The Adventures of Takako the Danger Librarian

5 January 2002:
"The Holiday Vortex and the People Who Help Me Cope"

It's been a while since I wrote an installment -- work got busy,
and I actually started to have a Life here, so to speak. I 
thought that, instead of trying to cover the happenings of the 
past month or so, I would do some sketches of the people that I 
have come to know, the people who form a part of my daily life,
starting with those around my current abode.

When I first moved to the Loro Sae Dili Hotel, the managers were
two Kiwis, Alan and Kaye. They have since moved on, having had 
their fill of running a hotel/restaurant in Dili, and they are 
currently back home in New Zealand. They are going to be back 
for a week or so to see whether they can get some other kind of 
work here, but if not, I heard they would move onto Australia to 
look for something to do. Alan used to be in the New Zealand 
army. They're both very spirited and gregarious, with a great 
sense of humour. From the stories they've told, it seems they 
have lived a varied and interesting life - working in mines in 
the Outback of Australia being part of it.

While they were indeed very happy to be able to leave the hotel
and go home, at least for a while, I think they left with some 
really good experiences here.  A couple weeks before Christmas, 
they planned, and volunteered select hotel guests, to host a 
party for all their Timorese staff.  We served dinner to the 
people who usually take care of us -- the roomboys, the 
laundrymen, the front desk people, the kitchen and dining room 
staff.  One of the guests, Bo, was a professional chef in a past 
life, and he prepared potato salad and cole slaw (I helped peel 
and cut the potatoes), and the men prepared a barbecue.  We all 
had a wonderful time, but the moment that will remain with me 
will be when one of the dining room waitstaff, a young girl 
named Belinia, stood talking to Kaye with tears in her eyes -- 
both of them, come to think of it -- and it moved me to tears, 
too.

The Kiwi couple who've taken over from them, John and Rosie, 
are a bit more reserved, but they have also done some 
interesting things.  The last job they had had was running a 
pub in England somewhere.  John said that in November, they had 
been looking forward to spending a white Christmas in the U.K.; 
and look where they were now!  So far, they seem to be enjoying 
the newness of the place, and they are very responsive and 
responsible people.

Rob, a 36-year-old Australian, helps the managers out 
occasionally and is currently on holiday back in his hometown 
of Perth. He has also lived in all sorts of exotic and dangerous 
places like Cambodia and Vietnam. And at that young age, he 
already has two ex-wives, with two kids from his second 
marriage. He loves his kids, and it sounds like he misses them 
a lot. He is also planning on moving on eventually; he has said 
he has a job in Afghanistan starting in February.

He also has a great sense of humour. One day, he asked me
whether I'd tried out the swimming pool in the back yet. It's
just a big stand-alone pool, not one that's actually built into
the ground. I asked how often they changed the water, and he
just said it was treated chemically every couple days. I asked
half-seriously whether my hair would turn green, and he said,
"No, but it'll make your hair fall out." To get that, you also
have to know that Rob has very little hair, and what he does 
have is very closely shaved. ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing 
him again when he comes back, as he's very fun to spend time 
with.

Duane is an older Canadian man from Alberta. He's a bit gruff,
and a bit contrary, too. He seems to like dogs a lot, as does
his family back home. He showed us a bunch of pictures his
family had sent him the other night, and one of the pics showed
one of his grown daughters hanging out with at least four dogs.
His wife used to work in a kennel, and now she has a little a
dog-sitting service running informally out of their house. He 
also has a bit of a paternalistic streak in him -- he likes to 
take care of people, and always offers assistance of one kind 
or another whenever people are in need.

Teresa is half-Portuguese, half something else (European of some 
stripe, I think). She's middle-aged, a bit stout with graying 
hair, with eyes that sparkle with humour and energy. She tells a 
mean dirty joke (or two), and seems passionate about life in 
general. She works for the Constituent Assembly that was elected 
last August. I find spending time with her both energizing and 
challenging, as she puts all of herself into every conversation.

Bo, the former chef, is a large early-middle-aged gay Swedish 
man with a raunchy sense of humour but also with a bit of a 
philosophical bent.  He has a sweetheart back home that he talks 
to on the phone twice a day, like clockwork. (I thought that was 
cute ) He went home to Sweden to be with him for the holidays,
and I look forward to seeing him again.

