Electrical, Mechanical and Physical – East Timor 20th July 2008

Since I started my new job on the 1st of July, I’ve been plagued with breakdowns. So much so in the first few weeks I thought someone might have put a Lulik curse on me! First it was the cars. Prior to East Timor I’d only ever had one flat tyre, then one in the two plus years I’ve been in East Timor. In the first two weeks I got two flat tyres, one on each car! Then it was the batteries on both cars. Of course I was immediately asked if I had left the headlights on, I may be blonde but I’m not that dizzy! So now I’ve learnt all about batteries, alternators and glow rods (well enough to know when they break they are expensive and inconvenient!) Then I got a phone call from my colleague asking if I could send out the other car with a long tow rope as he had sunk the Land Cruiser!

I also went through a spate of accidents that kept me out of the water for a while. I think in five years of teaching I’ve had three days where I couldn’t teach due to illness. That was until a few weeks ago when I was doing a rescue course and whilst exiting the water carrying my own gear plus two others, my foot went down a hole and when a wave came, I went one way and my foot stayed in the same position, ouch! Luckily it was a bad sprain rather than a break. However, me being me, I don’t do ill, so the next weekend I thought I’d be ok to dive if I put my gear on in the water. So when a large wave came and I was dragged back out as I was holding on to my equipment. The sea literally spat me out straight into a rock and I bashed up my elbow.

Normally cuts and bruises wouldn’t be a problem providing you douse them heavily with Betadine, as in the tropics cuts can so easy get infected. However, if you are constantly in salt water it has a cleansing effect, constantly opening and cleaning the wound. So my predive preparations included strapping my elbow up with cling film and sticky tape as you can’t get proper waterproof dressings here!

I was on the mend when Mark, Pedro and Tania had their birthday party. Fuelled by Sangria; silliness ensued including jumping over the bonfire on the beach. Following several successful jumpers I managed to roll on my bad foot and went down heavily on my leg. I nursed a lovely bruise the next day as wet sand is pretty hard.

Finally, to add insult to injury (to coin a phrase), I was doing Open Water skills on the sandy bottom at Dili Rock. I felt a sharp pain in the same foot but couldn’t see what had bitten or stung me. By the time I got out of the water my foot was swelling up and turning a lovely red colour. Driving back to the Dive Centre I was finding it hard to breathe, swallowing was difficult which really started to worry me. For the first time since I started my scuba career I actually used my insurance to call DAN (Divers Alert Network) and spoke to a great doctor. Hence for the next hour I had to sit with my foot in a bucket of extremely hot water, much to the amusement of the staff.

Just when I thought the curse had lifted, the compressor buggered itself! Luckily we have two! So I spent the last few days in Bali getting a simple ‘O’ Ring changed on a filter. I had to go to Bali anyway as my quarterly Marks and Spencer’s shopping run was due. But trying to explain this weird looking mechanical device in your hand luggage to customs officers was slightly trying.

Still for all the lumps, bumps and bruises you get in this profession, it’s still worth it when you get a diver squealing with delight through his regulator after his first dive and telling you that ‘I’ll never forget my first dive, and I’ll never forget you’. Especially when he is from a land locked country such as Nepal.

On a final note, the diving here is great, but the place is quirky. We were kitting up to dive at Tasi Tolu when a Blackhawk started to take off behind us. Of course all dive preparations stopped as we watched the show, those things are impressive.

Playing Battleships Again – East Timor 12th February 2008

In my new flat I have a TV, a receiver and a digi box. I have all this equipment with cables everywhere and I can only get one channel, the BBC World News! Watching my one and only channel yesterday morning I was updated about the news of Dili, but I had already been informed by the more reliable Dili grapevine. The president Jose Ramos Horta had been shot and was in a critical condition being treated in Darwin, the assassins also tried to shoot the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, but he was unharmed and the leader of the rebels Alfredo was shot and killed.

Needless to say we were advised to restrict movements around town and there is a curfew for the next couple of days between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. The new PM of Australia, Kevin Rudd sent over a load more troops after a request from Xanana and declaring a state of emergency. So at the moment we have HMAS Perth strutting its stuff just off the waters of Dili, the waters of which at the moment are terrible with all the rain we have been having. It’s a feeling of Déjà Vu, we were having the same weather when the first battleship appeared in May 2006.

Obviously with such shocking news, people are worried about the repercussions, but it seems that Ramos Horta is pulling through and the International Security Force is trying to round up the remaining rebels. Without their leader, let’s hope that that faction will lose momentum. Apart from that, the city seems calm.

