East Timor

I'm now in East Timor and, believe you me, I never saw this one coming until 2 weeks ago. It all started when a job I found in Portland, Oregon didn't work out--I worked at a web design company for one week, and my manager could not give me the hours he originally promised.

I immediately went to Craig's list to search for a job. That lasted about 5 minutes because a strong feeling in my gut told me to stop searching and wait for a job that was about to come to me. I paid attention to the feeling, and the next morning I received an email from my former manager in Kabul asking me to design a website for East Timor's parliamentary elections.

It's really bizarre yet comforting when these things happen. I know I can always rely on the universal flow to guide and take care of me.

It's now my second day ever in East Timor. I'm staying in Dilli, the capitol and there's a monsoon down poor out my window right now, making it's presence loudly known on the many tin roofs that saturate my neighborhood. Because of colonization that lasted for 450 years, locals speak Portuguese and 18th century European architecture is spread throughout the city. Coffee plants and sandal wood cover the island and the fishing couldn't be better--my friend Toby said the prawns here can sometimes be the size of telephone receivers. The bulk of the population is Roman Catholic with a few animists living inland and, other than beaches and a desolate tropical mountain scape, that's about all I know for right now.

I'm a little jet lagged and it's hard for me to absorb too much at this point, but, as the election moves closer and I start to explore, I will definitely keep you all posted.

Ciao,
Liz