There are a few more regulars around the "Captain's Table" -- 
Dallas, whose parents are John and Rosie and had introduced them 
to the hotel owner; Jo (short for Joanne), an Aussie girl with a 
wicked sense of humour; Mark-the-Aussie-rasta-guy (with full-on 
dreadlocks!); Jim, the Scottish Australian who seems to like my 
singing (!). There are also Phil and Greg, two Aussie guys who 
occasionally show up for dinner and/or beer, and Gary, an owner 
of a local hamburger joint which I haven't visited yet (Rob said 
he would take me there eventually). Being a daughter of a former 
owner of a burger joint, I am very interested in giving the 
place a try. :)

At work, within my office, I tend to work mostly with Yasmeen, 
but there are a few lawyers and others who make it a habit to 
seek me out for help looking for documents and other information,
and otherwise work closer with me than others. JamesM, who has 
since moved on to the DSRSG's office (that's "Deputy Special 
Representative of the Secretary-General"), was a quiet Aussie 
lawyer with a subtle sense of humour who spoke in the 
neighbourhood of five languages (including a smattering of 
Japanese!). He sends me an occasional email with a question or 
two, usually fairly straightforward ones that are fun to do.

Nathalie is a lawyer from Cameroon, and while she speaks English 
quite well, she is naturally much more comfortable working in 
French.  I try to use French with her as much as I can, and she 
helps me along. (A little sidenote -- francophone Africans, both 
here and in New York, have been extremely helpful in improving 
and maintaining my French language skills.)

There's JamesC, the Aussie Indonesian translator who drives a 
motorcycle and smokes like a chimney.  He likes to use my office 
door to get outside for his frequent cigarette breaks.  Blond, 
blue eyes, with a major mischievous streak, he has done a lot 
of work for NGOs in Indonesia, and one of his hidden talents is 
building databases.  He has been helping me with a project 
developing a database to administer the distribution of the 
Official Gazettes, as well as telling me whether I've found the 
correct law when I am researching Indonesian legislation. I also 
found out he's a bit of a science fiction fan, and so we 
occasionally chat about that when I feel the need to step 
outside for a few minutes.

Jeremy, the other Aussie Indonesian translator, is currently 
studying law. I'm sure his work here will be put to good use once 
he is done. He also drives around on a motorcycle -- a fact that 
I didn't know until yesterday afternoon.  I needed a ride to the 
Obrigado Barracks, where many of the offices had moved, including 
MOVCON (Movement Control, charged with keeping track of personnel 
movement in the mission area).  He very kindly agreed to give me 
a ride, as he was ready to leave anyway (it was already five 
o'clock in the afternoon). We walked out of the office, and up 
to... his motorcycle. I was loaded down with my bag, two 
paperbacks, my little black organizer, and a manila folder, all 
of which he simply put in his backpack. He put it on with the bag 
in front, and instructed me to get behind him. I climbed aboard, 
and before I knew it, I was holding on for dear life as we 
tootled along the streets of Dili on a motorcycle with no helmet 
on.  I admit that the wind in my hair felt really good, and he 
drove safely and got me to the Barracks just fine.

(Another side note: Obrigado Barracks is also the headquarters 
of the Pakistani army contingent. In addition, there is also the 
PX, a small grocery store, an electronics place, and a pizza 
counter. Their Obrigado Special pizza has lots of stuff piled on 
and is quite yummy. The name is also a pun: "Obrigado/a barak" is 
Tetun for "Thank you very much.")

Alex is the Deputy Principal Legal Advisor and my supervisor, an 
American from North Carolina.  He leaves a lot of things up to 
me to decide, which is both invigorating and challenging. Ask 
him a question, and he'll point me in a direction that he thinks 
may give me a good start, but then leaves the details up to me. 
There is a lot of freedom as to how I do what I must do, a 
totally new experience for me. He hosts a wine-and-cheese thing 
every Friday after work, a nice way to wind down the week.

