West Timor 7 & 8

Expediting Kupang

Day 7: 17th March 2006
We woke up this morning to find one of us disappeared. Man.

Anyway…

The team was divided into 2 groups – one to the orphanage and the other to finish up the final cement layer in the second house. I joined the cementing group together with Vinz, Wan, Alfian, Shuxiang and Cai Ying and of course, Pak Budi’s workers were also with us to guide.

We finished quite fast and after that, we joined the rest at the orphanage. Helped to clear the weeds and shrubs at the premises and then, frolicked with the little kids there.


I still think kids are a major pain in the ass sometimes.


Oh there is this big kingfisher (a bird, lah!) at the orphanage. Its name is Raja. Guys, meet Raja.



After lunch, we were again whisked to another Catholic church (Catholicism is top in West Timor) for another dialogue session with the local youths. This time round, we were treated like Hollywood stars..with Vinz and Marinah being Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie respectively. After the question-and-answer section (which was at one point damn hilarious), most of us were “attacked” by the youths…asking for email addresses, phone numbers, photos and ..get this..autographs!


Youth: This question is for you (pointed to Alfian), you (Weixiang) and you (Esther). What do you think about love, sex and dating?

(Floor erupted with laughter and curious mumblings)

Alfian: *cant remember what he said but it was safe*
Weixiang: For sex, if you really want to do it, please be careful and use protection.

(SF team burst out laughing on stage)

Esther: I only give it to my husband!

(SF team rolled on the floor clutching their tummies in ultimate glee and the floor clapped in approval)


Tsk tsk tsk.

From the day’s appearance, we appeared in the papers on the next day.


In Singapore, no one questions (?) about religion.


Rotary Club bonds Indonesia-Singapore youths.

Anyway we went back to the hostel after that, but not before dropping at the stadium. We were to have a football friendly match with the West Timor national women’s team (!!??) and Pak Guido brought us there for a while to have a look-see. What I saw? Amazonians!

Back at the hostel, Pak Budi told us to get the Alien, who was staying at the orphanage. Apparently, he had packed his bags in the morning and walked to the orphanage at 0500hrs. After the previous night’s heated argument, he decided to leave the group and head home. Fortunately, Pak Budi managed to calm him down. Anyway, all of us decided to go to the orphanage to bring him back “home”. We took quite a while but in the end, Alien came home.

ET, come home.


Lame.

[I think this part shows how humans can set aside differences in view of a common goal. I dare say that until that point, not everyone was fine with the Alien. Some were still seething angry about what he said the previous night. BUT, ego had no place in this group, in this part of the world. We had to think cohesively as a group and what the group needed was unity and faith in the leader.]

As awkward as it was initially, we all soon went back to the hostel to finally have our late dinner supper. I was glad that no one went home and the SF was still a group.


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Day 8: 18th March 2006
It’s Saturday and we were bundled in the Kijang, Pak Budi’s car and Pak Lief’s 4-wheel drive Land Cruiser (Marinah and I were bundled in the land cruiser so that we could chat with Ibu Peggy and Pak Lief) bright and early. We, together with other Rotary members and their families, were all heading to Soe, the mountain side on the south-west of Timor. Exciting.


Pak Lief, the driver du jour. Every ride was a nail-biting experience with him at the wheels. I swear I could have peed in my pants whenever we went down those slopes at breakneck speed.


Some preferred to sit on the Kijang, like construction workers.

After travelling for a couple of hours, we reached this hill…with a breath-taking view of the Soe mountains.





After that, we were brought to Oehala province..and there, we saw a waterfall.Drinkable water, mind you. But hah, not before going down a tedious slope…and then at the end, climbing it back up again.





We left the waterfalls when it was almost dark. We then reached Soe and checked into Hotel Bahagia Dua and spent the rest of the night there. Tomorrow, it’s the mountains again.

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