So how do you celebrate Australia Day in Dili?

Well, you invite a few friends over…

…and have a BBQ!!!.

Of course, you have to have the Australian ambassador give a speech and handover to the raffle draw

Sing the national anthem and have a few beers

and the surroundings are pretty nice as well, nestled on the beach with the hills as a backdrop.

Even Steve was there to share in the fun – A little tacky perhaps, but hey, that’s Australia Day

Hope you had a good one 🙂

Diak ka lae

I’ve been in Dili in Timor Leste for a bit over a week now and the thing that has struck more than anything else is the emptiness.

It’s quiet, there’s little traffic, there’s hardly any activity in the evenings, at least compared to previous years. “Why is this?” I thought. Then I realised, the UN has left!

Apart from a few longer term liaison or maintenance personnel, The UN and the other supporting bodies, such as international police forces, completed their transition programs and left the country in December. It’s made a huge difference!

It struck me that the UN has been here since independence apart from a brief withdrawal in 2006 which resulted in several outbreaks of violence. During that time the UN, and other international support organisations, have been helping the Timorese people in their transition to independence and self reliance. Well the time has come, and now the Timorese are charting their own course.

I realised that the UN brings with it its own unique culture, a culture that permeates and influences the indigenous culture in which it operates. But that culture is largely self contained and moves with the organisation,  and then, only shadows and echoes remain.

It permeates everything but somehow remains separate, aloof. But not in a deliberate or calculating way. It is an indifference, a lack of emotional involvement. That’s not to say that individuals don’t care, they do! and deeply and passionately. But the UN community as a whole, as an organisation, is there to do a job, to fulfil it’s purpose, its mission, its reason for being. When that reason disappears it simply moves on to the next situation that will give it purpose again. And, when it does, it feels like there’s something missing.

There’s that lack of camaraderie, of purpose, of excitement that the UN brings with them. Is this what drives the UN and other organisations like them, following one situation to the next. Like wandering Gypsies or Travellers meeting families again in new places and re-creating their familiar culture and support, almost self contained and insulated. Membership becomes a badge or uniform signifying belonging much, much more than the conflict or situation could ever be.

The UN is gone and there is an emptiness, an emptiness that will take some time to fill.

Well, after an uneventful trip, where the only thing I left behind was my hat (in the car at the airport), oh! and my spare reading specs (I think), um! and also my nail clippers and…

Well, after an eventful trip where I think I left half my stuff at home, here I am, back in…ahhh..hot, muggy and wet Timor Leste to do some more training on Solar power for Mercy Corps via the ATA.

My new home for the next few weeks – The Tropical Hotel

The Tropical doesn’t look much from the outside and the inside is an interesting mix of old memorabilia from country Australia. But it’s clean and dry and the rooms have an on-suite and the internet. Not only that but the bar has cold beer as well. I mean, what more could a bloke ask for?

You can see from the photos that it’s the wet season and although there hasn’t been a huge amount of rain so far because of the delay in the monsoon systems it’s already getting pretty wet and we’ve heard that several villages and district are getting cut off by water.

The gray skies continue across the bay in the early evening as I went for a short walk to stretch my legs after a long flight and a short nap.

An eerie blue grey light stretches over the foreshore and then, suddenly….

A splash of pulsating lights of the newly erected Christmas tree draped in a colourful LED display.

It’s definitely an interesting construction of metal, cloth and lights 🙂

They certainly don’t make the instructions on the prepaid phone credit top-up cards easy to read, but at least I was able to purchase a new SIM for the phone and top it up on the first day without any problems. That was also a first!

And so after a weekend of settling in and catching up with a few people of coffee and sending a few emails what more could you want to complete the day than a bottle of iced tea and some fresh red bananas.

I reckon it’s going to be a great trip, stay tuned! 🙂

Oh, and if you can’t get enough of that flashing Christmas tree check out the video.