7 February 2017

Lots to update and have even got photos!  We are still in the hotel, accommodation is not quite sorted out yet; we checked out another house but there were big gaps between the roof and the walls (probably due to having no ceiling!) and there was no kitchen or bathroom although there was a Timorese toilet (hole in the floor).  Am trying not to be a princess but can’t really put Charlie somewhere where mossies and other creatures not to mention rain can get in.  I could handle it of course ;-)  So at this stage we might move into Michele’s little house for a month or so and there is another possible new house which still needs a toilet to be put in which we may be able to rent for $100 per month.  I would say, judging by how quickly things move that it will be ready just when we are about to leave!  Michele says she doesn’t mind having a homestay while the other house is being finished, so we’ll see how things go.

Yesterday visited the kindy.  The kids were so cute, and Charlie looked absolutely enormous next to them. 

 They don’t have desks, just sit on the floor and they come in two shifts of about 35 kids each shift.  The playground would raise a million red flags for anyone doing an Australian standard health and safety check.  Bits of rock lying around under the equipment, rubbish, old metal swing seats with no actual seat just the frame, rusty metal equipment etc.  And they are quite an affluent kindergarten apparently. 

Everyone is so friendly, they all greet you and each other; no one walks past without saying good morning or good afternoon etc.  There is a real sense of community.  So we have become pretty good at saying all the greetings!  Big smiles all around.  People are always wandering around, there is a lot of sitting around too!  I think they would find Australian suburbs like a desert.  Ross was unloading some sand the other day to help with the water tank and Charlie was helping, next minute all these boys turned up to help and ended up having a great time with Charlie, it was great to see him interacting kids his own age. 

We took the Frisbee down later to see if they’d be around but of course it poured with rain.  It rains every day of rain.  , not all day but when it rains it is this mad downpour with wind and sheets The power goes off regularly; in the hotel they have a generator so all good but anywhere else the power could be off anything from an hour to all night.  Today I went to visit a convent school where 40 girls board, some because they are from remote areas and are there to get an education, some because their family don’t want them/can’t support them so the nuns take them in.  We walked in through their dining room and water is leaking through the iron roof, running along the light cord and dripping down a metal pole!  Then walked in to where we thought we were having a meeting about me doing some English lessons but instead it was a big room with all the girls squashed into wooden benches, one light on so it was really dark, all of them waiting expectantly for an English lesson!  Mad panic of thinking what to teach on the spot but then it got sorted out, they ran out shrieking happily that they didn’t have class and I was extremely relieved!  That will start next week.