The Trapani's in Timor Leste

A cruise ship came into the port on Saturday. It was from P&O Cruise Line it is going from Brisbane Australia to Singapore on a 15-day Cruise. Our taxi driver was very excited because it brings in a lot of tourists that will pay higher taxi fares. I remember when I used to be a cruise ship passenger and visit third world cities. I would always wonder what's it like to stay in a city like that for more than a few hours. When we left for church on Sunday morning the ship was gone. This is our walk back from or restaurant to our apartment. There was a wildfire in the hills. This is the view from our apartment. There are no wildfire fighting capabilities here on the island so it just burns. The fire must have just put itself out because it didn't spread any more than the picture. We went and visited a Village Garden that we helped to finance. The netting over the small Keyhole Garden is to keep the chickens out. After our visit we had to walk about a half a

 Every morning fisherman go out in these small boats and fish with nets.  Usually it's one person to a boat. Most don't have motors. The boats are usually made from hollowed-out trees. After their catch they bring it on shore and they are sold on the sidewalk around the ocean. It cost a dollar for a fish for about a 12in long fish. Usually on the way home from work cars and motorcycles will stop and buy a fish or  two. Sometimes they hang them on the outside antennas so the fish smell doesn't get into the car. The fish that don't sell that day are then salted and dried and then sold later. About 3 miles outside of Dili is a banana plantation. This lady is bringing some of the bananas to Market.  The bananas here come in all shapes, colors, variety and sizes. They seem to have everything but the type of bananas we eat in America. None of them are very pretty. Most have bruises on them. Most of the rural Farms have very interesting fences. Because of cost f

This is what the main river that goes through town looks like now that it's winter time. Rain has stopped. That is a huge problem for the farmers because there is no water storage on the island and very few lakes. The villagers call this this season of hunger. This is the same river in the summer rainy season. Crops grow much better than winter time. One of the problems is the rain comes down so fast it erodes away or floods everything. It never just sprinkles here. This is the 1/2 mile walk from the Australian restaurant back to our apartment. The weather has been surprisingly mild in the late afternoons and in the mornings. It's been a great surprise. On the right is John. He is a member of the church. He is in the Navy. He is here to help make arrangements for a a medical humanitarian Navy boat to visit the island. Next to him is Daniel his coworker who he invited to come with him to church. Daniel is also here on the same mission. They both currently live

Providing assistance to rural Villages that has beneficial lasting effects is extremely difficult. Much money has been spent and wasted on projects that have good intentions but no results. Charity organizations have gotten very clever in recent years in diagnosing impediments to success and implementing programs that have a much higher chance of success. In this program we funded a project that created gardens, reduced domestic violence, and created a rural banking systems. The banking system was needed because there are no banks in the rural areas and what banks there are in the city have such high service fees that it eats up almost all of the modest savings that rural people put their. This program created 50 rural Banks that use boxes such as this. Each box has three locks and is kept at the house of a fourth member of the village that doesn't have access to the locks. Villagers agree to the rules of banking and of distribution. Its benefit is that it allows the villager

Every three months we are required to leave and then reenter the country as part of our Visa renewal process. We travel to the closest major city which happens to be Bali.  We took a day and did some sightseeing. this is the Tanah Lot Hindu temple This is the Objek Wisata Taman Ayun  Hindu temple Apparently my knee length short pants were a little too short and I had to wear this ceremonial leg covering. This is a beautiful statue commemorating the Taman Rama Shinta story We visited the monkey Park. There was a lot of monkeys  and they were very friendly. We just fed this one. This monkey had somehow adopted this kitten and now is the mother. This is a fruit bat. Cheryl said It felt very rubbery. People vacation in Bali because of the great weather, beaches and the incredible prices. This room was $79 a night and included a very gourmet breakfast and Gourmet lunch. This is one of our free lunches. We love going to Bali because it allows us to shop. There