The Move

My room is the second door on the left

My room for the next 2 months

I made the move to Tracey Morgan's this weekend. I arrived with all my bags on Sunday evening and was welcomed by Meredith and Gilbert. Meredith is 25, from Australia, and is doing volunteer work for Water and Sanitation with AUSAID. Gilbert is an older fellow, from Holland, and used to do work with forestry. We sat and talked about what it's like living in Timor and all the things to watch out for. The list included things like mosquito's carrying dengue or malaria and to not brush my teeth with the running water because it may be contaminated with sewage. Fun! I've also heard people refer to a stomach bug called "Dili Belly" which is impossible to avoid since I'm in the tropics and viruses tend to spread quickly. I'm taking extra precautions by sleeping under a mosquito net,  actually using my bug spray, and brushing my teeth with bottled water. It's all part of the Dili experience. 

With knowing Tracey I think I will be making many new friends. Just today for lunch I sat at one of the only seats available at the Timor Plaza food court, it just happened to be next to a Australian woman. We started chatting about why we were both here and where we are staying. Even though this woman has only been in Dili for 2 months, she knew Tracey! A few of her friends joined for lunch and we all had some connection or knew someone in common. It feels good to know that there is a network of people here that I'm slowly getting to know and that my family is right down the street if I need them.