In other news, the rations given to the IDP’s has been halved, trying to persuade them to their homes. It was feared that there could have been a backlash but I’ve heard no reports of any troubles at the camps.

But the best snippet of this week is a European delegation that were invited to attend a meeting in East Timor’s capital, Dili. They were a little concerned when no-one was waiting for them at the airport, the telephone numbers they had been given didn’t work and no-one at the airport seemed to know anything about their arrival. It’s probably because they were waiting at Delhi airport, India!

Here we go again! – East Timor 11th August 2007

East Timor has a new Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao (not a surprise!) There were a few problems leading up to the announcement, which we expected. Monday, I was trying to be a tourist and replace some of the photos that I lost when my hard drive crashed. I’d picked the worst day for it, as it was overcast and threatening rain, not great for photos. My phone started pinging at an alarming rate with security text messages; avoid this area, disturbances in that area, it seemed that all over town there were rock fights, burning tyres and unofficial road blocks. I’d been all over Dili that day and seen absolutely nothing; it’s really a case of being caught at the wrong place at the wrong time because as soon as the UNPol get there, the show is over.

At the time of the mass texts, I was at the Casbar for sundowners, probably one of the furthest places I could be from Bebonuk where I’m house sitting. Prompting Robbie we finished our drinks as I didn’t want to drive around town in the dark. The boys are less discriminating at night; luckily I wasn’t driving a white car that could be mistaken for UN, but still I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks. As we left the Casbar we could see smoke rising over Dili so I dropped Robbie off and picked a route that avoided all the usual hotspots such as the IDP camp in front of Hotel Timor. Driving through Colmera I found the source of the fire, flames licking out of the top of the customs building. The rest of the route home was trouble free although sitting on the porch that night I could hear gunfire in Comoro and at 1am there were 4 UNPol cars outside the house.

The next day in Bebonuk there was evidence of the previous night’s events, the remains of smouldering tyres on the road but for the rest of the day it seemed calm, except they set fire to the Customs building again and really finished it off this time. We are wondering if this wasn’t a strategic move to get rid of any evidence of dodgy deals over the last 7 years! I phoned Tony to find out if the new handle for the car had arrived, he assured me that it had arrived on Monday, but no-one could find it as the paperwork had gone up in flames, in the Customs House!

Wednesday, I left the house to go to work as the UNPol were apprehending a few local lads. The phone pinged again ‘Reported disturbances at Bebonuk Primary School’, already too late, the show was over. By Thursday I was diving at Dili Rock, no problems at the airport which had previously been shut. Although there were a few UNPol around as Rogerio Lobato, who was jailed for 7½ years in 2006, was grounded on a plane awaiting the OK to take off, apparently to receive treatment for heart problems. There were reports of trouble brewing in some of the districts including Metinaro, so diving in the East was out.

By Friday I was diving at K41 as Metinaro was fine, the incidents were now reported further East in Baucau and Viqueque. I had been teaching a wonderful lady who was here visiting her daughter (what a week to come!). Unfortunately, her daughters’ workload had increased due to the problems and the only thing Mum had seen was the house and the Dive Centre, so I showed her what a beautiful country this is once you get outside of Dili. In the afternoon I played tour guide, stopping at the basket village, the Tais Market and a couple of souvenir shops. Boy does this lady know how to shop! It was good fun.

Wayne is playing reporter again, so the dive truck is now a press truck. He’s gone off to Baucau which is the latest trouble hotspot along with Viqueque where combined, reportedly 120 buildings have been burnt and in Baucau an UNPol car that was escorting an NGO was attacked with guns and the vehicles torched. However, no-one has been able to get into Viqueque including the press, so any reports of trouble are unconfirmed.

As for Dili, its business as usual, people on the streets, chicken vendors firing up their BBQ’s, market stalls open. The only thing that’s been affected is the diving as the UN has put a ban on travel to the districts. So I guess its Dili Rock again!

Baby Jesus Underwater - East Timor 27th December 2006

My break in Bali was great but it was so hot and humid. Luckily I treated myself to a great hotel where I had a lovely bungalow with air con, satellite TV, swimming pool, king size bed and hot water, all the things I don’t have in East Timor, so much of the time I was collapsed under the air con. The nice thing about Bali at the moment is its off season so the price per night was about £14, the bad thing about the off season is Bali is dead so everyone is desperate for business and the street hassle gets unbearable. I can’t count the number of times I was asked if I want transport.

