Leaving Timor Leste

 My regular lunch - all for US $1.50








I am very sad to be leaving Timor Leste and the wonderful people I have met.  But, I am heading to Bali to catch up with Rebecca and Amy and am looking forward to seeing them again and excited to be spending some time with them.

Today (Monday) is the Presidential elections and things (so far) are very quite - lets hope they remain that way!! 
The two candidates vying for the President are Francisco Guterres Lu Olo and Taur Matan Ruak (Independent).   Taur Matan Ruak is a former leader of the resistence against Indonesia and became the chief of Military after independence.  He has the backing of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.  Guterres Lu Olo is a former resistence fighter, former President and Fretilin Party candidate.  He won the most votes in the first round of elections.

Whatever the outcome of the election, I hope that the successful candidate does something to improve the life of the Timorese people.  They have such a poor life expectancy (51 years (female) and 49 years (male); extreme poverty with unemployment rate estimated to be high as 70% and as mentioned before 3rd in the world in malnutrition.  Meanwhile there are billions of dollars flowing from the oil and gas resources. 

I have met some wonderful young Timorese who are fortunate and motivated to seek university education overseas.  Hopefully they will return to the country to improve the situation here.

The volunteers at Bairo Pite Clinic enable the clinic and hospital to function.  Without these volunteers flowing through, the clinic would not be able to function as the volunteer doctors and nurses allow Dr. Dan & Dr. James to attend to (up to) 300 outpatients daily, while the volunteers look after the hospital and mobile clinics. 

Rotary Club from Melbourne, have just donated $40,000 to rewire the entire premises and are undertaking further fundraising to provide other facilities and upgrades. A shipping container organised by Rotary, with donations from many services, arrives regularly and provides the clinic with hopsital beds and medical supplies. 

It has been a wonderful experience and Dr. Dan keeps the dream alive of having free quality primary health care for all.  I hope for the people of Timor Leste that this dream can come true.  

Boanoiti!

Atauro, Arte Morris and more

Have just arrived back from Atauro Island. A beautiful piece of paradise 30 km north of Dili.  We caught a water taxi over and back, but the ferry also runs weekly on a Saturday.  We stayed in a wonderful, beautiful, relaxing place called Barry's Eco-Lodge - right on the beach where the taxi berths (well doesn't berth - where it stops and you unload into knee deep water).  The lodge is run by an Australian (Barry - hence the name) and his Timorese family.  We stayed in thatched cabins right on the beach.  Food was magnificant and relaxation was all you could do - unbelievable snorkling, reading, eating.  This is one place I would love to come back to and spend much longer.  All for $30 per night. 









This is the view from our Tent.  The tent was in a raised thatched cottage and at high tide was two metres from the water (thats my feet - I was lying down)

Sunrise Atauro Island

Easter was really busy at Dive Timor Lorosae (where I stay in Dili) as lots of people flew in just to scuba dive over the Easter holiday period.  I was talking to a  couple of guys from Darwin who said the scuba diving off Atauro Island was magnificent, so clear and the coral and fish was just like the movie "Finding Nemo".  So, I guess, if you are into scuba diving - this is the place to visit.  The cheapest way of flying here is to fly to Denpasar and catch a connecting flight to Dili.  

Before going to Atauro Island, have spent time around Dili.  Visited Arte Moris which is an Art Gallery and Artist Colony set up in the remains of an Indonesian-era museum.  Art students live there while they train and study.  One of the resident artists showed me around the gallery and also to their studios.  There are plenty of pieces I would like to buy, but there was a beautiful painting of a Timorese women on Tais - it was magnificent and from a recent exhibition they had.  Would have loved it - but of course the problem of getting it home............  Also had some fun sculptures outside.  Enjoyed this immensely.

 

Teapot - made from wire frame and thongs

Yesterday we visited Chega! - (Chega - Portugese for NO MORE, STOP, ENOUGH!) An exhibition which is housed in a former Portugese Fretilin and Indonesian prison where countless human rights violations occurred and hundreds of resistance fighters were interned by the Indonesians.  It was a very powerful and moving exhibition and the prison cells (especially the Dark Cells) still have the grafitti from the prisoners that were interned there.  There was horrible cruelty with one of the cells used as a execution chamber where they filled it with water to about waist level and then put in electricity to electrocute them all. The number of prisoners that where held there is still unknown, with family members visiting and adding names regularly.

