Challenges & Highlights

The past week I had a few challenges but many highlights. Feeling a little sick all of the time-challenge. Walking along the beach and seeing 3 baby goats- highlight. Here is a brief recap from the last week.

Sunday was Jim's birthday. We joined some friends in Liquica, where we swam, ate, and relaxed. But it seemed like the whole day lead up to bringing out the homemade chocolate magnificently frosted T-rex cake. It was delicious.

One of my favorite days was when I went to drop off Ela, the nanny, at her home. Ela has sort of been my window into Timorese life, so far. She speaks really good english and translates for me. Plus, we like to chat about life, her new economics classes, our families, and eating good food. When we pulled up to her house there were her 2 brothers, 4 sisters, and 2 nieces out on the patio. They happily welcomed me in and greeted me with a kiss on each cheek, the customary greeting. She showed me around the house, which was similar to Alda's, but with more rooms. I loved sitting on the porch with the family while the dog and kids ran around.  They brought out an old photo album and shared pictures of their childhood and a few of their parents' wedding photos. They even showed me their pet pigs and piglets! The whole trip made me very happy. 

I finished my first project for TRM this week! My project included creating a system so their client's can give them feedback or report a complaint and creating a privacy policy for client data.  I hope to present my work within the next week, although I'm a little nervous. Challenges of my first few weeks included learning to communicate without knowing the language, not knowing anything about TRM's operations, and frequent power outages. Even though I've only learned a few words in Tetun, smiling goes a long way here. I've been doing a lot of smiling.  I'm lucky some of the staff speak english and are happy to explain the business to me.

TRM staff

Highlights of the first few weeks include when the CEO told me he is very thankful I'm there helping out and that now I'm part of the family, being greeted every morning with big smiles and "Bondia"  (good morning), and a going away party for one of the employees. The party was a great way to meet some of the staff that I don't get to see very often. There was delicious fried food, cake, and champagne. They played music, took tons of pictures, and presented gifts to the man that was leaving. When we were ready to eat they looked at me and pointed to the bottle of champagne and said "Mana, please" ( sister, please) I watched the other guy shake up the other bottle and I followed him; the top blasted off and champagne exploded everywhere! It was party time!

I went to Tracey's for dinner this week, too. This is the place I will be calling home for the next two months. Beautiful garden, quite a few cats, and an endless supply of new people to meet. One of the first things I noticed when I walked in was a huge framed portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The possibility of acquiring a British accent while I'm there is something to look forward to.  I move in this weekend. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week. 

Tuba Rai Metin

This week I started working at Tuba Rai Metin (TRM), a Microfinance Institution (MFI) that provides financial services to small businesses and entrepreneurs.  I was graciously welcomed into the office by the Angelo, the CEO, and Subhash, the Transformation Advisor.  I was assigned to learn about the Smart Campaign, create a system to implement the principles of the Smart Campaign, and train the staff on these principles; this is all to be done within my 2 1/2 months here! 

Street view from my office

A little background on microfinance: 

Check out this great video! 

Microfinance was created to help people, usually the very poor, who do not have access to traditional banking services. The idea of microfinance purposes that if given access to financial services, these people will be able to lift themselves out of poverty. However, it is understood that microfinance is not the only answer to ending poverty. 

The Smart Campaign was created to protect clients of the microfinance industry. They have developed 7 Client Protection Principles that responsible MFIs should follow to ensure their clients know their rights as consumers and are prevented from falling victim to over-indebtededness. This is the first industry‐wide client protection initiative and I'm excited to be helping implement these ideas!

My job is to provide TRM with the tools and resources they need to deliver respectful, transparent, and prudent financial services to their clients; I will get these tools and resources from the Smart Campaign. Specifically, one of the things I will look into is how TRM can create a system so their clients can give feedback, make a complaint, or ask questions so they can be served more effectively.  

The Smart Campaign is important because the people who use these financial services- small loans for their businesses, savings accounts, and micro-insurance- are already a vulnerable population and they must be protected. It's important to ensure that the women and men who use these services, are not only able to repay their loans on time, but in doing so are not making huge sacrifices- like going hungry or selling items that are valuable to their business. The Smart Campaign is designed to prevent these huge sacrifices from being made. 

I understand this is a very complicated project to address a huge complicated issue, but I'm really looking forward to learning more about this industry and I hope that my work will go on to benefit the people of Timor-Leste. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the progress! 

Dili

Right off the plane!

It's great to finally be here! My first impression of Dili is that everyone is so friendly! If you smile at anyone you get a huge smile back. Yes, it’s poor. Yes, the city needs a lot of support, but the people are very kind and helpful. 