I nearly got injured as I walked out of Bali airport, walking across the car park to the taxi rank. It was windy and out of the corner of my eye I saw the back of kiosk moving, I jumped back but as the metal sheeting fell it scraped down my arm. After coming out of a land of gun battles, ambon arrows and stone throwing, I nearly get taken out in Bali by a low flying kiosk!

I caught up with some diving instructor mates that have restored a shipwreck, it’s a beautiful boat and we spent a great evening on it drinking beer and watching the sun go down. My other activity in Bali was shopping, it’s great there, you go into a shop and pick out the basic design and they will make the clothes in your shape and size within a couple of days, although I couldn’t find a plain white T-shirt for love nor money!

When I got back to Dili I met up with Robbie for dinner, and he’s got a new goat called Bibi, very cute. Millie sadly did not return. Robbie has painted a sign on the side of his house warning of goat security instead of ‘Beware of the Dog!’

I’ve been busy since I got back; I’ve been teaching a Polish tourist, a Portuguese policeman and an Australian helicopter pilot, you meet interesting people in this job. I’d been diving one morning and had hung up my swimming costume to dry on the line, then grabbed it and put it on in the Esplanada toilets. I sat down to give my students a dive briefing when I felt I was being bitten. I ran and jumped into the swimming pool, my swimming costume was full of ants!

This morning we were at Dili Rock preparing for a dive when an Australian soldier approached us and asked us to avoid using the road. A Black Hawk helicopter was just about to take off from the football field, it was magnificent to watch but the dust was incredible, there is no way it would be safe for a car passing at that time, it was a complete brown out.

I came home this afternoon and started laughing, Wayne was sitting on the porch wearing a flashing Santa Claus hat, looking like one of the grumpy old gits, ‘Ho, bloody ho!’ We were singing Christmas carols on the way home from the dive site yesterday, it felt quite weird in 30◦ with the sun shining. I’ve had Christmases abroad in the heat before but I’ve never worked on Christmas day, this year we are taking a load of customers out diving and Christmas dinner on the beach, should be fun.

All around Dili, nativity scenes are being built. With 94% Catholicism, Christmas is a big deal. The nativity scenes are big, about 2 metres high and a meter tall and each village has one. Jurgen did a deal in his village, where he provided the lights providing they stop singing at 10pm. Unfortunately the fire crackers don’t stop then, they are so loud and sound like gunshots, which is not great in this country at this time. Its funny comparing Guy Fawkes Day in the UK, where everyone stands back to let off a rocket and here, where they think throwing a fire cracker at each other is funny!

I’m house sitting Jurgen’s house at the moment which is great, hot water, air con and TV, I feel like I’m on holiday again. The best thing about it is I get the car for two weeks, a great Pajero with power steering, air con, a handbrake and music. It’s so nice to have a bit of power, reverse out without straining your arm muscles and stop on a hill without playing the clutch and best of all no rattling. The old dive truck serves its purpose but it’s nice to drive a posh car again.

The crime situation here seems to have calmed down a bit, talking to the NZ police it seems there are fewer incidents but when they happen they are more violent. Rather than just stone throwing there are ambon arrows, grenades and firearms. A Timorese guy died recently from gunshot wounds and the Dili rumour mill was it was the Ozzy forces that shot him. However talking to someone in ‘the know’, they said they investigated the site where the body was found and there was no way that the only Ozzy forces guy that opened fire could have killed him, angle, range etc. However, the body was removed immediately and buried and without an autopsy to remove the bullet, nothing can be concluded. The one force guy (not sure if he was army or police) that did open fire, did so when he was faced with a youth armed with a shotgun.

Talking of guns, we had a Kiwi soldier diving with us last week. He came along with his mate who was just there to guard the guns. It was pretty weird seeing machine guns next to the dive equipment.

The rain has started, not daily yet, but when it rains. Within 10 minutes the kitchen was flooding, so we were running round the house making sure there were no electrical cables on the floor, shouting over the noise as the veranda has a tin roof. In nearly all south-east Asian countries you will find the plug sockets half way up the wall, which seems strange and awkwardly placed until you see the rain coming in and realise that there is very sound logic to it. I had to wade ankle deep out to car, my new fancy Bali flip flops are not going to survive very long at this rate. Luckily there were no leaks at Jurgen’s house.

Christmas day went off without a hitch, luckily I was not working on Christmas Eve so it gave me a chance to run Ann around for the last minute bits she needed. I picked up the turkey and the beef and luckily as I’m house-sitting at the moment we used Jurgens fridge to ease the strain on the kitchen. Wayne went up to the dive site with two of the lads, the marquee, decorations and the tanks. The boys slept at the dive site with food and four cans of beer each, so they were happy.

