well, Simon Walter is going on 5 weeks old now.  He just met his two sets of grandparents by Skype this morning.  He has taken a  midnight bus ride from lospalos to dili, and been pretty contentedly attending meetings, hanging out with friends, and staying cool here on his first trip to Dili.  He has a Timorese birth certificate, and has visited the us embasy to apply for his passport.  We were infomed that he is the first American born in East Timor, as far as the us embassy has record.  Pretty exciting.

Not a very conventional life, but look who his parents are, eh.  So, here in Dili for the first time in 2 months, it is Saturday, and we have spent hours at this internet cafe.  We skyped in the am, then went out to lunch across the street at LiLi’s, our favorite buffet.  For around $10, we each get a bowl full of vegetables and meat of our choice, heaping pile of rice, and sweet ice tea or whatever we want to drink.  All the high-enders can afford to eat there.

Today, a mute guy came in selling adress books and journals.  He laid 4 of them in front of me, then in a combination of sign language , facial expression, and attempted vocalizing, informed me that for 1 dollar, i could buy one.  also, that he could eat, if I bought one.

“lakohi” I said, and finally brushed him away.  Soon, hannah said, “the people at that table don’t want to vbuy any either.”  Tom and I had a brief conversation about stress.  I realized we are both, in our own ways, experiencing the impact of being surrounded by a whole lot of suffering.

You know the saying, giv”e a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life.” Well, I hope to be training those fishermen and women.  But, I found myself looking around LiLi’s resteraunt, hoping the guy was stil around.

Pretty soon, he comes back, and this time, asks Tom to buy one of his books.  We look at each other, and come up with a lot of different things we could use them for.  So we bought five.  The mute salesman made 5 bucks, enough to eat for more than a day, and he was happy.

Now, I am back in the internet cafe, it is going on 4 oclock, Hannah’s been talking in tetum to some local teens, playing games on my cell phone, and Simon has been sleeping all afternnon.  Soon, Hannah will go to a motel pool with Tom and friends, and I will go enjoy some time in front of a fan at our friends’ house before dinner.

Just a day in Dili.