Saturday trip to the beach!

We worked hard all week and now for Saturday! Casey headed to the mountains on a motorcycle, texted that he just finished the best ride of his life and was safely to a small town where he had a hotel room near he highest peak on the island. Sean and Sierra have had a tremendously challenging week (though I think that is actually the norm) and Ethan had missed the ferry (on left) to Aturo which will be his new home starting next week. The ferry left early as the Prime Minister was already on board. We packed up and headed to the beach about an hour east of Dili.

The most notable thing is that there are no people to speak of and the second thing is that the water must be 80 degrees. Of course Timor is 8 degrees south of the Equator so it is warm here. Lots of shells on the beach too I brought home two bags full. The fish are amazing and there are two or three small reefs off the beach before it drops off stepply into a trench that is 5,000 feet deep! We swam and just hung for a few hours. Fortunately there was a few clouds so the sun was not unbearable for us fair skinned types. I know this is all anathema to my Bellingham friends but that is how it is here in Camelot.

Ethan and I made a sand castle. The tide barely changes here but the waves wil

l get it eventually.

Ethan and Sierra swam way out into the ocean and they had brought swimming goggles! They worked great to watch the fish. I did not get out far enough to see the big coral but hope to when we got to Aturo next weekend. It was so quiet and peaceful. There are no houses, no traffic, few people and the place is simply amazing from a beauty point of view.

Eventually we decided to go home but it was a relaxing day at the beach. It was great to see Sean and Sierra relax after a very busy week.

Timor

We have been in Timor for a week but it seems more like a month. Sean and Sierra make it seem as if we have access to the express lane in life. They have a wonderful home that is secure, clean, well stocked with food and drink and they both have the ability to get almost anything done in short order. Sierra had two large grants due today so she has been very focused on those. Money to run Ba Futuru (for the future) is increasingly hard to find with the larger economic down turn and she still have a large staff and their families to be the provider for. Sean is very busy organizing the upcoming Tour de Timor bike race, and underwater photography contest and other events. He has, as usual, proven invaluable in every way. He even got us up at 5:30 a few days ago for a fishing trip down the north coast to the east. Did not catch any fish but saw hug pods of dolphins right beside the boat and flying fish that seemed to go right under the boat as we trolled along, popping up and flying for 30 of 40 feet beyond the boat. We have an invite to join the US Ambassadors family at the pool side tomorrow afternoon, I will likely go but Casey is itching to get into the mtns so will be taking a motorcycle to a town near the highest peak in the country and spending the night there.

Our real work is going very well. We have met with most of those that we need to, have got some initial data and made many new contacts. I believe we will have all the data we need for our study but some may not be available until November. The young man that I suggested come here from Bellingham showed up about 6 weeks ago and now is moving to the island of Aturo just off the coast and has been working for Sierra since he arrived. Ethan has learned fluent Tetun in about a month, mostly because he prefers to hang out with the locals rather than the expats. He is now an employee of the program and will be living in the house that Matthias and Andrea built on the island. We will head over there next weekend to visit.

I also met with Matthias and Andrea's friend Anders, that I had met on my first trip here several years ago. They are working on setting up Wide Area Networks so that folk in rural areas can have access to the internet and so that clinics can communicate and store medical information. Anders has developed a full electronic medical record system for the communities he is working in in Ermera. I could not be more proud as a parent than when I come here. One woman I met said, "Oh you are Matthias' dad!" He had helped here when he was here and made a very good impression.

I have posted a number of photos on Facebook, but will try to put some on my old website if I have time so that everyone can have a look at them. It is amazing how fast time goes by, we will be heading home in just 10 days!

Bali on a good day, not sure if there are bad days here....

Arrived in Bali today, short 5 hour flight from Hong Kong. Sierra and Sean were just behind us coming in from Timor, we were just going through customs when they came in. We all got our luggage and Sierra and I headed to the hotel while Sean and Casey went to Ubid to leave off some graphics files for public relations work in Timor. Sierra and I checked into the hotel, a nice place with a view of the beach and ocean, long zig zag pool through the middle of it and the most amazing ‘bonzia’ trees in huge pots that were about 6 to 12 feet tall. Sierra is so efficient we then went to a grocery store, changed money, got a phone card and into a taxi within about 5 minutes and were off to Kudeta to get tickets for tomorrow nights dinner.

Kudeta has an annual ‘whites party’ where there is a dress code that everyone has to wear white clothes the theme this year is Be an Egyptian. The place has a large boat in the center next to the dance stage many 15 foot tall statues on the way in of pharaoh looking fellows and a large pyramid at the entrance and on the beach side of the dance floor. I will definitely take photos and post them when we go tonight. This is Sean’s birthday and his choice of a fun evening. Casey and I brought white clothing, as Sierra had asked , now we just have to figure out how to look Egyptian in them.

We had a great pizza dinner and I headed off to bed about 10:30, Casey, Sean and Sierra heading off to the local club to dance. From my room there was really great live R&B wafting in the window for about an hour, lovely way to go to sleep in paradise. The bed was in a window seat with tall glass windows on two sides overlooking a palm tree lined garden-courtyard. You could also hear the waves crashing in on the beach just across the street.