I picked up Robbie en route Christmas morning and he was carrying Bibi Buddah (his baby goat). Slightly worried about the upholstery of the car, I made an agreement with Robbie that if Bibi had a little accident then he would clean it up. I needn’t have worried; she was as good as gold just letting out an occasional bleat from the back seat.

Arriving at the dive site it looked fantastic, a large marquee covered in tinsel and decorations. The boys set up the tables with tablecloths and crackers and within minutes the non divers were tucking into the champagne. The first dive was 20meters visibility at K41 and we went hunting for the Santa’s that Wayne had planted around the previous day. Unfortunately the Santa’s had disappeared, probably eaten by some over zealous parrotfish! But the nativity scene at 18meters was there in all its glory, it was weighted down, we couldn’t have a buoyant baby Jesus.

I finally had my first drink n Christmas day after the second dive, a well earned glass of champagne. This is the first ever Christmas day that I have worked and although I’ve spent a couple of Christmases in Australia, where it is hot, I’ve never dived on Christmas Day.

Boxing day we closed the dive centre, 364 days a year is enough. The intention was to have cold turkey, mashed potatoes and pickle for lunch, but one of our staff appeared to have helped himself to the leftover turkey, so it was cold ham instead. To make it feel more Christmassy, Wayne had managed to get a half decent copy of the new Bond film. So we sat down with our ham and pickles, a glass of champagne and 2 hours of Daniel Craig (the new Bond) in action. All we were missing was the Only Fools and Horses Xmas special!

It seems the Christmas spirit has quietened down the trouble. Christmas day saw Timorese families in their finest outfits going to church. At night they sang, let off fire crackers and fireworks, and as far as I’m aware were no major incidents. Plus we’ve had electricity all Christmas and no rain. I’ve probably spoken too soon though, but I hope it will continue.

Lock up your livestock – East Timor 24th July 2006

We have now decided we prefer the Ozzy troops to the Kiwis. The Ozzy’s have browned off a bit and look less like lobsters and one Kiwi soldier was rude to me. So much that Wayne had to defend my honour. I’d pulled up to a road block in Hera with Wayne driving the car behind me. A Kiwi soldier was manning the block and kept me waiting with no eye contact. This is not a big deal, but they are usually very friendly. He then asked for ID, so I replied I didn’t have to show him ID because it wasn’t the law in East Timor to carry it. Puzzled, he tried to clarify his question, ‘So you don’t have ID? I told him I did but it was in the back of the truck and I didn’t have to show it to him, (if it had been to hand I would have given it to him). He then took his time check the truck and plates and finally gave me the thumbs up signal, so off I drove. Unbeknown to me, behind my truck he made a rather rude hand gesture then stormed up to Wayne’s car and called me a ‘Feken Betch’ (please excuse my Kiwi accent). Astonished Wayne replied ‘She’s not a Feken Betch, she works for me!’ To defend his words the Kiwi replied ‘She wouldn’t show me ID’, to which Wayne replied ‘She’s quite in her rights not to, we are under Timorese law not martial law’. Disgruntled the soldier let Wayne through. They are so bored; at least it will give him something to talk about in the mess tonight.

It’s a really fine balance when you bring troops in from different countries and cultures, they are bored out of their brains, and don’t know anything about the country or their traditions. The Malaysian troops have been brought to our attention as Shane was driving through a roadblock and got searched. He spoke to the troops in Bahasa which they understand and claimed he had no weapons in his truck. Being a forester he didn’t think that the machete under his seat and the saw and shears in the back of his truck were weapons. Of course when the Malaysian troops found them Shane realised that they could be seen in a different light. The Malaysians kept repeating that machetes can kill people and then asked if Shane was their friend? Shane immediately thought they wanted money, but no, they wanted girls. Obviously Shane refused to be their pimp. So much for good little Muslim boys.

The Catholic church has a huge influence here, so obviously there is no sex before marriage, no contraception and they have made prostitution illegal. You may as well stick your head in the sand! Prostitution has been around since the roman times, and just because its illegal doesn’t mean it will stop, all you will see is the rise of HIV and backstreet abortions. Women here are baby making machines, even when they neither can afford it in monetary terms or physically. The First Lady has set up a very worthy charity which encourages mothers to breast feed, a natural but not foolproof contraception.

Obviously with the Catholic influence, over-population is a problem which the Indonesians tried to eradicate by injecting contraception chips into unsuspecting Timorese women during the occupation. Human guinea pigs! It’s reported that 70% of the population is under 22, hence high levels of unemployment. Bored and poor young men are never a good mixture when you look at the recent troubles here.

