Offline - Online

It's been a while since I've written - a combination of taking on a research project, elections, and mild allergy to my computer. The last I blame somewhat on Mustang, who found herself a cottage by the sea. While she was on her circumnavigation, I found myself, limpet-like, attaching myself her porch, slowly grazing through her bookshelf and my library of cast-offs.

With the help of Goode I got a good bicycle brought in from Darwin, an arrival that happened serendipitously as all three work cars went into meltdown. I've been riding around town, avoiding potholes instead of rushing over them, smelling the stink of the gutters and ringing my little bell for kiddos. (That is when I don't have a flat.) I'm in a Luddite phase - a pushbike, non-virtual, get up with sunrise and roosters kind of phase.

The photos are from a spontaneous road trip at the end of June. The mother of one of our field organizers passed away, and on that Wednesday morning, without thinking twice, almost the entire office emptied - including the gardener - and we jumped in the car, and rode 3.5 hours to Maliana for the laying out of the body. This is my third funeral, ne'er a wedding, and I am getting used to the ritual.

After viewing the body, we sit, eat some noodles or rice, and chat. There is a very well developed plastic chair economy here, and I see trucks bumping through Dili moving tilting stacks of rainbow chairs from weddings to wakes, back and forth. And on my turquoise chair in Maliana, I was struck that everyone there had done the same thing: dropped work to go sit and talk quietly as the kids run around. After about 40 minutes we got back in the car and rode the 3.5 hours back to Dili.

I talked about this with a number of friends when I got back - the different priorities, the willingness to drop everything. But there was some irony that those conversations happened amongst people who have decided to be continents away from their families, making those gestures very difficult.

So with this in the back of my mind, it is wonderful to say that my family is coming across continents to be with me: my sister has already begun her trans-Pacific journey. She'll get in on Saturday, and I could not be more excited.



Photo: A happy staffer with a load of fresh shrimp bought en route back to Dili. To keep them from stinking up the car we hung them off the back windsheild wiper.

The bottom photo is looking west into Indonesian West Timor.