropical creatures of Timor.  Steve Siebert?  Alfred Wallace?  Will you come visit us? 
   
3.  The constants in our lives are 1. Ants, 2. Geckos, 3. Tropical heat.  And Chad goes to work while I go running, reading, meeting, householding, and buca hela servisu (looking for work).
   
4. We are certified open water scuba divers!  The snorkeling and diving here are really, really wonderful.  We see an amazing array of coral, sponges, fish, and other things.  I had no idea all of that life would exist just a few meters from the shore.
   
5. Here in Dili, camps for internally displaced people continue to close and people are returning home with the assistance of NGO and government dialogue teams to ensure peace and security.  Reportedly the process is going well with only a small percentage of people unable to return home due to land claims conflicts or continued tension among neighbors.  Within the government, Transparency International's 2008 international Perceived Corruption Index reports Timor-Leste's position fell 22 places from 123rd to 145th behind Kazakhstan and one place ahead of Bangladesh for the period August 2007 to August 2008.  More political news soon for those that are interested. Cheers, L&C
   

Timor Leste Slideshow

Okay, if this worked as planned there should be a slideshow just to the right of this post.  If you click on it, it should expand and there will be pictures of East Timor.  My finger's are crossed.  

Okay, I'm about to do my best to somehow view the Biden/Palin debate, wish me luck.  

Timor's Highest Point

Last Sunday we woke up at 3:50am for a sunrise hike up East Timor’s highest point, Mt. Ramelau.  The day before we’d driven the bone jarring 4 and half hours to Hati Balico where we stayed the night and met a village teenager who agreed to be our guide the next morning.  We were supposed to meet our “guide” at 4am so he could show us the trail.   By 4:30 he still hadn’t shown up so we went for it.  This led to us wandering down the wrong approach path until just before sunrise when we gave up and sat down on a high point to watch the sun come up over the mountains of East Timor, pretty beautiful.   Just about this time two guys came walking down the road.  We had only about 3 words in common which consisted of bondia, obrigada, and (thank god) polisia.  Through much discussion in which none of us really understood each other until the very end, they were finally able to communicate that the correct path took off from near the police station (a glorified name for a run down building with a flag and no cars or even people that we saw).  We headed back into town and by 6:45 we were on the right trail.  From there it was a really nice walk up Mt. Ramelau to something like 2963 meters.  It wasn’t Montana but hiking in the mountains always feels good and this morning it was just us and the occasional horse or water buffalo.  At the top of the mountain in vicious winds we got a 360 view of Timor Leste all the way to both the north and south coasts.  We sat up on top for a while with the virgin Mary statue and took it all in.  Back at the poussada our apologetic guide awaited.  We assured him it was no problem and sat down to coffee (the national drink of choice after palm wine) before heading back to Dili.

On East Timor Ultimate

So I've been wondering for awhile if there would be an ult scene in Timor... and guess what, there is.  On Saturday night some folks gave us the tip that there's pick up on the beach at 5pm on Sundays.  I was ecstatic.  Chad kept warning me not to get my hopes up.  At 5pm on Sunday we headed down to the beach in Chad’s beater CRS pick-up that says CRS 27 on the side in big print inside circles making it look like a news vehicle.  It doesn’t stand out too much though because it’s white just like every one of the hundreds of UN vehicles on the road and most of the other numerous NGOs working here.  As we drove up to the beach we saw tons of people running, swimming, laying in the sand in all directions.  And right in the middle of all this were two dudes standing in the water with Frisbees, Chad says, this must be it, I say, really? Maybe it’s a little further down?  It wasn’t, that was it.  We walk up on the narrow strip of sand between the trees and sunbathers and the ocean and introduce ourselves to the nice folks with the frisbees.  In the meantime people of all colors from all over the world emerged from the sand and we commenced playing ultimate on a “field” that encompassed a few feet of slanting beach and into ankle and then knee and then thigh deep water.  The tide happened to be in, pretty hilarious.  The play was chaos.  The Nigerians were all deep all the time yelling for the throw away huck from some excited new ultimate player.  Defense involved no coordinated effort, not even taking the person across from you.  As total inlanders it did take us awhile to figure out the strategy which is, on defense, run down the field in the shallow water and then spread out and on the pull, put it in the deep water where it’s more like Frisbee polo.  The scariest part of the game was erratic disks diving towards the heads of unsuspecting children and the occasional kayaker in the endzone, no marker discs available.  It was ultimate though and a ton of fun along with an amazing work out (running in water).  One Aussie guy had just returned from Singapore where he played with an Indonesian team and he’s hoping to organize an East Timor team for an April tourney in Bali.  Missoula?  Can anyone make it?  Go ultimor. 