With the return on the UN, GNR, AFP (Awfully fat police!) and troops from various countries, and old problem has been recently reported by Lindsey Murdock of the Sydney Morning Herald (who let the dogs out fame, for anyone who has been following this saga). He recently wrote an article regading at least 20 children born to UN peacekeepers that have been abandoned with no financial means of support, whilst their mothers have been exiled from their communities. He also wrote ‘In early 2001, two soldiers were sent home with injured penises after allegedly attempting sexual intercourse with goats’. Forget lock up your daughters, lock up your livestock! I’d better tell Robbie to make sure Millie (his goat) is safe.

I’ve heard a story about two Jordanese soldiers that raped a little boy here in 2001. They were escorted home by the King of Jordan and shot dead the moment they stepped off the plane. That’s the punishment for that type for crime in Jordan.

There are still thousands of people in IDP camps around Dili, still too scared to go home. I hear the argument that these camps are too permanent and they don’t encourage people to move back. But if you can imagine me, camping out in Datchet train station, too scared to return to my 3 bed semi in case Ana and Evan beat me up and torch my house. You can’t can you?

On the diving front, this weekend we ran a boat trip to the island of Atauro. We had two boats full but the weather was rough so we had a few seasick people. When I briefed Nelson and Jose on the Friday, both their faces fell when I mentioned the boat. This was not surprising as the last time both their faces were a horrible shade of green through seasickness. I assured them that this time we would give them seasick tablets, but unfortunately they didn’t work and both of them sported the same green pallor for most of the day. I don’t think they will trust me again.

The diving itself was incredible; the first dive was Manta Ray cove. I can honestly say I have never done a wall dive with such pristine virgin coral. The colours were spectacular with the morning shards of light streaming through caves and crevices, it assailed your senses, so much that you didn’t know where to look and couldn’t take it all in. With 30 meters visibility and a large Napoleon Wrasse, it’s got to be in my top 10 dives of all time.

Just taking the pig for a walk – East Timor11th June 2006

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 Australian 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.

Plastic Refugees – East Timor 7th June 2006

The streets of Dili have quietened down, there are still trouble spots but they are mainly in specific areas, not widespread. Outside the Parliament building there are signs thanking the Australians for their intervention but this opinion is mixed. In some areas the gangs are chanting ‘Australians go home’, the Ozzies are disarming people but in some cases this is the only means the Timorese people have of protecting themselves. Wayne came across an Australian woman called Rocky who has run a rehabilitation centre in Dili for years. At the time the Ozzie troops had got all her staff on the floor and were disarming them. Rocky tried to explain to the troops, that her staff were not carrying weapons to loot and fight but to protect themselves and the centre. But the Australian’s job is to disarm and that’s what they did. Wayne met Rocky a couple of days later behind a barricade, when she enquired about her centre Wayne had the unenviable job of explaining that her years of hard work and dedication were burning down as they spoke. The staff could no longer protect the building.

One of the temporary staff in the Esplanada asked Wayne about his house and explained roughly where it was. Wayne checked the area out, now hasn’t got the heart to tell him the whole area is razed to the ground.

There seems to be an East/West divide going on in the city, people cannot return home for fear of being attacked by their neighbours because they were born in the wrong part of the country. We have divers for Saturday but I can’t take any staff out with me because it’s not safe for them. One of the ABC news trucks was attacked with stones on Monday because they stupidly took an East East Timorese interpreter with them to a West East Timorese area.

On the positive side, there was a peaceful march by the rebels yesterday. They delivered a petition to Xanana demanding the resignation of Alkatiri. It went off without incident which is encouraging.

Walking around town you see the refugee camps. These are set up in the squares and churches in the open air housing hundreds of families. What struck me was the use of plastic and nylon, plastic sheeting for sun protection, nylon rope for washing lines, plastic bottles for water, plastic baskets for possessions and plastic bags for food. I saw a young mother washing her baby in a plastic bowl, scooping water over him with a plastic cup. The only organic thing I saw in these camps was the wood on the fire. You see an abundance of plastic all over Asia, whereas china is more acceptable in 1st world countries and plastic scorned upon as the cheap throw away alternative only used for picnics.

It was heart warming to watch the little naked boys playing in the sea again. Of course as soon as they saw I had a camera it was ‘Hello Mister, photo’. That’s the nice thing about digital, as soon as you take the photo you can show it to them, which is responded to with infectious giggling and broad smiles. I once saw a girl in Cambodia taking photos with a Polaroid camera. The best shots she got were the looks on the kid’s faces as their image appeared on the paper by magic.

