A Brief Intermission.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the lack of content recently, I've been sick for the last few days and have been taking it easy. In a few days I plan on taking some pictures of the local Protestant church down the street, so my next post will be on that. Just know that I'm always trying to look for stuff to post up here and it's because I want to share my experience with all of you! It just so happens that right now that experience is a stuffy nose and gastrointestinal issues lol. I look forward to posting about the church later this week, but until then I'll leave you with this!!

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."
~Abraham Lincoln

Much love,

~BW

First Week of Work

Hey all,

Sorry I'm behind on posts, but I've been getting used to the new work. I've also found myself to be tired pretty often, but I chalk that up to having to speak Tetun exclusively while at site. I guess I can't say exclusively, because I have been able to speak English with a couple people, and I'm planning English lessons as well. Regardless, this will be a period of high adaptability for me and my fellow TL9's.

Most of the pictures below are from the place I'm working. I've been doing a lot of planning of English classes as of late, but I just found out my Saturday class was cancelled. It's a new experience trying to plan classes for people who don't speak my native tongue. I have had luck however in forming my lessons by using a lot of resources as well as the curriculum from Ontario's ESL program, which has given me a goal to strive towards. The people here are extremely nice and I honestly couldn't ask for a better site!

I will keep this breif, but in the future I plan on uploading my lesson plans, as well as the resources I use so that anyone in a similar spot as mine can be successful. I'll try to get back of a regular upload schedule, but until next time I'll leave you with this.

"Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace." 

~Dalai Lama

Much love,

~BW

The New House

Hey Everyone,

So I've been living in my new site for about 4 day's now and the transition has been pretty smooth. Last Friday I had orientation at work and went around to a bunch of the places my organization works with. It was interesting and made me realize how different my site is from others. 

Regardless today I will most likely be going through and repairing laptops and PC towers. I sure hope my tech repair kit comes in the mail lol, because this is where I need it! I'm interested to see where my work is steered. Are they going to use me to fix computers or something else. Whichever way the wind blows though my sail is sure to follow. 

Just like is normal daily life we can be sidetracked by assumptions about the future and feel slighted in some way. I encourage all of you to recognize the moment's in your life where you let expectations dampen an experience. When you find this happening try to wipe the expectations from your mind and just live in the moment.

I hope your future is full of love and amazing opportunities. Until we get to walk that road together, I'll leave you with this.

"There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it." 

~Dale Carnegie

Much love,

~BW

About To Swear In

Hey All,

I hope this post finds you well, as I am in very good spirits. I will be swearing in tomorrow taking the same oath as the president. This week has been wild,but it's been exciting to meetmy counterpart and learn more about the NGO I'll be working with in Baucau. 

I should start off by saying that my LPI went well (Intermediate Mid). Diak, tamba ho'u hanoin ho'u bele komunika diak liu dukè molok. Regardless I'm just excited for tomorrow when we all leave for our sites.

I want to give a shout-out to the TL8's in Baucau for being super supportive. I also want the thank the TL7 couple for their letter and well wishes. If you guy's want me to shout you out by name in the future, or want me to make a post about you, just hit me up on WhatsApp.

I have been keeping up with people at home, and love hearing stories. The support I get from home makes my life hear insanely more rewarding when I know I'm not hear alone, but with all of you. I truly feel that my experience here will be life changing, but I most of all want to encourage all of you to think globally when you are going through your day to day. So for the mother's worried for their children as they take this journey, you (as well as anyone else supporting them) are the real motivation behind the changes being made during your child's service. I sure as hell know I wouldn't be in the situation I am now, without the love and support for my mentor's and my family. You are here with me, and I hope this window into my experience here, gives you strength, and helps youin sone way regardless of the stresses of roadblocks you face throughout your life.

I've got to go eat dinner now, but I hope this reaches you this morning and encourages you to attack the day with the strength of all of the people who believe in you. Until I see you again, I'll leave you with this.

"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." 

~John F. Kennedy

Much love,

~BW

LPI Update

Hey All,

Yesterday we all took the LPI, and I'm glad most people I've talked to feel confident about how they did. I'll keep this update brief, but I do want to say that I'll miss my family for PST. There is a reason everyone has to live with a host family at some point. I can see now why living alone, while it has it's perks, isn't always the most beneficial. Aside from having a group that supports you, a host family also gives you the comfort you need after a long day working with new people. I'll miss my family here, and I hope any of you who are planning on joining the Peace corps also cherish your host family. I'll talk to you in a few days from Dili, but until then I'll leave you with this.