First Impressions

Timor-Leste, it's hard to know where to start. Overall it's positive, there’s a popular brand of cigarettes here called LA so that's made me feel welcomed. And the beach all along the edge of town is definitely a bonus. I don’t think there’s anyway a sane person could leave Missoula and not miss it but this is such a fascinating place that it takes the edge off. I think we'll like it here. It is a little hard to get out of Dili, the roads are super narrow, pot-holed, and super steep and windy because it's all mountains surrounding town except for the ocean. Chad did get a truck from CRS and that's been really nice, just to drive a bit and get a sense of what's outside the city. Next weekend we want to go climb Mt. Rameleu, the tallest mountain at nearly 10,000ft, hopefully it will work out. Then we're planning to start scuba certification the following weekends. It's kind of a rush right now because the rainy season starts in Oct/Nov ish and things like going to the mountains and scuba aren't as good/easy once it starts raining. Overall this town is pretty relaxed though, definitely not what I would call a city. Until recently the tallest building in town was 4 stories and now there's only a few building over two stories. The roads are narrow and biking will be a bit of a challenge with UN vehicles speeding everywhere while Timorese taxis crawl around and motorscooters carrying 1-4 passengers weave inbetween while vendors encroach on the road on either side. The average Timor motor scooter carries more people than the average American car we're convinced, easily. But hopefully we'll be biking soon. Right now we're staying in a hotel and our bike boxes are stored at CRS but we're scheduled to move into a house today. Getting a house here is near impossible given the extremely limited housing (most of it destroyed in 1999 by the Indonesians and more destruction in 2006 by Timorese) and the stiff competition for any decent housing among internationals. The housing/land situation here is nutty because of the factors above and because there's huge confusion and disagreement about who owns what because of the multiple waves of government and displacement and people trying to occupy anything they can. Very interesting. So we're feeling really lucky to have a house, hopefully. It's on the edge of town in a near perfect location. Close enough to markets, up on a hill just a bit for a view and hopefully fewer mosquitoes, a nice run along the water almost right out our door, and a 5km bike ride to a nice beach for ultimate, snorkeling, swimming, etc. There is such an incredible amount to learn here from language to politics to culture to who is doing what and why to the ecology to how to get around to scuba and more. It's pretty exciting and sometimes overwhelming to realize how much there is to learn. Even though I feel uncomfortable with not working at times, learning feels like a fulltime job. Hopefully another job will also come, there are jobs available and I will keep looking. I may also find a place or a couple places to volunteer. I like the idea of spending some time doing direct service (working with kids or farmers, etc) and sometime working with a professional NGO helping as needed on projects in the office. There is a lot going on here for a small city and country so right now I'm doing research... collecting information on who is doing what and the details of their projects. It's something I meant to do all summer in Missoula but never got to. It's fun to do, identify the players and projects. One way to do it is to sit on the street corner and read the decals of the vehicles that go by. About 1 in 5 is the UN and another is an NGO. There is a lot to learn, all the government ministries, all the UN entities, all the other INGOs, and all the local grassroots groups, impressive.

