23 de April de 2012

An election day

Luro Polling Center

On March 17th East Timor held its presidential elections, the first executed by the Timorese, only with the support of the UN. After 7 months working in this process I was all excitement and anxiousness for this day. I went with one of our colleagues, the UNPOLs and the Timorese staff to the farthest Sub-district, and the one with the worst roads, Luro. We spent two days there, first day delivering the sensitive materials and staff, and the second, elections. The delivery was all about not letting the car get stuck in the many, many, many mud pits in that place. It took us hours to go from one Polling Center to another, even with a distance of a few kilometers (not more than 5 or 10). The weather didn’t cooperate either; it rained all day long during the delivery and we were all waiting for a similar E-day.

Crossing thr river in Lautem

E-day came after a night of rainstorm and strong winds with no clear sky, but at least no rains. The roads were even worse than the previous day, but at least the voters wouldn’t have to stay in the rain to vote. More than that, they wouldn’t have to walk for hours on the rain. The whole E-day all I saw was people walking the same distances we did by car, barefoot and all. Young or old, it didn’t matter, there were all there with a big smile and very proud to be able to vote. The willingness to vote was such, that by lunch time most of the votes had been casted.

Voters waiting for the counting

The most beautiful thing I saw that day happened early in the morning, in the second Polling Center we visited. A very old man was coming to vote. He was old, very sick, and was walking with the help of two young men. To be honest he was almost being carried to vote. But even with all the difficulties, he had a big smile on his face when he placed his vote in the ballot box.

Elections have different meanings in different places. For those who never lived in a dictatorship or who never had to fight for independence, voting is only about electing the future leaders. On the other hand, if you had to fight in any way for the right to vote, elections have definitely a better taste. It means being a citizen, it means being free, it means being part of your nation, but most of all, it means being proud. In a country where the fight for freedom is still very vivid in everyone’s memory, it is inevitable to see so much proud faces on E-day. The excitement in the atmosphere is contagious and it is impossible not to be happy to be part of such an important day to the people in this country.

Well, those are the days that make all the sacrifices worth it…

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14 de February de 2012

The land of no profits

I might have found the only place in the world where most people do not seem to be interested in making profits. Bizarre as it sounds, it’s true. Let’s rewind a little so that makes more sense. Timor was the world’s youngest nation until South Sudan became a country in 2011. In addition to being recently independent, Timor spent most of its history fighting for independence and little attention was paid to developing and solidifying the national economy. The Timorese who fought against the invasion lived for years in the mountains, not having access to any news of the outside world. When the Indonesians left in 1999, these people were faced with a globalized world they had no idea existed. After the plebiscite that gave East Timor its longed freedom came the responsibilities of any country in the world: to promote and ensure democracy, social development, human rights, and economic growth. 

Timorese resistance in the mountains

The country was a wreck and nothing or nobody else than the UN could be able to clean up the mess of 25 years of war. So Timor became one of the organization’s biggest missions and absolutely everything was done by the UN. The power handover has been slow and gradual. Despite the presence in all 13 districts of the country, it’s in Dili that you can see the biggest impact of the mission. When thousands of internationals started to arrive in Timor, infrastructure needed to be created and developed. And so it was. Dili has supermarkets, hotels, good restaurants, western union, and massage places…almost all amenities Malais need. The Timorese business people are eager to profit as anyone else in the world. But this is Dili. And after 6 months of Timor I know that Dili is an anomaly in this country. The rest of the people lving in the Sucos and Aldeias of the other 12 districts are not like that. And that is the majority of the population.

UN cars in Dili

“I don’t care about profit” story 1: I go to the local market to buy tomatoes. They look horrible, as they are about to get rotten. I circle around a bit more, trying to find better ones. No luck there, so I just stop in one stand and start negotiating. The lady wants 1 dollar for 4 nearly decomposing tomatoes. I say no and offer 50 cents. She says no and I after trying for 5 more minutes I start to leave thinking she will come after me. She doesn’t and I don’t understand. I do the same with 3 other ladies and the result is the same. Finally I say: but if you don’t sell it to me the tomatoes will go rotten, and you will lose money. She looks at me with an expression that says: I couldn’t care less.