This morning it is so quiet at 6 AM, with no one in the courtyard out front or out back and just the waves crashing on the beach. The sunrise is just a light pink. It is a wonderfully quiet time of real peace, just a gentle breeze off the ocean. Sitting on the deck and looking out over the open ocean with a hot cup of jasmine tea. It is still cool and the birds singing are my only entertainment. Life is good in Bali, everyday.

Hong Kong!

Well it is very early in the AM here. Wonderful flight, slept over 8 hours on the flight. Had a great veggie meal then watched Alice in Wonderland, talked with the lady across the isle and then off to nap land. The woman across the isle is Canadian but has lived in Thailand the past 10 years starting first one and now running 7 homes for orphans. She is clearly hooked on what she does and has been gone so long that she has to enter as a 'guest' back to Canada. No glitches so far in travel plans. Cathay Pacific managed to get me an isle seat even after the entire flight was full. Thanks to Jiasong and TaiMing for taking me to dinner in Vancouver and getting me to the flight several hours earlier than everyone else, I was first on the list for seat changes. I hate being in the center seat, and fortunately did not have to be. Casey and I are good travel mates with lots to talk about. He has finished his third year of medical school and is very well traveled so the conversations are endless. I am looking forward to this time together just to catch up on the past few years when he has been so busy studying. It is inspiring to see a highly motivated, talented and caring person setting out to a career in medicine. Can't wait for Matthias and Andrea to get far enough along that we can start to do projects together!

Hong Kong is such an easy place to be. Great food, clean, well organized as always. Easy to like. Breakfast at the same place that Jiasong and Taiming and I always eat in the airport. Not enough time to go into town and it is too bad beautiful, clear day. You can see the gondola going up to the huge Buddha statue on top the mountain here on Lantau Island, the hydrofoil going by from Macao. Beautiful to day. Almost time to get back on the plane and head to Denpasar, Bali.

ready to go.....

Sitting in the Vancouver BC airport waiting to board the plane to Hong Kong and then Bali. We will spend Fri, Sat and Sun in Bali and then on to Timor. Everything is a finished as it can be at home with work and family. Always more that could have gotten done but all the critical things are done for now and a new vista of work is emerging through the cloud of issues that is in front of me. We have appointments to make and keep with key people as soon as we get there. The pivotal issues of how data driven vs how 'qualitative' the project will be is still a major issue ahead of us. The level of cooperation from the health ministry and other key partners will not really be know until we are there and have talked with those key player in the process. As always Sierra and Sean have already and will continue to be critical to our success. Small nations are always so interesting because you can see how the power structure works so much more clearly. The same things go down in the US government we just do not get to see at because we are so far from the leavers of power.

It is so exciting to get out on the trail. I feel sorry for those still at home. Jiasong most I think, she loves so much to travel and it is really hard on her to have me out there and her at home. I really do appreciate how supportive she is and how organized and helpful in making this (and all the projects I do) possible. TaiMing was great tonight at dinner speaking three languages and being so polite and thoughtful far beyond his 6 years. He really enjoys speaking Cantonese and is expanding his vocabulary and takes the tonality of nine tones in his stride. The waiter and waitress were smitten in a wonderful way with him. I will need at some point to improve my Tetun (easy to do as I am moving up from nothing).

Wonderful to have two great kids in Timor before me. The more I learn about Matthias' projects the more impressed I am. Sierra just keeps cranking out amazing work too. Sean has been having more fun and doing more travel and organizing than ever. One proud papa her all the way round.

Well just checking in before getting on the plane. Hope you will stay in touch!

Frank

Here is a map of the context of Timor, with the Philippine's just north and the Land of Oz just south of this tropical island just 8 degrees south of the equator.

Leaving for Timor in a few days. Just asked Casey to pick up a freestanding mosquito tent. Looking forward to NOT getting another tropical illness this trip. Here is the destination. We will start in Dili. Well actually, we start in Bali, Sean and Sierra are going to meet us there and spend a couple of nights there on the way to Timor! It will be fun, they will be celebrating Sean's birthday and we will be celebrating getting to see both of them. Casey is ready to go after a few weeks working in Haiti earlier this month, Timor will seem like an easy place I am sure. We are both excited to get on the road. I have an almost infinite amount of work to do be fore we leave on Thursday. Two more days at Nooksack and one long Wed in San Juan to get a months worth of work done. We are opening a new clinic that the Nooksack Tribe will own in Deming but will serve all the people in the region starting in January so a great deal of planning going on there. An on San Juan there is Pertussis outbreak and a Norovirus outbreak right now (in both a summer camp and a childcare center). So race to the finish line for now. Just got off the phone this morning with Ed Kelly about Jhamtse Gatsal School in India and the likelihood of getting a dentist to go there to use the dental equipment that I helped to install in the spring and it is looking more likely now.

Frank