When I worked at NOLS during much of the 90’s, we had a concept called “expedition behavior.” Technically it had to do with one’s work ethic and attitude in the field; practically though, it usually had to do with a person’s capacity to cope with adversity. In the years I was working I had a number of 30 day courses where 25 of the 30 days it would rain or snow. The primary focus was on drying clothes, staying warm, getting a good meal and most importantly, maintaining a sense of humor and perspective.

Our last month here in Timor has been a little like that. We’ve had close to a month of near constant rain. We’ve joked more than once that we feel like we are on an expedition. I suppose “journey” is a more appropriate spiritual metaphor, but its not as gritty as our experience sometimes feels! When my mom was just here she suggested we start a ministry of drying clothes! All in all though “EB” has remained good and it was wonderful to have my folks here to share in some of the fun. They were able recall some of my old jargon for dealing with such conditions: “never stops” and “it just doesn’t matter” being two favorites. We were also able to teach them the meaning of the Tetum word “aat” – which means broken, messed up, ruined, or otherwise very lame. My hope is that they will appropriate it into colloquial English in Minneapolis. We are thankful that they made the journey as we had plenty of time to catch up and share stories and news.

After our time in Lospalos, we had a mini vacation in Baucau and Dili. We dropped off my folks at the airport on Monday afternoon and then had some meetings and errands in Dili. We didn’t leave for Lospalos until 4:30 pm so we slept in Baucau – a 3 hour drive from Dili. We got back to Lospalos on Tuesday at 8:00 in the morning pleased to see that some serious sun and wind had set in. Monica went to work right away and I spent the morning cleaning mold off the ceiling of our house. That afternoon we hooked up a new system for the clinic microscope: a 12 V car battery and inverter that will allow the lab tech to do her work during the day instead of having to wait for the electricity to come on at 5 or 6 in the afternoon. When the electricity comes on at night she can plug the inverter in and recharge the battery. It felt like a small victory to see the lab staff looking at tb and malaria smears during the day!