Then there are the District Legal Officers, many of whom I don't 
see for weeks at a time because they work out in the mountains 
and forests of the Timorese countryside.  I have gotten to know 
a few of them, as they like to enjoy themselves whenever they 
are in Dili and often invite people along to go out after 
work. Olga I've mentioned in previous installments; she works 
in Ainaro and Manufahi Districts. Valeria, the funny Italian 
woman, works in Manatuto District, immediately to the east of 
Dili, as well as the eastern-most district of Lautem. Olga told 
me about what Valeria did when her luggage was lost on her 
way to Dili: "I could do two things: cry, or go shopping. I went 
shopping." You go, girl!

Erivan is a Brazilian lawyer who works in the border districts of 
Bobonaro and Cova Lima. He obviously speaks Portuguese, but his 
Spanish (and French, I think) is better than his English, so 
whenever I feel confident enough, and that the matter is 
important, I use Spanish. It takes him eight hours or so to drive 
from Suai, the district seat of Cova Lima, to Dili; the last time 
he was here, he was so tired he kept trying to speak to me in 
Portuguese.  I was helping him with some English correspondence, 
through which I learned that he was on leave from his job as a 
professor of human rights law at a university in Rio.

Carlos is a Spanish lawyer who works in Aileu District and 
the Oecussi enclave, the wee bit of East Timor that's surrounded 
by Indonesian West Timor (Nusa Tenggara Timur). He was working 
on a border issue, and asked me to chase up some document that 
defined the border between Indonesia and East Timor, a 
particularly sensitive issue in Oecussi due to its geographical 
location. It turns out that it hasn't been decided yet!  He and 
I were both rather flabbergasted at the state of things, but it 
seems his question may have lit a fire under the Joint Border 
Committee. He and his wife spent Christmas here, and he invited 
me over for Christmas dinner, which was really nice. I got to 
practice some Spanish (most of the guests were Spanish-speakers), 
and even heard a really bad Spanish pun. ("Que es eso? Es queso!")

Outside of work, my "partner in crime" is Magda, the 27-year-old
Polish-Australian girl who usually lives in Darwin with her 
boyfriend, Daniel. She is the office manager for the Office of 
Internal Oversight Services. We met in the staff orientation 
programme, and started with lunch every Wednesday. Now, when 
we're not doing anything in particular, we just ring each other 
up and we'd go out for lunch, dinner, drinks, shopping, check 
out the live band at such-and-such -- you name it. It has been a 
long time since I've had a good female friend, and it feels 
really good. We have a lot of laughs, and we both get crazy ideas.

Take, for example, the New Year's Funny Hat Party. Magda had 
suggested we spend New Year's Eve on the Central Maritime Hotel, 
the one luxury hotel in Dili which is actually a semi-permanently
moored cruise ship. On Christmas, her house which she shares 
with a few other women had been the target of a couple of 
Timorese gangs armed with rocks and machetes (Magda and 
Daniel, who was visiting at the time, were luckily not home). 
Since then, she had been thinking of spending New Year's 
somewhere comparatively safe, and I was all up for doing 
something special -- I'd never done anything like it before.  The
Central Maritime was offering a New Year's package, that included 
dinner, party, accomodation, and breakfast the next day, and it 
wasn't too expensive, so I paid in.

For the Funny Hat Party (a party game in which we came in with 
silly hats, with the silliest getting a prize), she came up with 
the idea of making hats that were faces, with shredded paper hair
and party hats of their own. We spent part of the 30th in her 
office with paper, crayons and chalk, and made a couple of cones 
with faces. She turned hers into a bird, and I stuck one of her 
cigarettes into its 'beak'. I put big red lips on mine, with a 
proper nose, and taped on earrings that said "Happy New Year" in 
English, Spanish, and Portuguese (it was a rush job, and I didn't 
have my Indonesian or Tetun books with me). Her hat won her a 
free night on the Central (I think it was my cigarette idea that 
was crucial ;) and she's invited me along whenever she decides to 
use that.

Then there are the many Timorese, many of whom I really only know 
by face.  I have tried to make it a habit of saying "Bondia" to 
those in the street when I go to work, and "Botarde" and "Bonoite" 
when I go home. I also try to use the few Tetun phrases that I've 
managed to get under my belt, but I can only smile when they start 
talking to me full-on.

