East Timor: Settling in

Progressio Development Worker (DW), Nicholas Molyneux, recently jetted off to take up his post as a Sustainable Environment Capacity Building Adviser in Timor Leste (East Timor). He joins more than 90 other Progressio DWs working around the world to help eradicate poverty. We follow his progress as he settles in. By Nicholas Molyneux

After a two-day journey, my first impressions of Timor are through blurry but wide, aeroplane-dried eyes. As we descend, the tips of the wings all but skim the banana plantation lining both sides of the runway. I step off the plane, straight onto the tarmac of Dili's (capital of Timor Leste) tiny airport and into a scene from a Vietnam film.

I follow the throng of mainly expatriate and UN workers, past a planeload of disembarking Australian army soldiers and into the visa queue. Through a tiny slit in the wall a man asks for $30 each. After handing over cash at every visa desk in the previous two regional airports, I don't have enough, but luckily a friendly Aussie lends me the balance.

It is hot. After picking up our bags from the world's smallest baggage claim belt (heavily laden with two years' supply of mozzie repellent, antibiotics and books), I get through customs and am immediately met by Tomas, Progressio's all round assistant / translator / problem solver.

Driving out of the airport, the first thing that strikes a fresh Malae (the Tetum word for foreigner) is the obvious fertility of the soil. Greenery is everywhere: plant life pushes up through every crack in the road, banana trees and coconut palms appear from behind every fence and derelict wall. Goats, small pigs, dogs and chickens lethargically roam the pavements and open land; I decide they must have a pact of 'non-antagonism', probably due to the huge effort it takes just to move about in such oppressive, wet-heat.

After a few more kilometres of scenery - which I decide is a cross between North Eastern Thailand and the Dominican Republic - we get into Dili proper and soon arrive at the house which Progressio has provided. It is clean and cool, basic but pleasing. We are left to acclimatise to our new surroundings and unpack two years' worth of shorts, shirts, suits, medical supplies and even a life jacket!

After a short sleep and a quick shower from a bucket and hosepipe, we are met by the Country Representative, Theo. He takes us on a tour of the city, past the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp, through the rain-flooded streets, around the port and into the hilly, jungle district where he lives with his wife. After a short stop and a standoff with a pet monkey we go on a sightseeing tour around the coast: but we don't see much. It is raining so hard that the wipers on the front of the Timor-standard-issue Toyota 4x4 have absolutely no impact - but we're assured the area is beautiful.

Later I meet Demitrio, the head of Haburas (the organisation I am now working with and Timor Leste's leading project on environmental issues). He fills me in on the current topics affecting Timor's environmental sustainability. We discuss the problems associated with the invasive 'cane toad' which has arrived from Australia. 

Settling in

I wake at 4.30am due to a combination of jetlag and the neighbouring cockerel. It is still pitch black. The cockerel woke the dogs, and they went on to wake the rest of the urban fauna which erupted into a cacophony of croaks, squeaks, grunts and whistles.

I can't get back to sleep so I leave the bed through the mosquito net, open the door and feel the humid nocturnal heat of the tropics. Breakfast is a very British egg sandwich - which I bought the ingredients for in the market on the first day. It is one of the best I have ever had, maybe it's something to do with the free range chickens (raised on the streets of Dili?!) or perhaps it's the tasty but over-priced Timorese bread. Either way, it is definitely an improvement on egg sandwiches back home and a winning combination.

I take a walk through the city. The first thing you notice, sadly, is the amount of rubbish on the streets. Fortunately, most of it is organic agricultural matter, vegetable peelings, banana cuttings and maize leaves (all of which the pigs seem to deal with). But the amount of plastic bags, bottles, and tin cans mixed into the jumble of waste is an eyesore.

The daily torrents of rain create swamp like conditions too. Squelching through parts of the city, I try not to think of the likely disease and dysentery lurking beneath my feet. Once the sun comes out however, the streets dry up rapidly. The searing heat feels sanitising and quickly makes you thirsty. Bottled drinking water is available everywhere; every hundred yards a street seller touts phone cards, water, coke and Tiger beer.

Eager to see the beautiful beach area near to the Christo Rei statue, we hail a taxi (an old saloon with broken suspension and a plastic Jesus on the dash board) and head towards the eastern end of town. We hike up to the statue and ramble down the goat paths to the other side of the hill and -as if from nowhere- set our eyes on the coast. It is simply beautiful. The beaches west of the statue are lovely, with gentle, flat water and couple of bars from which to watch the sun set. Those to the east are stunningly pure and natural with crystal waters and small rippling waves.  

Learning the lingo

Today we started our Tetum Dili language course and can now at least say the very basics, "my name is......" etc. The language is made up of a number of Portuguese words, some Bahasa and the rest comes from the pure Polynesian based local language. It is not easy, as very few words are familiar to me. Thankfully, the grammar is simple and sentence construction seems easy. I tried it out this evening when ordering my meal - I think my pronunciation needs improvement.    

Day 20. I have now been working with the local NGO, Haburas, for a week. They are good people with a real desire to improve the local environment and a passion for their work. The office is not well equipped but it has the essentials: computer, table, chair and a book shelf. I have spent the last week doing background reading and attending meetings with other Dili-based NGOs Concern, USAid and Trócaire. Most meetings seem to be held in a tri-lingual dialogue, English, Bahasa and Tetun. Tetum is getting better, but is still a struggle. The basics have sunk in now, though they tend to stay 'sunk' at the very moment I require them!

My first impressions of the environmental problems here are not good, especially when you consider that environmental challenges are coupled with weak governance and a chronic lack of funding. Taken together, this means cheap land is often sold to foreign corporations and used for unsustainable production of bio-fuels and/or mono-crops, with little or no legislation limiting the extent of the degradation permitted - and this seems to be happening all over Timor Leste. One thing is certain: my work is cut out!