-
What do you call this, then?
Bless me father for I have sinned… it’s been almost a decade since my last blog post. Why, you ask? It turns out my ‘fish out of water’ schtick only lasts as long as one feels like a fish out of water, and hitting 2.5 years in Timor-Leste coincided with my then-new life motto –…
-
When America came to Timor
Dili is currently a very international city, as a result of its tragic history. There is a UN mission in Timor, UNMIT, which is winding up as we speak. There are people from literally all over the world contributing to the workforce and Police force as part of the mission. Within a few months, though,…
-
Bits and pieces
In the past month or so since I last posted, one major thing has happened – our landlord organised for an internet upgrade and instead of download speeds of 92kbps, I now have speeds of 200kbps! Oh har har you say, paltry! Yes, it’s paltry, but it’s the difference between gnashing my teeth at the…
-
Language as food and other miscellaneous things
The Sprog is coming across a lot of Tetun speakers in her life. What is Tetun? It’s the language of Timor-Leste. It’s one of the official languages (the other being Portuguese, though people say that most of the population can’t speak it fluently). Our nanny speaks Tetun. Our cleaner speaks Tetun. Our driver speaks Tetun.…
-
Harrie’s eye colour…
More or less since the newborn sheen wore off, there has been no mistaking what colour the Sprog’s eyes are. No filters on this people. They are BLUE. Very BLUE. We were VERY surprised by this – perhaps we shouldn’t have been. I come from blue/green eyes, but the Mr comes from brown eyes –…