Farmers in East Timor

“I don’t care about profit” story number 2 (told by my friend Joana): Joana wanted to give her friend a local and traditional Fataluco drum for his birthday. She tried to find the person who makes those for days with no luck. With the help of her Timorese friends she locates the man in a faraway village. When she arrives there she sees that he has 3 drums and decides that she will buy 2 and her Timorese friend will also take 1. She asks her Timorese friend to tell the man that and the man refuses to sell her the drums. He says he already has enough money for that month and therefore does not need to sell the drums. After a long time of convincing he finally agrees to sell only one! I heard at least 10 other stories like that, and I’ve been here for only 6 months.

I find all of these intriguing and fascinating. We are so deep-rooted in the capitalist culture, which demands us to make as much money as possible, that we can’t bear to imagine something different…someone who doesn’t have the need to profit. But all the philosophical analyzes aside, this poses the Timorese leaders a serious problem. Follow this: 1) In terms of expectations, I could say that most Timorese are concerned with very basic needs such as democracy, health care, education and I’ll dare to say electricity and good road conditions (I might be going too far on those last two). 2) In order to provide that, the government needs at least to improve and increase the flow of foreign investments. [I won’t even mention international trade and other macro economic mechanisms.] 3) But how does the government succeeds in doing this when the majority of the country doesn’t care about profiting/purchasing? Until now Dili has been making up for the rest, but I have my doubts if it will be able to sustain the entire country after the UN mission leaves. On the other hand, there’s always China…

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7 de December de 2011

The unbearable light-Less of being (in Timor)

Generators

Living in Brazil I always had electricity and always thought it to be one the most basic things in life. Apart from stormy, tempestuous days where everything would go dark for a few hours, electricity was always there. Generators were something only owned by hospitals, malls and industries; never regular citizens. I remember a couple of weeks in 2010 in Rio, when there was a massive problem and some neighborhoods didn’t have power for many hours every day. It was a major crisis because not even supermarkets had generators. That’s what it’s like living in country where electricity is always there.

Then I moved to Tanzania, where I found generators everywhere: supermarkets, little stores, restaurants, houses, offices and apartments. Tanzania, like many others, is a country which could never survive without these generators. Power cuts are normal, are part of everyone’s daily life. People are so used to these conditions that not even an announcement earlier in 2011 of a massive power cut of 12 hours a day for a week did not seem to produce much impact…at least not enough for a big protest or anything like it.

Generators of Dili Power Plant

 But it was coming to Timor that I found out what really is life without electricity. As I mentioned in a previous post, the country’s only source of power is generator. Obviously, it’s a gigantic one, enough to provide electricity for an entire city, but a generator nevertheless. Every district has its own generator, which can be really problematic for a series of reasons. The first one is that if it breaks it takes usually a day to get fixed. Second, and most current ones, are the fuel related problems. It is normal to get less than the usual 18 hours of power a day, because they did not have enough money to buy fuel. Also, there are the fuel shortages, very current in an island.

Four weeks ago, we started having only 12 hours of power everyday. A week later they cut this to only 5, some days, only 4. In a city where there is no supermarket and you can’t resupply your food stock, if you run out of it, it is a mess. At one point I started seeing ants in my freezer! Yes, ants in the f.r.e.e.z.e.r. At first I feel irritated, then, really angry, then frustrated, and at last I just say: yeah, what you gonna do?? And to be honest my district was not the worst one. In Manatuto District, for instance, they didn’t have power for a whole week. Not even one hour a day. That was when I stopped complaining.