Aid workers are slowly trickling back into East Timor; many have been here before so we are seeing the return of some die hard divers at our door. We had one guy from the Red Cross enquiring about diving at the weekend that had been a regular customer 4 years before. So the plan is to go diving on Saturday, not sure where yet, that all depends on the situation, but I can’t wait to get working again.

Come back Johnny the Tooth – East Timor 3rd June 2006

We have 5 staff here at the dive centre all locals of East Timor, 4 officially and then there is Johnny. Maria, the housekeeper, disappeared up to the hills at the very start of the troubles and hasn’t been seen or heard of since. We suspect she’s up in the hills with no money to get back down again but our endeavours to try and contact her have remained fruitless. Nelson and Jose are our main dive hands and are both Advanced divers, they are both staying in refugee camps with their families. Nelson is staying at Arte Morris, an Art centre for Timorese boys and Nelson with Dr Dan. Both these organisations are charities not NGO’s (Non-Government Organisations), so do not have funds from private investors. Arte Morris promote and sell Timorese art as far as Europe and Dr Dan is probably the most knowledgeable authority on malaria and dengue fever in this part of the world. Every other fortnight the proceeds of the quiz night at the Dili Club go to Dr Dan.

Manuel I can only describe as Manuel out of Faulty Towers, ‘Que?’! He speaks Bahasa rather than Tetun and is a man of very few words. If you ask him something and he doesn’t understand, he remains motionless looking at you, so you try again, an awful lot of pointing at things goes on. Manuel had left his bike at the dive centre and we hadn’t seen him for a few days so we were getting a little concerned as Jose and Nelson couldn’t contact him. Wayne was out at the Komoro Bridge yesterday which was the centre of the gang fights. As he approached Australian troops detaining five Timorese men crouching on the floor, he realised that one of the men was Manuel. Picking him up and giving him some money raised the voices of the Australian troops who demanded to know what Wayne had given him. Wayne explained he was an employee and he had given him his wages. Manuel was then allowed to walk away.

It’s very hard for the Australian troops to make a judgement call. Is this a looter? Or is this someone trying to save his own possessions before his house is burned to the ground. Wayne came across another guy who was being detained by the troops; he was trying to take the tin off of his own roof as he feared that the house was going to be torched.

At least though the Ozzies came and helped, along with the Kiwis and Malays, in total over 2000 troops. But the snotty Portuguese have refused to put 120 police in here because quote ‘Portugal did not accept, does not accept, nor will not accept that the Republican National Guard be subordinate to the operational command of a foreigner’. A foreigner! Who do they think they are, with their piddly little force! They abandoned East Timor and allowed the Indonesians to invade in 1975; they are just as much foreigners to East Timor as the Australians are. Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Normality is returning, the trouble spots are much quieter, the supermarkets, banks and petrol stations are open again. A few chicken vendors are open at night, occasional taxis can be seen and an enterprising phone card vendor has set up a new pitch outside the Esplanada, lots of business for him because that’s where many of the journalists are staying. All we need now is for Johnny to return. Johnny owns a vending cart and his pitch is just opposite the dive centre Many a young whippersnapper has tried to muscle in on his pitch to no avail, when Johnny is there, we only buy from him. Because the dive centre has no bar, Johnny is our mobile off licence selling the cheapest Tiger beer in Dili. He also stocks our individual brands of cigarettes, Ann smokes menthol which is not popular with Timorese, but Johnny knows he will have regular demand. Johnny, like Manuel, is a man of little words and I've never seen him smile, but it would be quite hard for Johnny to smile as he has one protruding front tooth, hence the name Johnny the Tooth. Johnny sits outside come rain or shine with his extremely ventilated Freeflow T-shirt which has seen better years let alone days. So when Johnny’s cart appears again outside the dive centre then I can safely say things are getting back to normal.

We’ve got limes! – East Timor 1/6/06

Yesterday in Dili, the supermarkets opened and the petrol stations. Ann had a field day, she even bought frozen limes, which turned out to be a cross between a lime and an orange, but what the hell, they still tasted good. Supplies were limited but she managed to concoct a fantastic feast for eight people that night. I was the only non-journalist related person in the crowd which is fascinating because you get a completely different take on things. One of the die hard journo’s was concerned about his rookie cameraman because the cameraman had got some superb up close and personal shot that day, but the temptation with the adrenaline buzzing is to get an even better shot the next day, regardless of his personal safety.