Also visited the Santa Cruz Cemetry. This was the site where on 12th November 1991 over 100 people  were killed by Indonesian forces and what precipitated the turning point in Timor Leste's independence struggle and international involvement. The Indonesian forces shot a 20 year old New Zealander (Kamal Ramadhaj) and beat up an American journalist (Allan Nairn on assignment with the New Yorker).  The attack was filmed by British journalist Max Stahl. 

Trivia Night, Malnutrition Ward

Sunset at the Dili Beach Hotel - Trivia Night is held here every 2nd Tuesday to raise money for Bairo Pite Clinic - A fun night with people from all around the world.  I was on a table with a man from Portugal, a women from Phillipines and a couple from South America (not sure which country).  We came third - will have to do better next Tuesday!!

What were they selling????

Holly (Pre-med student from Seattle), Sonia & Natto (Timor Leste), Tim (GP from Gold Coast) and Pinky (Volunteer Nurse from Phillipines)

These young babies were in the childrens ward and suffering from malnutrition.  They are starting to put on weight which is great.   Often the children are malnourised due to the mother being malnourished during pregnancy, but there are also those that become malnourished if the mother stops breastfeeding, or is unable to breastfeed.  Dr. Dan certainly promotes breastfeeding to all the mothers who give birth at the clinic.  The midwifes in the maternity ward are on an incentive for the number of births that occur in the clinic.
Poverty, of course, is a major issue with the children suffering from malnutrition. 

World Tuberculosis Day

Thought I would detail part of Jose Ramos Hortas Speech on World Tuberculosis Day where he congratulates the Bairo Pite Clinic

Dili, Mar 24, 2012 – World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated today with a message from the Head of State exhorting national and international people with responsibilities in this particular matter  to do all in their power to eliminate this scourge of public health within the next parliamentary term in Timor-Leste.

The text by President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, José Ramos-Horta, says:
Timor-Leste, as one of the poorest countries in the world – 147th in the 2011 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) –, but with significant gas and oil reserves, should do a lot more to eliminate tuberculosis, number one scourge of national public health.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and from the Government of Timor-Leste (Ministry of Health, 2011), the incidence rate of tuberculosis in the 13 districts as a whole is of 145 per 100,000 inhabitants.

I hope, therefore, that the next executive makes a solemn pledge to allocate a larger percentage of the State Budget (SB) to Healthcare, namely to fight malnutrition and tuberculosis, in order to reduce and even to eliminate this scourge – with a particularly high incidence in children – within the next five years.

On this occasion, I especially want to congratulate Bairo Pite Clinic, in Dili, and Dr. Daniel Murphy, who for over a decade has been tirelessly fighting tuberculosis, afflicting so many Timorese families. The State should support him in the expansion of his programme – as the President of the Republic himself has been doing, donating part of his salary to this noble cause.

I salute the great decrease – of about 75 per cent – of the incidence rate of tuberculosis in Timor-Leste over the last three years – the Head of State concluded.
Tuberculosis, known as a “disease of poverty” and which affects most developing countries, kills over 1.7 million people per year worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.

Ward Round at the Bairo Pite Clinic - Childrens Ward

Trip to Rai Robo - Health Clinic 
Every day at the clinic,  4 WD vehicles drive to outlying areas with a doctor and nurse (and sometimes an interpreter) to run a medical clinic.  I went out on one of these trips to Rai Robo.  This was a three hour drive along the Liquica Coast Road and then up into the hills.  The road along the coast had landslides on one side and sheer drop on the other.  Was okay going up the mountain as I was on the landslide side, but coming back I was on the sheer drop side.  I don't think I took a breath until I got to safer ground on the way back.  I would much prefer to jump out of a plane!! 

This is a sedate part of the drive.  Great views and even a decent road.

 

Along the road we were driving on - they are building retainer walls, by hand,  to hold back the landslides.  You can see the state of the road here.








