Adventures Abbreviated

I should probably try to post more briefly, but more regularly. This particular entry will have to serve as a 'catch-up' until I learn from experience.

International Pancake day

First of all, all Danes know that there is always an occasion to drink, and if there isn't, then that is reason enough to create an event. Most people don't know this, but 8^th of March happens to be International Pancake day, as well as International Women's day. Now, I know it might seem a little contradictory to celebrate women's emancipation with slaving over the stoves and cooking, but I couldn't resist the urge to commemorate an overlooked reason for celebration. So, last minute as always, though I had been talking about this great event for over a month, invitations were sent round. The basic idea was to provide guests with an unlimited number of pancakes, in return they must bring a topping of their national choice; cheese, marmite, vegemite, maple syrup, etc.

Of course, the whole project was almost in a shambles when the first two (of three) shops didn't have eggs. There's been a serious egg shortage here, and now it's been replaced with a butter shortage – this has put a serious damper on my other great project, the Dili 2011 Cake-a-thon – but after considering asking guests to bring whatever number of eggs they might have at home, eggs were found at Kimanek – your friendly neighbourhood store.

 

 

With gates to protect you from that friendly neighbourhood...

I think it was a highly enjoyable evening, with stories, wine, and buttery deliciousness, situated on an outdoor terrace in candle light. I thank people for coming, in spite of what might have seemed a silly occasion. We represented five nations, with two more who were unfortunately not able to make it.

Womans day

Pancake day was celebrated early, on Saturday evening. Tuesday, the real March 8^th the programme was already quite full. First was the opening of a photo exhibition at Casa Europa, with photo's of various Timorese women, including the Prime Ministers wife, Kirsty Sword. It's not easy to organise great events in Timor, there are often basic necessities that are simply unavailable, be it butter, human capacity, or similarly shaped screws. This exhibit was really good, the content was interesting, and the photography excellent, as was the set up of the exhibition. The photographs depicted a female police officer (not an easy job), an ancient widow, a victim of household violence, a journalist, a nurse, a nun, and more. It was very moving to read about their various backgrounds. One had participated in the last two Olympics – weightlifting, and trained with chunks of cement.

Check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unpeacekeeping/5512430474/

In attendance were all the photo objects, the victim of violence more heavily guarded than the President and the PM's wife who were also there. 

"The Chinese Ambassador Requests the Pleasure of the company of Ms. Sunniva Sandbukt" I kid you not!

By a series of curious events I got a beautiful invitation, with a red and gold printed emblem, and My name in Bold black letters. It proved to be an invitation to the Chinese Embassy for a women's day celebration. I cannot express my curiousity, everyone's curiosity, regarding what might go on inside the Chinese embassy, which has walls two meter's high, with intimidating spikes, over which towers the embassy building, with it's characteristic red and gold emblem. How did I get invited to this fancy event? Mom and I were at a ceremony a long time ago at the Norwegian embassy, marking the end of the Norwegian Refugee Council's efforts. While I was talking to a journalist mom was striking up conversation with someone she found herself standing next to. This women turned out to be the Chinese Ambassador's wife. And months later, she remembered both our names well enough to send us invitations in flawless spelling (and lets be honest, my heart always skips a beat when people get my name right). Mom and I finished our Casa Europa drinks, and rushed to the other end of town, the embassy beach road. The great gates in the wall of the Chinese embassy were open, and we were escorted indoors, to what proved to be a very interesting event. A Showcase of artistry, and documentaries about both calligraphy and silk. Unfortunately mom and I had seriously triple booked ourselves this evening, and had to rush off once again, after the first documentary.

The final event of the evening, a little further down the road, at the Beach Cafe, was a meeting with Troels Kløvedal and the new crew of his ship, Nordkaperen. For those of you who don't know him, he's a bit of a icon in Denmark. So what on earth was he doing in Timor?

