We’ve got Whales – East Timor 21st November 2006

A great day at K41, one of my favourite dive sites in East Timor. We spotted at least 3 humpback whales fairly close to the shore. Watching the coastline we saw them come up 4 times and the last time after a huge spout of water we saw the tail of one of the whales as it dived, awesome! The next day at Bobs Rock we had another humpback much closer to shore this time. People are reporting seeing them now on an almost daily basis from the shores of Dili itself.

I had dinner with Robbie the other night and he told me with sadness that Miss Millie (his pet goat) had disappeared. Robbie suspects’ foul play as the neighbour was always complaining that the free roaming Miss Millie was ruining his garden by eating all the plants. According to the neighbour Miss Millie was last seen on Saturday trotting up the mountain, but Robbie heard rumours that Millie was tied up in the local village on Friday night, which in Robbie’s mind makes the neighbour the prime suspect. However, Robbie did add that Millie was pregnant and could have gone up the mountain to give birth. I hope this is the case. To be continued…….or not!

We were off to have coffee that night at the Timor Hotel (Dilis’ poshest establishment). Whilst walking from the car to the entrance we heard strange grunting noises from the car park next door. It was the Kiwi army doing a full blown Hukka. Only in East Timor!

I’ve got so used to seeing the military and the UN Police around, I don’t think anything of it any more. I’m even teaching some of the Philippine police to dive. The pool we use is in the Hotel Esplanada which is now the residence of 25 Kiwi police, who are often in the pool late afternoons supping a beer. One of the exercises I have to teach my students is the CESA which involves them swimming slowly from one end of the pool to another on one breath. To make sure they don’t hold their breath or take a sneaky one, I get them to sing whilst doing this, and practice on the surface with a snorkel before doing it underwater. One of my students was unsuccessful on his first attempt so jokingly said ‘Ill have to improve my singing’. This was met by loud applause and cheers and a ‘Yes please mate’ from the surrounding Kiwi police pool mates.

Its great working with different cultures, I’ve discovered that the philippinos ‘Want to be together’ in everything they do. They also like a precise agenda, have all the latest gadgets and adore taking photos of each other. Wayne jokingly asked them several times today if they were sure they were not Japanese.

The 12th of November is Remembrance Day for the massacre at Santa Cruz. In 1991 hundreds of young Timorese marched peacefully to the Santa Cruz cemetery to place flowers on the grave of a student that had been shot dead at the church two weeks before. As they reached the cemetery the Indonesian troops opened fire and mowed them down killing hundreds.

The atmosphere that day was a little tense as the situation here is quite volatile. As we drove to Backpackers that night, the streets were lined with candles, each one of them representing a dead relative or friend. It was quite eerie seeing all these tiny lights on streets that would normally be completely dark as Dili does not have street lights. When we got to Backpackers we found the restaurant closed as the staff were scared of the crowd on the street, but as I watched the kids walk by a couple were playing guitar and the kids were singing Timorese songs, in peace.

The central areas for trouble in Dili are the IDP camps, especially the ones in central Dili, the Airport, outside Hotel Timor, the hospital and the Obrigado Barracks. New IDP camps have been built further out of the city, but the only way you can get the IDP’s to move to these new sites is withdraw supplies. You cannot force them to move as it would be against their human rights. So supplies of food and water to the old sites were stopped on the 16th. Of course this transition would never be without its problems and yesterday the 20th, came a turning point in the troubles, the first Malai was murdered. It was a Brazilian priest on his way to the hospital. Who knows what is going to happen next and what the repercussions of this will be.