All in all, was a fabulous drive - top speed of approx 30 km per hour and that speed didn't happen very often.  Along the way we passed every time of animal on the road - the usual dogs (and lots of), chickens, ducks, goats, cows, horses and pigs.

 We stopped for lunch prior to turning up for the clinic.  Fantastic views 

The clinic was in an open area and slowly all the patients turned up, waited their turn and had a very social time while they waited.  It was a real gathering of the community.  The clinic was run by Sofia (a doctor from Portugal), and intepreter and nurse.  Sofia would assess the patients and then they would present to the nurse for their drugs.  I entertained the children with the camera - they were pretty amazed at seeing their photos on the digital camera.  I am going to get some prints and send them up with the next clinic.   

Elections 
The elections that were just recently held did not end up with any candidate winning 51% of the vote.  What happens now - is they all strike deals, pal up with each other and the top 2 (I think) candidates then go to the polls again.  There is a public holiday the day before the election so everyone can get back to their village to enable them to vote. 

There is a real concern now about violence after this election.  Not sure what party Fretlin is supporting - but the locals tell me that the rallies that Fretlin ran were all "rent a crowd".  Fretlin would fill the tanks with petrol for everyone who participated in the rally!  

Dili - Roadworks and Elections

Things are heating up around here with the elections due on Saturday.  I was walking along the waterfront today and there was a huge contigent of local police, the scruitineers have arrived and there is a large presence of UN Police (they are much more visable now). We are anticipating going to Ermera on Saturday - this is a coffee producing area of Timor Leste.  May be wise to get out of the city.  

 This is one of the main roads along the waterfront.  It has been raining fairly consistently today.  By tomorrow (if the rain stops - it will all be drained away, but it gives you an idea of the condition of the roads). 

I am not sure what will happen to Timor Leste when the UN and all others leave in approx. December this year.  The conditions here are still third world in regards to health and infrastructure is not in place to support  the people.  They have built some large buildings - for example the Presidential Palace, and shopping centres like the Timor Plaza but these benefit the rich, not the majority of the population of Dili.  Its hard to see evidence of where the money from the royalties of oil exploration have been spent.  Its certainly doesn't appear to be evident. 

Tropical Downpour at the Bairo Pite Clinic

Couple of interesting photos - Marie Stopes International - On the adjacent corner to the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

On Saturday just gone there were large parades of trucks, bikes, cars, police etc.  which were rallying for the candidates for the election on next Saturday. 

Well another week gone.  The time is passing quickly.  It has been a busy week at the Clinic with all beds full.  There are a number of cases of Dengue Fever - the tropical rid is being well used as this is one thing I don't want to get! So  far this season there have been 10 deaths from Dengue Fever. 

Went to the Alola Foundation on Saturday - The Alola Foundation is a large organisation for women, based in Dili.  Its founder is Kirsty Sword Gusamao (wife of Xanana).  The foundation's goals are education for women and their children, economic freedom for Timorese families, and prevention of domestic abuse.  The foundation urges women to get involved in Timor's future through political action and voting.  

On Thursday there was a holiday in Timor for the death of  Francisco Xavier do Amaral  - (except for some of us at the clinic).  Those who wanted,  had a day off.  All was peaceful - there was lots of church services. He was the first president of East Timor and only lasted 10 days before the country was invaded by Indonesia.  He was also up for election this time as well. 

Bairo Pite Clinic

It’s strange to think I have only been away a week - seems like I have been here a long time.  The Bairo Pite Clinic is the only place locals can get any healthcare for free.  At the Dili National Hospital they have to pay - $5 for a blood test, $12 for radiology etc.  The Clinic runs on $15,000 a month - for everything.  They have a Maternity Ward, General Ward and 2 TB Wards, plus an emergency room (so small you can just walk around the bed).  Then they run medical clinics where everyone just waits and moves along the queue, which goes right around one room, and snakes outside as well.  And they all just patiently wait.  

The General Ward has eight beds in it with just enough room for a chair between.  All mixed ages, sex.  There is one young woman with suspected bone cancer - they have done a biopsy and sent  the specimen through an Aussie traveller to Darwin for analysis.  This is through someone, who knew someone, who knew someone etc. etc.

