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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000


Home to East Timor

AusAID

AusAID Mission stand on water reservoir. Adelaide Lopes (left)

Special leave from my normal job in the Pictorial Section of the Library allowed me to work as an interpreter in East Timor on an AusAID project. I arrived in Dili, East Timor, on 4 September 2000 after a 1 hour 50 minute flight from Darwin. The airport is very small and is patrolled by the peacekeeping forces. The officials who checked my passport were locals. Everything is done manually; there are no computers and no luggage conveyer belt.

Margaret Thomas, the Australian coordinator for AusAID met me when I arrived. It was Margaret’s job to ensure that the accommodation, transport and itinerary were organised for my 22 days. My role was to act as interpreter for an AusAID mission to assess water supply and sanitation projects as I can speak both Portuguese and Tetum. The Mission was a response to a UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor) request to undertake a study of water supply and sanitation service. The purpose of the mission was to identify problem areas, check existing pipes built by the previous government and also to talk to the locals and design the appropriate system for water and sanitation in consultation with other donors. Water, sanitation and agriculture are on the AusAID priority list. At the moment, women and children have to walk half an hour to the nearest water source, because many villages don’t have wells or running water.

I was surprised to see that the accommodation was of Western style, with colour TV, air-conditioning and plumbing, as generally the country’s hygiene and toilets are rather primitive. I was also surprised by the number of restaurants and cafes in Dili—I was told there are about 60. I had no difficulty finding somewhere to eat each night. Everything is in US currency and very expensive. The average daily wage for locals is $5.00.

I participated in 30 meetings with 12 different organisations involved in water and sanitation services, restoration and development. Some of the organisations involved included Care Australia, Oxfam Australia Mission in East Timor, NGO’s and staff from East Timor Water supply. Most of the meetings were held in Dili in the UNTAET building. However, I also visited 5 districts and 10 villages. As the roads in the countryside are very poor, we had to travel by four-wheel drive. On one occasion we had to travel by UN helicopter because it was not safe to travel by road as Militia were active in the area. In Bobonaro Australian peacekeeping forces stopped us as they had spotted Militia in the area. We had to wait in our cars until they gave us the OK to continue.

Xanana Library

Xanana’s Reading Room
I visited the Library and Xanana’s Reading Room meeting Peter Creevey, who is in charge. The building that houses the library was once an Indonesian Consulate building. It is a pleasant building, built in the 1950s. In one of the rooms are three paintings by Xanana, done when while he was still fighting as a guerrilla. In one of the reading rooms I saw magazines in English and shelves with uncatalogued books.

The library has one computer, which Peter uses for email and word processing. Peter told me that he is a volunteer and he loves working with books. He has no formal library qualifications. He is trying to raise money by opening a coffee shop at the back of the library. We discussed various library procedures. The Provincial Library of East Timor was destroyed during the violence. Peter is operating this library as an interim measure until the National Library is rebuilt.

Although conditions were difficult and the threat from Militia always in the background I found my experience to be very challenging and rewarding.

It was wonderful to be part of a team working towards the reconstruction of East Timor.
—Adelaide Lopes

Above: Xanana Library in Dili. Adelaide Lopes (centre)

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