 

Children carrying water in Tanzania

Two years ago I would say living like this is impossible and unbearable. But the truth is electricity is a privilege. And a privilege which most of the world’s population does not have access to. Electricity in developed and some developing countries is such a trivial thing that it is hard for us to imagine how people can live without it. But they can. They also can live without running water, which is another privilege. It’s amazing the ability of humans to adapt to any environment. We can get used to not having power, not having running water, or a sink or anything. These situations change your perceptions. Not in a dramatic life changing way, but it definitely makes you appreciative of things that you usually took for granted. For example, the return of 18 hours of power two days ago was surely my best birthday present! :)

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20 de September de 2011

Meet (my) Lospalos

Lospalos' main street

Lospalos is the capital of Lautem district and my home for the next year. The town itself is really, really tiny (it has around 20,000 people) and consists of mainly 4 streets. Everyone knows each other and it’s like we are celebrities here. We go around town waving, smiling and saying hello to almost every person we run into the streets. The landscape is gorgeous…palm trees, hills, beaches (not in Lospalos itself, but 45 minutes away).  

Jaco Island

If I had to highlight the city’s most remarkable feature it would be the roosters. This place should be called Losgalos* because I’ve never seen that many roasters together in my life. And they sing all day long. They must be connected to the city’s generator because they also run for 18 hours a day…seriously. Besides the roosters we also have dogs, cows, buffalos, aaaaaand crocodiles. The crocodiles are not that common though…sometimes you can spot one walking around town at night. I haven’t seen one yet, but I still have 11 months to go.

 

Neighbors

To my complete delight there are almost no cockroaches here. No roaches but loads of rats. I think there is a mouse city between in the roof because you can hear them running perfectly at night. Oh, a couple of them also run free through the house. Ratatouille is the one who visits my room at night…can’t tell you how much I love having a mouse going through my things, running on my bed, etc. 

Landscape in Lospalos

As I mentioned in the previous post, we only have for 18 hours and our house has no running water. Our bathroom is divided in the toilet part and a place to take a bath (not a shower, a bath). Both of them have a big tank (filled everyday by our next door neighbor) with water for the bath and to flush the toilet. Now, note that I didn’t mention any sink…that is because there isn’t one. The absence of the sink makes brushing your teeth a really fun activity: get your toothbrush and toothpaste, a bottle of water (not possible to use the water in the tank), go to bathroom floor and do it!  Oh well… :)

Our bathroom

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16 de August de 2011

What’s Timor like?

Describing Timor at this point would result in a superficial and possibly untrue story of what this country is all about. I will call it my first impressions as this is all I can do after being here for only two weeks. After living in Tanzania for 15 months comparing the two countries was inevitable. I know they are two completely different countries, with completely different cultures, histories and societies, but I couldn’t help thinking the development issues of Timor in comparison with Tanzania. So, as bad and wrong as I believe this is, that is how my impressions took shape.

Holes, holes and more holes

Timor is a young country and an island, therefore things here are in a very early stage of development. The most basic things like electricity and water supply are a problem everywhere (cheers to bucket showers!!!). To have an idea, there is only a small power plant in Timor that supplies Dili only; the rest of the country runs with a huge generator. Dili has power 24 hours a day, but in most of the districts electricity only runs for 12 hours. And I was complaining about Tanesco. Honestly, Tanesco rules!!! Another issue is the limitation of Timorese economic activities, which is one of the reasons for comparative high food costs. However, in my opinion the most worrisome thing is definitely the roads conditions. Nothing in Bolivia or Tanzania comes close to the situation here…these are the worst and most dangerous roads I have seen in my life. As a friend here said: in certain places, you look for a paved road among the holes.

Traffic

Dili, the capital, is like a small and poor city in Brazil or a small city in Tanzania (like Arusha). Although this might seem bad, there are good things about it. For example, the traffic here is less chaotic. That does not mean less HORRIBLE and CRAZY drivers, just no 3 hours stopped in a huge traffic jam. There are loads of motorcycles as in any good Asian country. The drivers have this horrible habit of using a motorcycle as a mean of transport for the whole family. So you can spot dozens of times a day a man carrying his wife and 2 children with him!!! They also believe the side mirrors are lack of masculinity so they take it off!!! The Mikrolets (our version of the Dala Dalas) do not run you over when you are walking either on the sidewalks or the “sidewalks”. Aaaaaaaand there is garbage collection!!!! Ok, ok, sometimes you can see the rubbish all splashed out on the roads, but they do have a collecting system.

