“Adapt to a certain point but don’t lose your personality. Defeats the purpose of being there”
So we got back into Dili around 4:30. That was after the ride down from Laclubar. Ok mental memory: 30 people sitting on top of each other, our bags (big bags) in the middle of the truck bed, a goat with its feet tied together beneath the bench where Sash is sitting, a baby with a VERY queasy look on his face. We get going and Emily says that on every anguna ride one person/child vomits. She said that the baby would puke. The anguna doesn’t go faster than 20 mph so I don’t believe her.. At one point 10 of the guys got off and hat to rn p the hill because the anguna couldn’t make it. Oh, I forgot one of the best parts, the gay guy: he had his nails painted, this black and gold head piece on and his voice was an octave higher than it should be. We know it as forced because every so often he would laugh and it would be an octave down from his voice. He seriously sounded like Elmo. Oh, and the goat made human like crying sounds every so often. I felt so bad but couldn’t help but laugh. So we bumped and bounced around the corners for 3 good long hours. About 2 hours into the ride the baby started to cough. Well it wasn’t just a cough. He puked all over Mike’s bag and some other ladies bag. Yes it was gross but there was nothing to do but laugh. Back to the goat. Of course, animals have to pee-well it got all over Mike and Sash’s feet. It was seriously so gross that all we could do was laugh (again). We got to Manatuto and decided to get off the anguna and try to hitch-hike. Well we walked up the street and found Randy, Emily, and Annie also waiting for a ride. We waited about 30 minutes and no ride came. To our embarrassment the SAME anguna drove by and stopped and got us. We were of course laughing. So about 1.5 hours more of goat crying and peeing (thank god the baby had gotten off) we get into Dili and are famished. So we go to One More Bar (a Malae bar). We get pizza and fries-so yummy!
At this point we head back to the PC office and are going to catch a taxi home. It is dark and the taxi would be like $10 and we would need 2. As we are walking to find it we see Joe and Jay (the creepy guy). We talk to them and find out Nelson (the training director) gave them and about 5 others permission to stay the night. We are like what?!?! So we call Nelson because we had ran into him about 20 minutes before and he didn’t say anything about staying the night. But he let us when we called him. We then called Alfonso who tells our families that we won’t be home.
The next morning we had to be at the PC office at 7am. We headed back to Balibar and had a 2 hour debrief session. Then we had to head back down to Dili to interview NGOs. I went with Alfonso to the only psychological facility in ET. It was very interesting for me. I am going to try to arrange something on my own to work with them. We come back to the office and a lady from CARE came and spoke to us. It is so encouraging to hear form other people. I know I can make this my experience.
Today I also had my interview with Richard, the APCD. He is basically my boss. He told me with some certainty that I will be going to a beach site. I am so excited to find out where I will be going. We all are and there is a lot of gossip about it.
After my meeting we took a taxi to the anguna station and hoped on another anguna. Well about 10 minutes from my house it started pouring! And who was in a white t-shirt, me! I was successful at keeping myself covered. I ran home and that was when I felt “it” The last few days were so chaotic and adventurous and n but I as so glad to be “home.” Joe’s host kids were screaming my name, the baby smiled when she saw me, I taught her to play peek-a-boo. I just sat and “talked” to Anto and Ama. They were all so happy to see me and talk to me. It felt so good. I had not had this feeling yet. It was great. Again, I just having this feeling of this is where I need to be.
I know also why I am so happy. I heard Bon Jovi TWICE today and the taxi driver was wearing a Bon Jovi t-shirt!
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