The flight in was not very comfortable-in the middle of 2 seats, low air-conditioning, and a bumpy take off and landing. Yet, I arrived happy, although sweaty, to Milissa and Jim at the airport. They promptly gave me the tour of Dili; we drove along the main beach road, looking out to the beautiful ocean on one side and on the other, a row of government offices, embassies and NGOs. Then, we then drove to their beautiful home.

I was very excited to settle in and get started with my internship. I had been waiting to hear back from the UNESCO office and Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Prime Minister's wife, about my start date and my project. However, things have gotten off to a slow start because of a tragic situation with Kirsty. About a month ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Within weeks she had a lumpectomy and is now undergoing chemo and radiation treatment in Australia. This all happened very suddenly and people here are still trying to make sense of it all. I know how complicated, confusing, and difficult it is to have a family member go through chemo and radiation treatments, as my mom struggled through the same process last year; my love and prayers go out to her and her family during this challenging time. 

With Kirsty in Australia, the UNESCO Mother Tongue project, the project I was assigned to work on, is put on hold. I have been in contact with the UNESCO office and they're having a tough time dealing with the unfortunate news about Kirsty. While I’m still open to helping in the office, it really won’t be the same without Kirsty here, since I would need her input and guidance. In the meantime, I decided to look for another opportunity.  

I thought of the mircro-finance institution(MFI) Tuba Rai Metin (TRM) who I’m familiar with through my work at Kiva, as TRM is a field partner with Kiva. TRM does really amazing work helping women and families in East Timor. They provide credit, savings accounts and micro-insurance to more than 7,000 clients -- 98% of whom are women.  I connected with them and they have requested that I start at the TRM office Monday morning to help work on client feedback and the Smart Campaign. Not sure specifically what I’ll be doing, but it sounds good to me!

As for the rest of my week:

On Sunday, we took a drive out to the beautiful beach town, Liquica, to Black Rock Restaurant and enjoyed swimming, a gorgeous sunset and eating the catch of the day, Mahi Mahi. The owner, Tanz, made sure we were well taken care of.  It was interesting to see how Black Rock is still working out the kinks of running a restaurant in this newly developed country; training the kitchen and wait staff while trying to maintain consistent business. The food was really good, location was perfect, and service was excellent.

Sunset in Liquica

Enjoying the island life! 

On Monday, as I was still figuring out the logistics of my volunteering project, I had a day off to lounge around. Knowing that it was SuperBowl Sunday back in the U.S. I was very bummed to not have anywhere to watch the game, especially since I was a new 49ers fan this season! However, my uncle Jim made special arrangements for me to watch the game at his office at USAID. Which was very cool! I strutted in with my red and gold proudly. I was cheering, clapping, and calling “Pass Interference!” (the only call I know) all alone in the huge USAID conference room. It wasn’t quite as fun, I have to say, as being in San Francisco.  But, when the clock ran out and the 49ers were left going home empty handed, I was happy to walk out of there and not be in the heartbroken city. 

Later that day, Milissa suggested I take a trip out to see some of the houses in East Timor, as her house is not a good representation of the norm here. The driver, Jacinto, drove me to Alda's house. Alda is the housekeeper. She welcomed me in and showed me around. The house was made of concrete, with a tin roof, linoleum floors, one bedroom, and the kitchen and bathroom were outside. There was no running water. When I found out that 12 people live here I couldn’t help but try to figure out where they all slept. After looking around at the other houses around, it was obvious that this house was nice house compared to the others. 

Alda inside her house

Alda and her garden

Alda is very proud of her house. Just when I thought the tour was over, she offered to have me stay longer and brought me a strawberry Fanta. We sat out on the front porch chatting about her life, despite the language barrier. She looked me in the eye as she spoke and really wanted to make sure I understood what she was saying. I met her 4 children who were playing outside; they were peeking around the corner of the house to catch a glimpse of the strange guest (me). I smiled and waved and they ran off giggling. Alda likes to garden and has a very healthy garden that grows papaya, bananas, and beautiful flowers. I learned that she works 5 days a week mornings and afternoons, and her husband is a security guard at night.  She has decided to go back to school on the weekends to get a degree in economics. This was awesome! 

On Thursday I went to the Resistance Museum. The museum documents the tragic history of Timor-Leste. Even after knowing some of the history, it is still shocking to see the video footage, photos, documents, and statistics. I was especially surprised to learn that the international community supported the Indonesian invasion in 1975. Some other alarming facts: From 1975-1999, there were over 250,000 deaths, 1/3 of the population. Nearly 70% of all buildings, homes and schools destroyed, and an estimated 75% of the population was displaced. It’s so sad to meet these people and think that every family has been deeply affected by this genocide. I'm still processing all the information I learned and I'm sure it will hit me even harder when I start working more closely with the people of this country.