It's less than 10 days until I board the plane for yet another adventure in Timor. Spending seven months back in Kansas has definately made me ready for the change. After bouncing around to a few connections in the U.S. (not including the currently snowed in Denver airport) I spend part of a day in Taipei, enough time to get a sunburn in Bali, and a short regional flight back to Dili. There are flights every day for the last leg, so I plan to stay in Indonesia at least long enough to re-acclimatize to the tripical sun and get used to the feel of sand between my toes again. My warmest (ha, ha) sympathies to all of you who are stuck in cold, snowy places.
My goal for this trip is to find employment with an NGO or similar aid organization with a meaningful plan for development and the betterment of the people of Timor. Having your Peace Corps tour cut short by an evacuation leaves a great sense of unfinished business and a desire to repay the people who took care of you as you learned about their country. Having lived with a host family from almost immediately after your arrival, you feel a deep sense of having grown up with these people because, like a child, they taught you to eat, speak, and use the toilet facilities. Mine lives on a mountain above Dili, and the first trip up the hill to see them will be a sentamental one.
In my first weeks back, before the job search really begins, I plan to visit friends in Dili, spend time on Atauro where I lived for 8 months, and see the places that I always meant to go, but never had the chance. I want to climb Ramelau, the highest mountain in Timor, to see Jaco the tiny uninhabited island off the east coast, and to take the ferry to Oecussi, an enclave surrounded by Indonesian controlled west Timor. My Tetun is a bit rusty, but I suspect that a few weeks of immersion will fix that. As my departure time approaches I become more and more anxious to restart the life I left seven months ago.