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." 

~Ronald Reagan

Much love,
~BW

The Midweek Sneak Peek

Hey All,

So this week is a pretty exciting one since it's our last week of PST. I'm going to keep this pretty brief as my Hub day is about to start. We will be learning our permanent site's today which is what I assume is on everyone's mind. I actually plan on writing the other half of this blog after I find out, so I'll keep you posted as soon as I know!

-- 6 hour's later --

Hey everyone! I found out I'm in Baucau! I got a packet all about the Organization I'll be working with and who my family is. I look forward to meeting my counterpart and getting to work. Unfortunately I have to cut this post short because I am going to study for my LPI. I look forward to seeing you all again soon, and until then I will leave you with this.

"If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are eternal." 

~John Lennon

Much love, 

~BW

Repairing an Uma Adat

Hey All,

So today was a pretty exciting day, because I got to help repair the Uma Adat next to my house. After Mass I came home and was told everyone is going next door to work on our neighbors house. The house we were working on wasn't the main house that everyone lives in though, but instead a cultural building some houses have. 

I was extremely privileged to be able to work on and see the repair of an Uma Adat in my village. It was interesting to see that they didn't use exact measurements when repairing parts of the house, but instead created references from the existing wall using bamboo. The pictures below show a bit of the process and this opportunity gave me the ability to see what most foreigners wouldn't see in this community. I hope for any prospective Peace corps volunteers that this will be fuel for the passion that is encouraging you on your way.

Apart from the building I found myself being nervous about the upcoming test on the Tetun language. After I found myself this way though I thought about all the progress I've made in the past couple months, and now I'm feeling pretty confident about how this test will go. This isn't just isolated to myself though, I believe we all have these time's in our lives. So I encourage you, when you are nervous about a goal you have for the future. That you look back on what drove you towards that goal in the first place, and all the progress you have made towards the goal you're apprehensive about. Let the feeling of pride in what you've accomplished, fuel the fire beneath your feet. On the other hand if your nerves are well founded, then let that nervousness not be an obstacle, but instead be the motivation you need to bring yourself to a better place. 

On another note I decided to take a picture of my lunch since people were asking what I eat. I'll probably continue doing this until someone tells me to stop, or if I forget about it. 😂 Regardless I look forward to seeing you all in the future, and hope this has helped fuel your day, week and life. Until next time, I'll leave you with this.

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself."

~Groucho Marx

Much love,

~BW

Insect Attack

Hey all,

I had a traumatic experience last night involving a large hissing beetle and my ability to sleep. Everything is fine however, I was able to sleep and I slowly but surely moved forward with my desire to kill all insects that fly, sting and bite. Overall I'm actually pretty excited for next week since next Wednesday we will be going to Dili for our swearing in. This Saturday we will be throwing our host families a party to celebrate our time with the, which is bittersweet in a way. For one I'm happy to be moving on into my service, but I'm also going to miss my host family here. I suppose that just goes to represent how deep of a relationship I will have with my permanent host family.

I hope you all know how much it means to have the support I've received from all of you. I've been slowly reading the letter's I received before leaving, and they give me the reassurance that I can help the people here in some way. Most importantly though I hope you all get to receive as much cultural exposure from Timor, as I hope they feel I have given to them. The trip so far has felt like forever, but the journey has only just begun. I am going to head to bed now, but if any of you have a suggestion for how I can better express the culture here, please comment below. I check the comments all the time and I love hearing from friends and family. Until then, I'll leave you with this.

"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."
~John Wooden

Much love,
~BW

Vinhu Etu ho Kobra

Hey all,

Hope everyone is doing well! We had a great Thanksgiving (sorry for lack of pictures) and our group is really looking forward to being done with PST and swearing in. I think next week I will be learning about my permanent site, and what I'll be doing there.

Yesterday me and one of my friends in the TL9 group went on a trip to Dili. That's where I got the Cobra Snake Wine, which was from one of the TL8's as a gift for giving them a backpack.  We had a lot of fun there and I feel a lot more confident in transiting around Dili after our first 3 months at site.