The French Ambassador came round. His contract actually expired today, but he has his staff and their families living in his home at the moment, so he’s not going to leave until his staff are re-housed safely, even though as from today he will not be insured to be in the country.

Hector is a very eccentric Australian guy who speaks the most fluent Tetun of any westerner. He lives up in the hills with the Timorese community. Up in the hills there is a shortage of rice, you can’t buy rice or water in the supermarkets because the UN has bought it all for redistribution to the refugees. Hector came down escorting a microlet on his motorbike, the microlet was full of vegetable, the local community here was ecstatic. One old guy was driving past on his motorbike and screeched to a halt, bought a bag of vegetables then drove away singing at the top of his voice. All the villagers seemed to have smiles on their faces and the chicken vendors even set up stall for a couple of hours tonight.

The vegetable truck really saw the turning of a corner because trade s starting to happen again, also many people that are stuck up in the hills with no money and no petrol are now seeing an empty microlet returning to the village with rice after having ventured into the city. That vegetable truck speaks volumes to the local community about safety.

I saw my first Australian army foot patrol in East Timor today, there were only two of them on foot, but it reassures the villagers that they are being protected. There are still gangs fighting on the streets of Dili, but the press have finally got it right, they are gangs of scroates, not army versus police. What makes it worse is many of the gangs have Chinese fire crackers which to the untrained ear sound like gunfire, of course there is still some gunfire but it makes it hard to differentiate. Here, if you insult a Timorese then you insult 30 members of their family, so much of the violence and burning is to do with revenge, also jealousy, if one family has more than another in their Campong.

The atmosphere is definitely calmer today with the Ozzy troops and Xanana declaring a state of emergency yesterday whilst taking control of the country’s forces. That’s the one guy that has the history and charisma to command respect in East Timor, let’s hope a peaceful solution is around the corner. The water is calmer again and I cant wait to get diving!

The boys are back in town - East Timor 30/5/06

More troops are pouring into East Timor, so apart from the Ozzies, we now have Kiwi, Malaysian and Portuguese troops here and yet more journalists. The biggest story of yesterday was the Ozzy troops setting up a food station in the middle of Dili to hand out free rice. Given the normal abject poverty of East Timor, where many people go without rice in everyday life, no wonder they got 20,000 people queuing for free food. We watched the BBC World News coverage of the widespread violence throughout Dili. According to the reporter, no place was free of violence or safe in the whole of the city, and the food queue was a mass riot. Ann and I looked at each other, and then around the restaurant we had just walked to, had we missed something and walked there with our eyes shut? What amazed us was that the BBC led with a story on East Timor when the absolute tragedy of the Indonesian earthquake should have warranted priority. The report in The Times was the most sensationalist article I've read so far, it’s infuriating, because now I can see how friends and relatives can be completely misled about the safety of their loved ones by watching and reading this coverage.

I'm not denying that there is a very real problem here, but its not army versus police, its gangs of boys looting and torching who have no problem at all with the Malai (westerners) here. Shots are being fired but mostly in the air for bravado, stones are being throw and cars being torched. In fact, Wayne does not like going into non troubled areas for fear of inciting the scroates to play up to the camera. The difference is with him, he lives here. The death toll is reported at 11 people at the moment, 11 too many, but a small number if you compare it to other incidents like this around the world. Only this morning Wayne got the news that a very good friend of his was killed in Iraq.

Restaurants are bravely soldiering on with very limited menus. Everything is served with rice as potatoes and vegetables are in very scarce supply. Flip used to own the Dili Club on the seafront until it was commandeered by the government to build the Chinese Embassy. So he reopened near an area called Komoro, which has seen much of the fighting. The Dili Club is famous for its quiz nights and pizza. Not that the pizza is the best in town, but he’s the only one that delivers. Having been closed for most of the week, he opened for 2 hours and took $500 in pizza delivery orders, that’s a hell of a lot of pizza.

Ann went to pay her internet bill, the office of which was swarming with press trying to feed their stories. The owner was sitting on his balcony with a pair of binoculars, Ann thought he may be watching the battleships, but no, he was watching a whale in the bay spurting water from its blowhole. Surprisingly enough we haven’t had mass cancellations of tourists for later in the year, I guess divers are made of sterner stuff. I saw the same thing in Egypt after the Sharm bomb, the dive industry wasn’t affected as badly as I thought it would be.

