Archive for August, 2009

We have been in Dili for 2 weeks now. Novelty has turned to reality, and my reality now is finding functionality in this new world of mine. (Tomr is a bit more deft than I am but this is no surprise). We have a spicket for water just outside the back door. This morning, Tom realized that a perfiect task for Hannah is to supervise the filling of 5 gallon buckets, which we then carry into the bathrooms and kitchen to fill the larger buckets (25 or 30 gal themsellves) to use to bathe, flush toilets, laundry and dishes. We had a hose (have) that ideally would carry the water into the house for us, but the pressure is too low, and it takes too long. The water is reliably on in the morning hours, than often stops running in the afternoon and evening, so I have got my morning task cut out,eh?
My favorite appliance is: The Fan! It is a good bug repellent when it is blowing directly on you, and it cools you down adequately, most of the day. I use it also at night, because even though we sleep inside our China Tour Tent (i.e. fancy mosquito net with poles and zippers), I prefer to be cool all night, not just in the wee hours of the morning.
I have taken to letting my 5 year old girl have strawberry Fanta at lunchtime along with her meal of rice, chicken and vegetables many days. Wouldn’t be allowing such things in Duluth, but, heck, it’s hot, she’s getting adjusted too, and her diet here is pretty darn clean! Speaking of diet, we eat the standard fare for asia: white bread with jelly, peanut butter, and coffee tea milk. Hannah has quickly learned to enjoy powdered milk, bioth white and chocolate-with room temperature water. We do not currently have a refreigerator, nor do we know if we will get one, but we are getting used to buying food for one day. That is, vegetables at the market, tempeh from the kid walking by at 5pm yelling TempehTempeh, theese things for dinner, or beans, or corn, and haveing only a few non-perishable items in the house. We bought a 25lb. bag of rice, and, so far as I can tell, nothing has crawled into the bag yet. Hannah did discover yesterday that ants like sugar, but not powdered milk or Timor coffee. Our little tableside cups for these 3 items were, after nearly 2 weeks, discovered by the household ants, and I had to throw out the sugar. Now we will store it in a sealed recycled peanut butter jar.
I hope you yourself are enjoying your coffeepots, your washing machines, and your cars (we don’t have one yet), and please don’t take them for granted, and don’t forget about all the good exercise you are missing out on by having running water in your home! Love hearing from you, please keep writing,
Monica

Thursday 13 August: I arrived at Bairo Pite Clinic for rounds in the morning and was soon called upon to attend a breech delivery. My first birth in Timor went great, supervising the midwife (fairly new midwife, by Timor standards) as she caught the 5+ pound girl with no problem. This is what happens in Timor: you show up, and something interesting is waiting.
We made a spur of the moment decision that afternoon to go to Los Palos, where we will be living longterm. Took us 6ish hours to get there, the road is fine,as long as you know where the bumps are to slow down, and use your horn around the corners. A beautiful drive, really, along the sea, and then inland, up a bit, to LP, were it does feel abit like the wild, wild west: lush, though, trees, small villages only, not really many other cars, mountains in the distance. We arrived at 8pm, then were fed rice, greens, and small fried fish. In the morn, we scoped out where we might live, and I worked with the clinic staff for an hour +, seeing at least 5 patients with likely tuberculosis, pulmonary and extrapulmonary. There is much work to be done, and god willing, we will get LP set up online and keep you posted.
Monica

It is Wednesday nite here in Timor Leste, and as I sit writing my first blog entry, Tom is killing mosquitos behind me with our battery operated mosquito killing racket….a great purchase for 1 dollar. We are moving up with our move to timor: we live now in dili, capital city, for 1 month,and we are in a nice 4 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms. We have running water…just outside our back door, that is, but the electricity has been on consistently in the 4 days we have been here! We just bought a nice pink fan today, and I am so happy to have it, as last nite the weather changed a bit and it was steamy in bed until about 3 or 4am.
I spent today at a women’s conference on HIV-AIDS, with women from all over Timor present to learn and hopefully take the info back to their districts. Tomorrow, I will do morning rounds at Bairo Pite Clinic; Caralee, I spoke with Cisca Monday and she is happy to see you in Nov!
My new clinic job in Los Palos will be exciting! Many patients come each day, up to 100 on Mondays, I hear. And, as there is no current maternity program, my hope is to begin one. Ihave been talking to women about Los Palos, about Timor women and perceptions of birth, and I think we can get a successful new program going , God willing, and women willing. Love to all for now: bytheway: Hannah is great, getting dirtier by the day (we bathe her, of course), eating everything (rice, meat, corn, vegetable) and enjoying chocolate powdered milk and frequent Fanta strawberry sodas (1 per day max). By the way, any of you out there with food issues/food allergies should try living in a poor asian or latin american country for a while, see if the clean, unprocessed diet fixes you right up! Ate amanya, Monica

Taipei airport, 5 Aug 09 

We are finally en-route to Timor!  Long week of scrambling and saying goodbyes to many wonderful friends and supporters!  Much love to you all.

Tom, Monica and Hannah