I'm glad to hear from those of you I've talked to that you've been enjoying the blog! I hope you will leave a comment if you have any ideas for how I can make it better. Until then though, I'll leave you with this.

"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more" 

~Nikola Tesla

Much love,

~BW

Improvisation

Hey all,

I've never seen this before it's raining behind the house, but not in front. Just thought I'd share that with you. This is coming out the day after Thanksgiving in the state's, so happy Thanksgiving. However for my international audience, happy Thursday.

I gave a presentation on our final field activity during PST, and the majority of the next few weeks will involve getting ready for the LPI. I'm not to worried for the Language Proficiency Interview though because I'm feeling confident in the language and I know that I'll be able to pass it, but aside from that I'm feeling nervous about leaving for my next host family. I will be starting from scratch with a new family, but this is good in some ways as I'll be able to make a great first impression with the family I'll be with for the next two years.

For those of you who are reading this and are planning on joining the Peace Corps, I hope so far this has been good in giving you some insight. However, for those of you who are close to me, or are reading as a point of interest, I hope you can feel as connected to the people of East Timor as I do now. I also hope that you share this blog with your friends, not for my own sake, but for theirs.

I believe having a broader view of the world, gives one a better view of themselves. That's one of the reasons I'm here in the first place, but I also believe that success is not something people achieve on their own. Success in our lives is developed by honing our skills to a cause, and then by performing that cause we have laid out for ourselves to the best of our abilities. It is my belief that the experience we need to hone ourselves cannot be obtained solely by using our own experience, but must be combined with the experience of others. Therefore we all need to share our experience, and revel in the success we have given each other.

All that to say, I hope my story and the story of the wonderful people I meet here will give you experience. That with that experience you can hone your life and abilities into what you see as success. Until next time, I'll leave you with this.

"Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes." 

~Oscar Wilde

Much love,
~BW

Ahi Mate

Hey all,

Pretty short post today, the power went out and I need to conserve my phones battery. Language classes have been going well and every day feels different from the other which I am prepared to have change after a year in my permanent site. The past two days they have been discussing site placement behind closed doors, so we should find out our sites soon enough.

The rain has been pretty regularly in the afternoon and has made for interesting daily planning. I hope to soon be able to talk with my old school sometime in the next few months or so. If any of you have questions or want me to write about something specific, just leave it in the comments and I'll try my best. (or just message me if we're close like that) I'll just leave you with this, and look forward to seeing you again my friends.

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." 

~Goethe

Much Love,

~BW

Hamartia

Hey All,

It's raining again today and I found myself looking for something to write about. I decided to write about a misconception I believe there is for what Peace corps volunteers do in their permanent site. This misconception can be a fatal flaw when it comes to a volunteers success, hence the title.

I'm talking about assumption! I feel like the idea is that volunteers are heading into a site with a grand plan for what needs to be, "fixed." This is an understandable assumption because the term, "Third world" has built up a connotation that leads people to believe that people in these countries are inept or in some way less than those living in the first world. It's important to understand this when going into any position where you're trying to assist others in development, because the only sustainable way to help is from below, not above.

This to be said, there is no room for pride or grandeur in service, only humility. It can be asserted therefore that one cannot come ito the Peace corps (or and service based volunteer work) with a plan for how to affect change. This is where a lot of frustration is started when people enter the Peace corps thinking they'll be an NGO or affect change of their own design. However, the change one can affect when serving from below is a sustainable and generational kind of change that will do much more in the way of development than any NGO can do without community involvement.

If you are in a position to help anyone, or are wondering if your change will last after you leave, just ask yourself this, "Do I want this, or did my community ask for it?" Until I speak with you again, here's the quote of the day.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens"

~Jimi Hendrix

Much love,

~BW

A Quick Update

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update today to let everyone know that I am healthy and safe. On the health front I've lost 10lbs in the last month so I need to watch that. As far as safety goes though everything is dandy, my family here is the best protection I have against being a stranger in a new land.

For anyone looking to join the Peace corps with the desire to have independent housing, I have one thing to say. It's fine to want and be in an independent house, but having a host family gives you a much better way to integrate into your community, so don't take it for granted. Also if you are reading this from my old Highschool and will be on a future video call, I look forward to hearing from you!

I'll leave you all with this!

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals." 

~Henry Ford

Much love,

~BW