 

Sunset in Areia Branca beach, Dili

 

Restaurants, hotels and bars were almost all created to entertain the foreigners who live here (and 90% of them are UN staff). Also, Dili has one of the most amazing landscape and scenarios I’ve seen. The combination of the ocean and the hills remind me a lot of Rio and the sunset here is to dye for. Life in Dili can be very nice for the expat community. But, OF COURSE this is not where I will be living. From next week on I’ll be staying in a city called Los Palos, in Lautem district. Lautem is known for having the most beautiful beaches in the country, but I am sure the best part of it is gonna be the stories about how is life in one the most remote areas of Timor. Funny times to come for sure…

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3 de June de 2011

Como ser pedestre onde não existe calçada

Bajajis em Dar es Salaam

O trânsito na Tanzânia é um sem dúvidas o mais maluco que eu já vi. Não estou me referindo apenas à engarrafamentos, porque pra quem já viu o trânsito na China, o de lá não era nada. Mas, como eu ainda não estive em Lagos, Mumbai, etc, me limito a dizer que o trânsito em Tanza é tenso. Para começar apenas 30% das ruas são asfaltadas (isso numa cidade grande como Dar, no interior é bem pior). Sinais de trânsito só existem em cruzamentos importantes. A cidade é cheia daqueles tuk-tuks (cujo nome local é Bajaji). Calçada é um conceito subjetivo. Os motoristas são alucinados. Os motoristas não sabem dirigir. Respeito ao pedestre é algo que eu acho que ninguém nunca ouviu falar. Corrupção e suborno fazem parte do cotidiano. Tudo isso junto = trânsito caótico e índice de acidentes altíssimo. Mas vou contar as estórias pra ilustrar melhor a situação.

Com poucas ruas asfaltadas todos os carros são “obrigados” a transitar nas ruas e avenidas principais. Quer dizer…eles adoram pegar “atalhos”, que eu apelidei de “longcuts” porque na prática demoram mais que o trânsito horroso.  Voltando ao trânsito: Pensa no trânsito Barra-Centro sem a Lagoa, Jardim Botânico e aterro…é tipo isso. Se você tem o azar de morar/ trabalhar na direção do fluxo, coitado…pode ficar facilmente 3 horas dentro do carro/dala dala. A escassez de ruas e avenidas asfaltadas obriga que todas elas sejam mão-dupla (calma…as avenidas são largas e em alguns lugares há pista dupla). Isso significa que nos cruzamentos os carros podem ir para todas as direções. Bom, até ai tudo bem…o problema é que é assim em TODOS os cruzamentos. Agora pensa isso na hora do rush. Caos.

Trânsito em Dar es Salaam

A melhor cena já presenciada por mim foi um dia quando eu estava voltando do trabalho. Estava parada por uns 10 minutos esperando para atravessar um cruzamento onde tem o maior engarrafamento sempre na hora do rush. Na hora do rush eles colocam guardinhas que, nem preciso dizer, complicam ainda mais a porcaria toda. Ai fiquei observando o trânsito e percebi que estava tudo completamente parado, estranho mesmo para o horário. Olhei, vi que metade da pista estava interditada e imaginei logo que fosse acidente. Quando finalmente consigo atravessar e ver o que estava se passando, vejo que eles fecharam a pista pra RETOCAR A FAIXA DE PEDESTRES!!! Sem comentários…

Dala dalas em Dar es Salaam

 

Como eu disse antes, calçada é um conceito subjetivo. Pra começar que em pouquíssimos lugares existem calçadas asfaltadas (se não existem ruas, vão existir calçadas?? Obvio que não) e a maioria é meio que um acostamento de terra. Pelo menos assim é que encaram os motoristas, afinal, eles usam a “calçada” como se fosse uma extensão das ruas.  As motos, bajajis e dala dalas então, só circulam por lá praticamente. Ou seja, há um risco significativo de atropelamento mesmo quando você está andando na calçada. Alguns motoristas são educados o suficientes para buzinar, pedindo licença para poder passar…eu aguento?? Finjo que não ouvi e fico na frente de propósito…alooooou!!

