Back on Tour!🎸

Hey Everyone,

So last Sunday we had Easter here in Timor, and the way I celebrated it was by hanging out with some friends in Dili and picking up some things that I'd been sent. The list of things I had to pick up was getting overwhelming, and so I thought by heading to Dili to get this done I could get two birds stoned at once! I ended up picking up; a Care Package from the Family (Love you guys!💗), a Kindle that one of the staff was kind enough to foti on over from the states (Thanks again!), a Guitar (see pictures), some coffee and a whole bunch of stuff. I would say that trip was a major success and one that was necessary to keep my sanity and help me to relax. This has however been the first time since IST that I've been back in the capital, and I'd say with PDM coming right around the corner that this was a good timing.

As I said I picked up a guitar in Dili, so recently I have been practicing to hopefully get confident enough to play some songs fairly well by the end of the summer. I know it will be a hard journey, but this has been something I have been wanting to do for a while. Amongst the other leisure time activities I have been engrossing myself in, I have found time to continue working on my programming skills. While I would not call myself a programmer of a certified hacker, I would probably classify myself as a Green Hat who is starting to feel more comfortable with his abilities. I have been learning a bit of Python in my free time and plan on trying to learn a little C as well in order to understand some lower level code. Along those lines as well I have been speaking to one of the PC staff (Shout out to you!) about giving a training on computer security and how to handle malware infections on your own computer and others computers. I'm super excited for this because it will give me some new experiences in manipulating VMs in order to show what a typical scan would look like and how I go about detecting and getting rid of malware that I find. Shout out to MediCat which is a Live CD I've been using as of late. I normally try to shy away from the big Live CDs and stick to a Linux Distro running Clamav, but this tool caught my eye being the spiritual predecessor to Hirens Boot CD and after seeing everything that has been packed into this labor of love I now plan on using it for all of my Windows repairs (at least when I'm able to get it too boot).

To switch gears I have been feeling more comfortable here and have been trying to keep a fairly normal schedule to make my time here as productive as possible. Although some nights this seems to been easier said than done, I do feel confident in my placement and have a bright outlook for the next couple years. Recently my Org decided to apply for Farmers to Farmers which would see us having another U.S. Volunteer here for a while, which will be exciting! Although I wish they would have let me know about it more than 2 hours before they wanted me to fill out all the paperwork. I am still excited and look forward to planning the need's analysis the we will have to complete before finishing up the rest of the paperwork. There are a few plans that are hopefully coming down the pipeline, so I'll make sure to keep you all up to date with what's going on here.

I suppose I should get this post out now, I have to finish planning the training I want to give and still have to think about what to say on here next time!😂 I love all of you and hope to hear from all of you! If anyone want's to get a hold of me you can always message me either in the comments below or privately. I actually might add a contact form on here for anyone who's interested, but that's a plan for another day. Until I post again, I'll leave you all with this!

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche

Much Love,

~BW

Rock and Roll Star

Hey Everyone,

So this week has been pretty easy going. I've been planning classes and preparing to write a grant for CDB, but for the most part life has been pretty slow. I will say however I am extremely excited to go to Dili in a couple of weeks because I plan on picking up a Guitar which will be very fun to learn. I've been wanting to learn guitar for a while, so I decided since I have a lot of downtime here that I'd pick one up. Beyond that I'm planning on picking up the kindle one of the PC staff is picking up in Australia (thanks again if you're reading this!). I also heard from a couple people that they liked to see the quotes from last week, so I'll add a couple more here for you all to check out.

I was goaded by the pro-independence fighters. One man said to me, ''Autonomy has lost... You must give us your home and land because our homes have been burned by your friends." I answered, "My house and land aren't political, people are political. If you want a house find an empty government building, I won't give up my home." I was attacked by the man's son and friends who broke into my house. They tried to get me out: "Leave quietly. If you don't we'll strip you naked and throw you in the fire." I reported the incident to Interfet... ...but after they left, my house was taken apart, all my plates and glasses were smashed and my furniture, cupboards and wardrobes, were taken. For whom I don't know. I let it happen because these are the consequences of struggle.

~Fernanda dos Reis Araujo Vila Verde, Dili District, 1999

After attacking Manuel Carrascalao's house on 25th April 1999, the militia accused my son of keeping weapons and arrested him. We were taken to the Caicoli Village Office. I watched them beat my son and others from RT 1 Caicoli till they were a bloody mess. Some were stabbed. Some were in so much pain they cried to die. I was so upset I screamed at them to kill them rather than continuing the torture. We were both released that afternoon but others were not. Around May 1999 the TNI found an apelo (a Falantil donor's card) in a friend's home. They asked who had given her the card and she said I had. The TNI took me to the Babinsa in Caicoli village. They mocked me by saying that a woman is of no use in politics, can never become a leader and could only ever be a servant in the forest for Falintil. In other words my only use was as a Falantil concubine.

~Fernanda Soares Liquica and Dili Districts, 1976-1999

These are some extremely powerful stories and are humbling when I think about the ease to which I can live my own life in this time of relative peace. I just hope that these stories can help others gain a better understanding of the struggle the people of Timor have gone through. Because although these are historical accounts, the effect the war had on the people of Timor is real and something that will have a ripple effect for generations to come.

To bring it back to a lighter topic I was able to find the garlic bread in the pictures below a few weeks ago, and that was a wonderful surprise to find here in the land of rice and cassava leaves. I also found this Disney garlic which I think was a wonderful move by the Disney cooperation 😂. These small things keep me feeling chipper when the stress of working in another country weighs on me. I've also found an arcade out here in Baucau which was a cool thing to find, so I can only hope to find time to visit it soon.  I haven't been to a legitimate arcade for years even living in the States!

Well this has been a good stress reliever today, I look forward to writing up the next blog post. Before I sign off though I want to bring attention to the last photo I posted and tell a short story. A week ago I was walking back home from work as usual thinking about if I wanted to pick-up some apple's at the Loja down the street or not. It then hit me that I had never looked up on this path home for the last 3 months I've been here. So upon looking up I discovered a sight that was as eye opening as it was breath taking. I saw Foho Matebian (or the Mountain of the Spirits of the Long dead) it was named this because of the Timorese that were killed there during the resistance fighting. I will link to a blog I found from a Timorese describing the stories he heard as a child (http://karaudikur.blogspot.com/2017/07/foho-matebian-my-favorite-stories.html). So as I do always I'll talk to you later and leave you all with this.

Grit is that 'extra something' that separates the most successful people from the rest. It's the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.

~Travis Bradberry

Much Love,

~BW