Someone Else's Articulate Impression of Our New Home

In East Timor, I've been able to abandon my alarm clock for the sound of roosters crowing in the morning.  That sound I previously associated with barnyard children songs and peter pan has now become forever entwined with the long lazy beaches, flowering trees, and imposing tropical mountains of the island of Timor Leste.  While walking through the town on my first day, I noticed the crowds of preening, crowing birds on every corner, pecking their way throughout the city, and although I should have known what would happen, the symphony of cries, the pure cacophony that welcomed the dawn still surprised me at sunrise this morning.

Timor's unspoilt natural beauty is striking – as soon as the plane touches down along the shore in Dili you are presented with rolling tree-covered mountains leading down to long strips of sandy beaches meeting broad blue waves.  In my experience, poverty has always been marked by serious environmental degradation – one of my strongest memories of travel was arriving in North Korea to find no trees, bushes or crops in sight.  The starving people had consumed all of it, including leaves, for food.  This is not the case here.  Lush green jungle line the mountains even in the dry season.  The city is alive with food for sale on every corner.  The green promenade next to the ocean is lined with fish, vegetable and coconut vendors that shout the prices of their wares to the groups of people lazily making their way along the seashore on their way home or to meet friends. 

Trying to capture the atmosphere of the world's newest nation is difficult to describe.  10 years on, Dili has had more than its fair share of political and economic crises, but the current atmosphere is one of buzzing optimism.  Internal refugees within the cities finally feel safe enough to go home, businesses are being set up, and investment from countries like Japan, China, Australia and other international organizations are noticeable in some of the shiny new buildings throughout the city.  The eternal elasticity and indomitable nature of the human spirit is present everywhere as those who have suffered unbelievable hardship prepare to dig their elbows in and rebuild again.

While there is an excitement throughout the city, evidence of poverty and the past conflicts are everywhere.  In the courtyard of every church lie tents housing internally displaced people.  The burnt frames of cars and SUVs hijacked during various periods of violence have been left where they were abandoned, and are now often used for practical means – I passed one covered with a UN tarp to store cabbage, another one draped with fishing nets.  As I look at this practical use of what is now nothing more than a metal frame, I can't help but think of what those burnt frames represent: human nature at its worst, law and order abandoned, precious resources wasted in the greed for power fuelled by violence. 

As this half-island nation is less than 10 years old, basic things we take for granted in even the most basic developing countries present logistical nightmares.  Timor is a country of only one petrol station, 3 atms, and internet connections are few and far between.  There is a stadium, but an empty field is marked "Future installation of the Dili postal system" – there is still much to do. To add to the strangeness for us westerners, Timor's beautiful beaches, unspoilt reefs for diving and amazing mountain views seem to hold little value to people who are looking for sustainable employment and affordable education.  Who needs a beach if there's never money for a vacation?  Although tourists are beginning to come, there is a long way to go. 

The evidence of an international presence in Dili is everywhere – the streets are full of UN jeeps, the refugee camps within Dili are draped with IOM tarps (International Organization for Migration) and UNHCR tents (UN High Commission for Refugees).  Whole families live in single tents laid out in neat rows on the grounds of churches, international NGOs, or occasionally religious schools – anywhere neutral that has a gate that can be locked in times of violence. 

Given the wide, open and beautiful smiles I receive on the streets of Dili whenever I walk around, it's hard to believe that violence can break out at any second.  But during our first briefing meeting at our work we were warned, that although they expected everything during our visit to go smoothly, the situation in Timor is always volatile, and we should be aware that things could change on a moment's notice.  It's the legacy they say, of a violent past and a current administration intent on making peace with Indonesia, despite the troubled past between the two nations.  This failure of justice fuels a climate where violent action will have no consequences. 

Tomorrow we begin work – and I worry people won't want to speak to us, having done too many interviews with international agencies promising change, and seeing little result.  I am eager to see what is behind those large broad smiles of the Timorese, to hear of both their heartbreak and victory, I want to see if I can't take those stories home with me, instil them in the spirits of the UK public and make them take action.

Brie O'Keefe