Agora o porquê dessa zona generalizada?? Eu fiquei muitos meses pensando que era apenas por conta do subdesenvolvimento e falta de estrutura do país, até que eu descobri a outra metade da laranja num comentário inocente do meu chefe: aqui ninguém faz auto-escola. Existir até existe, mas quase ninguém frequenta. As pessoas aprendem a dirigir com o pai, tio, ou no caso da Janeth, minha amiga do trabalho, com o motorista do ex-emprego por 2 dias numa viagem de trabalho!!! Depois, vão ao órgão responsável e pagam para tirar a carteira. Simples assim. Todo mundo faz isso. Os táxis carregam facilmente mais de 4 pessoas…meu recorde foram 9 mais o motorista! Resumo da ópera: existe mais chance de você morrer num acidente de trânsito do que por alguma doença ou violência!

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13 de May de 2011

1 albino + 3 gringos + um monte de cegos

Makalala Special Needs School

Como parte do meu trabalho, comecei a fazer viagens dentro do país para conhecer o trabalho desenvolvido localmente pela ONG Tanzania League of the Blind. Na primeira viagem, fui até a região de Iringa de carro com o pessoal do trabalho. A viagem levou 12 horas (!!!), mas a região fica no meio das montanhas e ainda cruza um parque nacional onde pode se ver babuínos, elefantes, girafas, zebras, etc no acostamento. Super divertido.

Mikumi National Park

Visitamos uma escola para deficientes e tivemos uma mega recepção, com direito a lanche (quase um almoço na verdade) e todo o corpo docente reunido. Bom, o protocolo local pede que todos se apresentem, não importa se são 5 pessoas ou 200 (sério!)…e isso em kiswahili, claro. Até ai tudo bem porque eu já tenho a minha mini apresentação decoradinha. Mas eu vi que todos estavam não somente se apresentando, como também fazendo um pequeno discurso. Não querendo fazer feio, quando chegou a minha vez eu mandei um discurso completamente improvisado em kiswahili…hahuahuauhahuauha. Um sucesso! Quando eu terminei todos os meus colegas me olhavam chocados como quem diz: De onde saiu isso??

Em outubro fomos para uma região que fica no norte do país e para onde as estrada são muito ruins, então fomos de avião e ficamos lá por 8 dias. Ao contrario da primeira viagem, nessa eu estive à frente da organização do evento porque vinham convidados de fora – um inglês que é cego e um queniano albino. Com já dito antes, na Tanzânia existe um problema muito sério de matança de albinos. 

White Cane Day, Shinyanga

Duas semanas antes da viagem, o Chris (o inglês), em um dos emails me avisou que o Alex é albino e me perguntou sobre a segurança dele. Comentei o email com alguém e descobri que Shinyanga é a região com maior índice de matança de albinos!!! A primeira coisa que me veio à cabeça foi: POR QUE VÃO MANDAR UM ALBINO PRA REGIÃO ONDE MAIS MATAM ALBINOS?? Fui conversar com o chefe, crente que ele ia me dizer que estavam exagerando, quando ele fala: é, é bem perigoso mesmo. E todos vocês terão que tomar muito cuidado porque essas pessoas que matam albinos, não estão nem aí pra quem eles machucam no caminho!!! Pensa na minha cara.

White Cane Day

A tensão era grande…3 gringos + 1 albino + um monte de cegos…definitivamente não éramos um alvo!!! Bom, a solução foi fazer o workshop no mesmo hotel onde estávamos hospedados. Correu tudo bem, o albino sobreviveu, mas não sem um momento de semi-tensão. Domingo umas 10 da noite, o Alex me diz que tinha problemas de insônia e que estava pensando em sair pra dar uma caminhada nas ruas: ALOU, TA MALUCO? Esse pessoal é muito sem noção…

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