We get some eccentric characters turn up at the dive centre here in Dili, East Timor. I first came across Robbie walking his goat outside the supermarket on the beachfront. Robbie is a red haired Glaswegian hairdresser that sports a jaunty beret on this head. He's another veteran of East Timor as he’s a Malai that’s been here for more than five years. As families were evacuated, pets were left behind and Robbie came across a ginger pig wandering around. The owners had left the country so Robbie has adopted the pig and aptly named it Ginger Da Pig. Now he takes both Ginger and Millie the Goat for a walk round town every day.
On the subject of pigs, the Monkey Bar actually has a pig track at the back of the bar and sporadically runs pig races. Now these are serious affairs with piggy forms and odds, previous race wins etc. Even though the whole race lasts for a total of about 15 minutes. Wayne and Ann had a 50% share in a racing pig until they were informed that she had got eaten!
The big story by Channel 7 today was weddings! Because of all the troubles there were weddings scheduled that couldn’t take place, so yesterday they dealt with the backlog and saw 18 couples getting married at one church. It's quite a heartening story given the situation here.
The Austra
lian soldiers are doing a good job trying to restore peace but they came here to fight a war and what they got is vandalising, looting gangs that need policing, so more police are poring in by the day. Wayne was up in the hills at a school that has now been turned into a military base. There were loads of Ozzy soldiers with machine guns guarding the playground which is now a helicopter landing pad. As the Blackhawk took off, kids streamed on to the playground to play in the backwash the helicopter created. The soldiers just had to look on, what could they do, the kids weren’t afraid of their guns, they just wanted to play.
I had a good drive around a couple of days ago; there are a few areas where the torching is obvious because of the freshly burnt out cars. But there are so many burnt out buildings in Dili that it’s hard to tell the old ones from 1999 and the new ones. In 1999 70% of the buildings of East Timor were burnt down as a parting shot from the Indonesians as if to say ‘if we cant have them nor can you!’. I often wondered why people lived in wooden/tin shacks and didn’t rebuild the brick buildings. Apparently the burnt out buildings are left because that’s where atrocities were committed by the Indonesians, rapes, torture and brutal murders. The Timorese believe that these buildings are haunted by the spirits of the people killed in these buildings so will not rebuild them. The Timorese are highly superstitious people.
We stopped at a supermarket and outside were greeted by a truck load of Ozzy soldiers. Not a checkpoint, they were there to stock up on their Pringles. Most of them still wore their packs so were almost too wide to fit down the aisles. It’s a strange sight to see a fully clad soldier with a machine gun in one hand and a plastic shopping basket in the other.
We finally got out diving yesterday, on the boat because its safer for the Timorese staff. Poor Jose was horribly seasick all the way though. I got bitten on the lip by a clownfish, who said nemo is cute. Serves me right for sticking my head too near his anemone! We had a pod of dolphins both on the way out and back, around 60 in the second pod, jumping and doing back flips, fantastic to see. This afternoon Jose said he felt comfortable enough to do shore watch at Dili rock. The Malaysian army have set up a checkpoint nearby so we got half the curious squad asking question after question about diving as we were trying to kit up. Jose got on really well with them and was still chatting away when we emerged an hour later, so much for him being at risk, he had the Malaysian army to protect him.
On the subject of pigs, the Monkey Bar actually has a pig track at the back of the bar and sporadically runs pig races. Now these are serious affairs with piggy forms and odds, previous race wins etc. Even though the whole race lasts for a total of about 15 minutes. Wayne and Ann had a 50% share in a racing pig until they were informed that she had got eaten!
The big story by Channel 7 today was weddings! Because of all the troubles there were weddings scheduled that couldn’t take place, so yesterday they dealt with the backlog and saw 18 couples getting married at one church. It's quite a heartening story given the situation here.
The Austra
lian soldiers are doing a good job trying to restore peace but they came here to fight a war and what they got is vandalising, looting gangs that need policing, so more police are poring in by the day. Wayne was up in the hills at a school that has now been turned into a military base. There were loads of Ozzy soldiers with machine guns guarding the playground which is now a helicopter landing pad. As the Blackhawk took off, kids streamed on to the playground to play in the backwash the helicopter created. The soldiers just had to look on, what could they do, the kids weren’t afraid of their guns, they just wanted to play.I had a good drive around a couple of days ago; there are a few areas where the torching is obvious because of the freshly burnt out cars. But there are so many burnt out buildings in Dili that it’s hard to tell the old ones from 1999 and the new ones. In 1999 70% of the buildings of East Timor were burnt down as a parting shot from the Indonesians as if to say ‘if we cant have them nor can you!’. I often wondered why people lived in wooden/tin shacks and didn’t rebuild the brick buildings. Apparently the burnt out buildings are left because that’s where atrocities were committed by the Indonesians, rapes, torture and brutal murders. The Timorese believe that these buildings are haunted by the spirits of the people killed in these buildings so will not rebuild them. The Timorese are highly superstitious people.
We stopped at a supermarket and outside were greeted by a truck load of Ozzy soldiers. Not a checkpoint, they were there to stock up on their Pringles. Most of them still wore their packs so were almost too wide to fit down the aisles. It’s a strange sight to see a fully clad soldier with a machine gun in one hand and a plastic shopping basket in the other.
We finally got out diving yesterday, on the boat because its safer for the Timorese staff. Poor Jose was horribly seasick all the way though. I got bitten on the lip by a clownfish, who said nemo is cute. Serves me right for sticking my head too near his anemone! We had a pod of dolphins both on the way out and back, around 60 in the second pod, jumping and doing back flips, fantastic to see. This afternoon Jose said he felt comfortable enough to do shore watch at Dili rock. The Malaysian army have set up a checkpoint nearby so we got half the curious squad asking question after question about diving as we were trying to kit up. Jose got on really well with them and was still chatting away when we emerged an hour later, so much for him being at risk, he had the Malaysian army to protect him.
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