Nordkaperen

It started one day when my mom was informed that the quarterly gender strategy meeting was postponed due to the President's plan to visit a Danish boat in the harbour. Obviously, this sparks some curiosity as the total Danish population is 5, and I'm only half Danish. So who are these people. Mom made a guess, that it might be Nordkaperen, but we all thought no more of it. As a last minute thing, my boss, Nigel, decided to have one final goodbye dinner (the third or fourth goodbye event?) and myself, and the others that Nigel knows and works with, including my mom, met him Monday evening at the Beach Cafe. Towards the end of the meal, to highly Scandinavian looking types walk in. Suspicions are raised because there really are not many people, and everyone knows everyone in Dili, where would these people have been hiding, with their height, scruffy beards, and very blond hair? And then, in walks the man himself, Troels Kløvedal. A conversation later, and my mom has agreed to meet him and give him a briefing for his meeting with the President the next day.

Tuesday the 8^th we were invited to have dinner with Troels, and the new crew who were taking over the ship, manned by the new captain Nikolai. It was a wonderful evening, with skål, and good food, and stories that started with “On my second trip around the world...” stories about women with moustaches as a result of slavery, about development, and about the pirates in Somalia and the Danish ship that was recently captured. A few days later, we'd agreed to meet the new crew for dinner on board, after their busy schedule with the President was over.

Solveig and I were the first to arrive at the beach, where Niels and Ida sailed us aboard with the dinghy. My feet had barely clambered on board, expressions of delight at my clinking bag of wine had barely been expressed before the phone rang, and Nikolai said “Hello Mr. President... A tsunami?” Friday the 11^th was the terrible day that the earthquake struck Japan, and at this point a tsunami warning had been issued to Indonesia, and thus Timor-Leste. 

Nikolai talks to Solveig and Mom, while Ida and Sole listen

The President was calling to warn the crew, and suggest they sail out, as he was about to go on national TV to tell people to get out of the coastal areas. The ship set sail to get out of the harbour, and the rest of us hardy folk went to a bar with a view of the ocean (min. 7 meters off the ground). While we were all nonchalance I must admit there was a certain feeling of doom, as we waited for 9.55, the time the tsunami was set to hit. It didn't, luckily. By the time it hit Indonesia it was only 1 meter tall.

Instead we went to meet the crew aboard the next day, and had a wonderful time aboard this legendary ship, which is over 100 years old! I must admit, the temptation to go with them was tremendous, though of course, hardly practical. It'll have to be a dream for another time. Suffice to say it is a beautiful ship, and if you want to follow their blog you can find it at http://www.kapaldilaut.dk/ the user is: guest as is the password. 

Nordkaperen in the Dili sunset

Cricket

Sources tell me that the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy has something to say about Cricket, which was apparently inspired by intergalactic space-wars conducted by the people's of the planet Krikket. For more on this, feel free to abuse Wikipedia. The real cricket is not an entirely transparent business either, and while you may feel inclined to try good old Wiki again, I'll try to give you an outline.

There are two teams. For the first three hours (if you're playing one day cricket) on team bats, and the other team bowls (throws) the ball, and catches it. The team that is batting only has two players on the field at a time, and when one is out (for example if the other team catches their ball before it hits the ground, like in baseball) a new player comes in. There are 11 players on each team. If all eleven are out the turn changes permanently. The ball is thrown 300 times; this is referred to as Over's. There are fifty of them; 6 bowls per Over. Once all 300 balls have been thrown the turn changes. So, the objective is for the batting team to get as many runs as possible in the course of 300 balls. The other team which starts by bowling, then has to try to beat this score in less Overs.

Make sense? My downstairs neighbour Vikas has been very enthusiastic and so I've been showing up to the match against Australia for the semi-final, then the dramatic semi-final against Pakistan, and of course, the Final itself against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka scored 274 for 6, meaning 274 runs with six players out, in the allowed 300 overs. India managed to reach 280 with ten balls remaining!

What does this mean? It means that Vikas owes us a promised Indian home cooked meal. And I'll add, Cricket isn't as boring as it's made out to be, and really, in spite of the convoluted explanation, it's not that complicated. Thank you Vikas for introducing me to it.