Nelson is a very handsome, intelligent, single Timorese guy, who earns a good wage by Timorese standards. However, should he wish to marry, the dowry would eat up his savings and any potential earnings for the next few years at least. Nelson comes from Bacau and there the dowry price for a girl is 10 buffalo. At $300 a piece, that’s a hefty sum of $3,000, especially when you consider that the average labourers wage in East Timor is a mere $2 a day. Now, if Nelson aspired to marry a girl from LosPalos (considered the most beautiful girls in East Timor) then it would set him back 70 buffalo! $21,000! Let’s hope he falls in love with a local Bacau girl, much more affordable, although at the moment he’s set his sights on a new motorbike.
Although East Timor is staunchly catholic for the majority of the population (the island of Atuaro is mostly protestant), some non catholic values are accepted, probably because of the dowry. If a couple can’t afford the dowry, they live together and if the girl gets pregnant, the dowry price comes down. Strange that contraception is a no-no because it is against the church, but sex before marriage is ok, figure that one out!
Getting back to the LosPalos girls, they are considered the most beautiful because of their fairer skin. I found the same thing in Egypt, the supermarkets stock all of these ‘Whitening’ beauty products to bleach the skin. The paler the girls skin is, the more beautiful she is considered, whereas in Europe you find bronzing products and fake tan and we clamour to get ourselves a tan to look healthy.
We have just had our busiest 3 weeks since I have been in East Timor, we even had a couple of genuine tourists! Unfortunately, someone upset the wind god and the sea has been the roughest I’ve seen it. On one dive we saw Wayne and his group literally surf back into shore. They had spent five minutes working their way out to the dive entrance only for one huge wave to take them straight back to where they started. Wayne said it was the biggest wave he had seen in the 7 years he’s been here. I attempted a dive at Dili Rock one afternoon, only to be spat out 3 times, much to the amusement of Manuel, who started giggling as if to say ‘Are you going to give up now?’ I did as my legs won’t take many more cuts and bruises. There is something to be said for struggling into a long suit.
I surfaced from a night dive at Dili Rock to see the shore ablaze with red and blue flashing lights, there were three or four UNPol cars with their lights on. While we were on the dive, Jose had been attacked by 3 guys with knives. Luckily Jose is a savvy kid and made a run for the PNTL headquarters where he managed to telephone Wayne, who then raised the alarm to UNPol. Thank god Jose got away with no more than a scratch and wasn’t seriously hurt. Luckily, I had told everyone to leave their valuables at the dive centre so the only things stolen were my bag, $40 from one customer and a pair of shoes from another. The Malaysian UNPol questioned me as I was shivering in my wetsuit (I couldn’t change as they had stolen my clothes!) and asked me to list the things stolen. It’s not until later you remember everything, but the main things were my phone, a compass, $20, keys and my clothes. The UNPol thanked me and asked if I had a phone number, ‘Yes’ I replied, ‘But they stole it!’. He sheepishly grinned and apologised for the stupid question.
About 10 minutes after we returned to the dive centre, the UNPol turned up saying they had apprehended 2 guys fitting the description and would like Jose to identify them. So as Jose couldn’t be identified, Wayne dressed him in one of his T-Shirts (about 5 times too big for Jose) and his straw hat; he looked very stylish. Sure enough one of the guys apprehended did attack Jose, but no sign of the stolen goods, which included, we remembered later, a full first aid kit. Let’s hope that that was put to some use.
We had to go and file a report today at the UNMIT HQ. A rather tedious affair as the girl detailing the incident could only type with one finger and some things like an Oceanic Wrist Compass don’t translate easily into Tetum. I amused myself by trying to identify all the different nationalities of police working there who all have different uniforms. Apart from Timorese, there were cops from Portugal, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Nigeria, Gambia, New Zealand and Australia. I guess that‘s why they are called the United Nations Police!
The microlets and taxis are displaying a new batch of windscreen stickers, which is a good sign as last year everyone was keeping their head down trying to be inconspicuous. It’s refreshing to see this trend appearing again, as it means that things are relaxing. Joe and I were giggling our way back from Dili Rock making up sentences from the windscreen stickers, a new type of car game. The best one we came up with was ‘O’M’GOD’ ‘SHEILA’, it’s a ‘TRADGEDY’’ HONEY’! Other stickers of note are Tomboy, White Zombie and Rick. But still my favourite so far is O’m’God.
There has been very little trouble over the elections, the occasional security tree alert about the usual areas and one rumour about the attempted assassination of the Liberal party leader with a bomb that failed to explode. However, you never know with these rumours, they have a tendency to take on a life of their own and get embellished with each reiteration. The Fretlin party won the majority, but it will be a coalition government and at the moment they are trying to decide who will be Prime Minister. The deadline for that decision is tomorrow, and then if no decision is made, Ramos Horta, the President will appoint someone. This could cause a few problems, as someone, somewhere, will not be happy with his decision.
I’m house sitting in an area called Bebonuk which is nearer the airport than the dive centre. An Air North plane passed overhead as I was sitting in the garden and I found myself wincing at the noise. It was at that point I reflected that I used to live 7 miles from Europe’s busiest airport, where flights used to go over my house every two minutes from 5a.m. onwards. When Concorde went over, you would have to stop conversation as you couldn’t hear yourself speak. I was wincing at the maximum of 2 scheduled flights a day and the occasional low flying helicopter. Time for a reality check!
John Howard paid Dili a visit, a kind of morale boost mission for the Ozzy troops. He then went on to Bali to open an eye hospital. I missed the concert in Dili as I flew to Bali the day before him and then got stuck in a traffic jam as he and his entourage sped past the day he left. Talk about a police escort, it took a good 5 minutes for all the cars and motorbikes to pass. I spent a few days in Bali, but this time it wasn’t quite as great. I think it’s because I’ve been house sitting prior to the trip in a really nice house, so I wasn’t clamouring to get away from it all quite as much as I would normally after 3 months in Dili. Still the break was nice; I had a shopping trip to the new Central shopping centre in Kuta, where I bought T-Shirts from Marks & Spencer’s! Plus my usual full body scrub and massage and upon Ann’s recommendation, a cream bath, where they lather up conditioner on your head and give you a most amazing head, neck and shoulder massage, bliss!
Saying that, there are loads of new massage parlours opening in Dili, one called ‘Cozy’ is so popular, you have to book an appointment weeks in advance. At least the presence of UN is helping the local economy in that way, unlike the PX. I can’t understand why the UN has a facility to buy booze at duty free prices, when alcohol is readily available in shops and restaurants around town. The UN are given the perk of cut price alcohol (for what?) when they could be boosting the local economy. I’d understand it more if the mission was in a Muslim country in the middle of nowhere, but the capital city of East Timor with its bars and restaurants is a far cry from somewhere like Afghanistan.
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