We have a sense of Déjà Vu every evening when we venture two doors down to the Esplanada. Its getting very boring, but you have to get out of the house. The same faces every night, the press and the Embassy staff. According to the Embassy, half the Brits are still here, a hardy bunch. The Australian troops have issued two numbers for people to call if they see trouble in their area; the problem is getting this information to the local people. Many are fleeing their homes with their possessions because they don’t feel safe, but have no idea where to go. Whereas the troops are now encouraging people to return home so normality can be restored. We were watching a beautiful sunset when this double mattress walked past, you could hardly see the guy behind it. One of the press was running around the street taking photographs of a lady heavily laden with her possessions on her head. He then stopped to get a different shot and the lady had to struggle into the road to walk round him. I ripped him off a strip for that.

The government have been in meetings all day, and everyone is awaiting the outcome. There is not a simple solution but hopefully there will be one that sees peace restored in this beautiful country very soon. And I can get back to diving some of the best reefs in the world.

Sod the limes! Peace will do – East Timor 29/5/06

In times of civil unrest, refugees, water shortages and burnt out houses, it really pisses you off when someone moans that they are really fed up with the situation because they can’t buy any petrol! To put some perspective on this, Wayne and the TV crew saved a 12 year old boy from being beheaded by a rival gang yesterday, so this whinging didn’t go down too well, obviously.

It’s reported that 50,000 refugees are in 35 camps around the city of Dili. Talking to a representative of World Aid last night, their problem is that the Timorese drivers are too scared to go to the camps so food is not being delivered. I've offered voluntary services to both World Aid and IMO (The International Organisation for Migration), but so far they haven’t taken me up on it. What they really need drivers that know the backstreets of Dili like the back of their hand.

We had our first glimpse of the Australian troops today, an armoured vehicle hurtling past the house, god it was noisy. One of the British Embassy staff agreed last night we are probably in the safest area of Dili. If trouble starts in Embassy Alley then it’s definitely time to leave the country.

Over 1000 troops have been deployed to East Timor. The Australian troops are focussing on disarming the rebels. One of the journalists had a great shot of a pile machetes, swords, arrows and axes, on top of which was a nice pair of hairdressers scissors with pink plastic handles. It reminds me of airport checks for nail clippers.

To top it all we had a phone call from one of our regular divers, he was sitting with a bloke that was stuck here for 10 days (probably on a visa run), who wanted to know if he could get some diving in while he was here. Well if the safety situation and the weather situation calm down in the next few days, then bring it on! This slightly unrealistic request did make us smile.

Wot no gin! East Timor 28th May 2006

We have now run out of gin, we had to drink it with lemon as we couldn’t get any limes, not quite the same. Dili is heaving with press; we even have a cameraman sleeping in my classroom tonight as all the hotels are full. The hotels are also rapidly running out of beer, food and cigarettes as the container ships bringing supplies from Australia cannot get in. There is also a shortage of petrol for the same reason, so even if the supermarkets were open, which they are not, you can’t get there. And as for paying for supplies, the banks are closed with no money in the ATM’s so cash is being brought in by the next plane load of journalists.

Flights are still coming in from Darwin but the Merpati flight from Bali has stopped. Bang goes the evacuation to an exotic location. The UN have upgraded to level 3 security alert so all non essential personnel have been evacuated. Jurgen begrudgingly text me this morning as he didn’t want to leave, saying he was on a flight to Darwin did I need anything? Yes, gin and limes!

Thousands of Timorese are fleeing the city, taxis hare past full to the brim with people sitting in the open boot, however, the Australian troops have gone some way to quell the panic. Apparently the churches are full of refugees. Whereas before the Dili residents fled to the mountains, this time that’s where most of the trouble is, so the inner city churches are packed.

In times like this it is enlightening to see the fish and chicken vendors setting up their barbeques on the beach. Some entrepreneurs have put the price of phone cards up to $15 for a $10 card and occasionally you get an opportunist cigarette seller going door to door. The British Embassy advised us to stay indoors but we ran into both the Ambassador and the 2nd in command at the Esplanada last night. Well everyone has to eat!

The fighting is hooligans, they have no axe to grind with westerners, but as a precaution Wayne and the crew drive around with their arms out of the car so the colour of their skin can be seen. In the midst of the fighting these guys will shout ‘Hello mister’ whilst being pursued by Australian troops. One NZ reporter I was talking to last night almost got caught in crossfire, but I guess that goes with territory.

But as for me, i'm getting bored, our amusement of the day is watching the dogs play. Someone has upset the wind gods, probably Australian troops hot legging through sacred trees, so even if we could go diving, the water is too choppy. Ill never complain about not having enough days off again!