Lack of medication is a huge issue.  For one patient they only had two tablets left for her treatment - when they runs out, so does the treatment.  If anyone wants to send any medication - it is so needed by the clinic. 

There are a couple of current patients with mental health issues and no means of treatment - no medication and no experience.  I spend a couple of hours a day with one of them and also need to spend some time with the other one on a daily basis.  

Staff at the clinic were so pleased to receive the donations from PVCH staff and family.  The bandages etc. all went into the emergency room and everything else went into the Pharmacy area.  Gloves are precious........

I spend yesterday walking around Dili - I think I will stay out of the sun today - my poor nose isn't going to recover ever.....  I keep putting sunscreen on, but I keep sweating if off.

 

I walked to the Xanana Gusmao Museum, Art Gallery and Reading Room - closed for renovations.  Went to the Bishops Residence - Home of Bishop Carlos Belo - was a sanctuary for those seeking refuge from the military during occupation - also closed for renovations.  Bishop Carlos Belo received a Nobel Peace Prize.  But near there - the Virgin Mary Statue - I could see that - a place for open air masses.  It is always a beautiful walk along the water front and was much quieter (being Saturday). 

All going well here.  Now have to try and find someone in Australia to do a gratis Cochlear Implant and try and get some help for two kids with leukaemia.  That will be my work today - the internet at the clinic is so slow it took all afternoon to open (and only one tab succeeded). 

My living quarters

Thought I would give you an idea of the place I will be living in for the next couple of months.  The photos are of the lounge/kitchen area, the swimming pool (most inviting) and my bedroom (excuse the mess).   All very comfortable -  have an air conditioner, television which doesn't seem to be able to be moved from HBO (could be worse as I got to watch Treme the other night), small kitchenette with stove, fridge etc, bedroom with two double beds and ensuite.   Have already had the maintenance in to fix the air conditioner and they were also working on the shower when 

I arrived home today.  Staff are very friendly  and I have been eating at the Castaway Bar which is overlooking the water. 

1st Day in Timor Leste

Arrived in Dili yesterday.  Was met with a shower of rain and the driver from Dive Timor Lorosae and myself running with baggage to the car.  First impressions were of a small Asian city - not as much traffic as some and not as much horn tooting either. Usual road chaos with no lanes and many lanes made by cars.  Just the usual really!  


Had a small problem with baggage at Darwin.  Because of the extra baggage - I managed to get this through Qantas for $112 and this paid for the Dili / Darwin leg as well.  Very good service on Qantas' part as the cost charged was only what Air North would have charged me.  BUT, back to the story,  had cleared customs in Darwin, bought a bottle of gin and red wine to keep me going for my visit, and was waiting to exit through door 5A (interesting number) only to hear "Ms Shields, will you please collect your baggage from Carousel 1"  I went back to the Customs area, and explained my situation.  I had to leave my bag and passport at the customs area, and he and I ran down to collect the baggage and take it over to the baggage area to be put on the Dili flight.  The staff there agreed that Qantas should have checked them through (and judging by the labels they did just that), but the bags were removed at Darwin.  Anyway, we then started the saga of excess baggage, and they wanted my passport, which was upstairs at Passport Control!  Anyway we waited around for a long time (the agitated customs fellow and me) and eventually they said it was all okay, everything was paid for.  We then sprinted through baggage check (the agitated customs fellow and me) and ran up the escalators back to where I was before.  All under control!!  

Had a looooonng walk into Central Dili today - didn't quite get there, or was lost along the way and meandered through many small, and not so small streets.  I will travel by Taxi on my first day at the Clinic (Cost $1).  At lease I will get there.  Anyway, walked for about 2 1/2 hours and was very pleased to get home by the end of it.  Jumped into the pool to reduce my body temperature and then the mandatory afternoon shower fell.  Temperature is not too hot and the wet season will finish within the month.  

View along the foreshore (opposite where I am staying at Dive Timor Lorosae)

Found the place and people to be very friendly.  Certainly does remind me of Bali about 30 years again, although nowhere near as dirty as Denpesar was.   


I will upload some more photos (but this one along took five minutes).