Among the many moneychangers and phonecard sellers, there are 
two boys, likely in their mid-teens, from whom I usually buy my 
phonecards. One of them, Ruby, always has a grin, and even when I 
don't buy one from him, he waves and we say "Hi." Once, when I was 
short on cash, he even offered me to let me have one, and pay him 
the next day. I didn't do that, but knowing how desperate the 
Timorese economy is, I knew it was a generous offer.

The other boy, whose name I don't know, is more aggressive and 
persistent, and has a bit of an attitude.  However, there's also 
an innocence that seems to redeem him, and makes him stand out 
from the rest of the crowd.  I like to acknowledge persistence, 
especially when the person is trying to make an honest living; 
I know that these kids are probably making maybe one U.S. dollar 
profit per card.  I want to buy the cards from these kids on the 
street rather than directly from Telstra or from the hotel, as I 
know that I am contributing, if only on a small scale, to their 
current economy.

The few Timorese staff in the hotel that I know by name I also 
try to greet in my comings and goings. Senhor Joao, the tall 
night desk man, is a bit laid back and smiles easily; Senhor 
Alfonso, the shorter day desk man, is a bit more formal -- he 
greets me in English, and when possible, shakes my hand. The 
waitstaff in the hotel's restaurant I also try to talk to, and 
after that staff party, I think we feel much more comfortable 
with each other. There are Senhores David and Filomeno, who work 
the dining room during the day, and the two girls who work there 
in the evenings, Meninas Leles and Belinia.  Although there are 
significant language barriers, we try to communicate in whatever 
language we can -- they speak much better English than I speak 
Tetun (if you can call it 'speaking')!

(Yet another side note: "Senhor" is "Mr.," "Menina" is "Miss," 
both from Portuguese; it is used commonly in conversation, and 
is a sign of common courtesy and respect in Tetun. "Mrs." is 
"Senhora.")

These are the people who currently populate my life here in 
East Timor.  There are many others, some whom I don't see very 
often, that I am getting to know a little at a time. Tonight, 
Magda and I have been invited to the Central, where a few of her 
friends are having a barbecue.  They work the UN Dili/Darwin 
flights, and it's always nice to know people who work that 
detail -- plus, they live on the Central, which means that 
invitations to shindigs on the 'nice boat' might come more 
often!  I met them at the New Year's party/dance, where I 
danced my tushy off and gave myself mild whiplash (yes, 
whiplash) after a bit too much bobbing to headbanging music.
Stuff happens -- especially in East Timor.

There will be more to come soon -- next big thing is my trip 
to Australia (that weekend in Darwin doesn't *really* count).
I am using my extra vacation days (Occasional Recuperation 
Break, or "ORB"), plus my accrued vacation days, and taking a 
three-week trip to Sydney and Melbourne, with a possible stop 
in Canberra. I will be in Sydney during the last week of the 
Sydney Festival 2002, which should be really fun, and Magda's 
parents, who live in Melbourne, have kindly offered me a place 
to stay while I am there. Sydney has the harbour and the Opera 
House, of course, and I hear it's a lot like southern California, 
so it'll be like home, except everyone will talk funny. And, I 
hear that Melbourne is the fashion capital of Australia, and that 
there's a tour that takes people around the clothing industry 
district. Nice clothes for little money -- I can get into that!

P.S. For those of you who have asked after Rich's health, thank 
you very much for your concern. Six weeks after his surgery, 
his doctor gave him the 'green light' to resume a relatively 
normal life. He is currently working his way back to normal 
activities, plus rehab (treadmill, stationary bike, rowing 
machine). When I suggested he can do all those things outside, 
he pointed out that he would freeze his butt off -- very easy 
for me to forget, being in this tropical climate. At least, he 
is back to enjoying vigorous walks with his dog, Odie, and 
driving around town (doctor's note attached!). I think he's 
looking forward to using the book I gave him: "How to Win at 
Golf Without Actually Playing Well." [EG] As for myself, I am 
looking forward to seeing him when I return to the States, by 
which time I fully expect him to be gigging regularly again.

To be continued....