Cold

It's hard to tell because this is a still photo but this is the headwater for a small stream. We will construct a small dam here and pipe the water down to the Village. It will constantly flow into a main storage tank, so even though the volume is small it will be enough for the entire Village.
This is how they carry their water now. They hike up to the top of the mountain where the head water is so they're able to get the water while it's still clean.
This gravity-fed water system will serve 400 people and 59 households. Her name is Anna. She's ready to deliver in a few weeks. Prior to the water system each day she had to make between one and three trips a day lasting two and a half hours each to get water. Now the tap stand is right outside her home.

This is the first of six villages that we are supplying water to.
This is Mount Ramelau. The highest mountain in Timor-leste.  It is 9800 feet in elevation and occasionally gets a dusting of snow.
We were in the Ainaro district.  It is a mountainous district in the middle of Timor-leste. We were on a visit to a humanitarian project with one of the contractors we were working with to bring water to the area. This is one of their traditional houses.
This is the Pousada Maubisse and Alex who is the director of Plan International NGO.  It is located in the  city of Maubisse. It is a famous Portuguese Hotel. It is an exclusive hotel in the city. It is the only one that has hot water in the showers. We stayed overnight there.

It's elevation is about 5000 feet so it gets cool there. It is the first time we've been cool in 20 months. We both brought just lite jackets and sweaters and so we were a little cold. Surprisingly even though it gets cold there the hotel did not have any heating. In fact the window had a screen area above it that we were not able to close off so a cold breeze blew in at night. It got down to the high 40s in the early morning.  We had three blankets on during the night. It felt so refreshing not to be hot.


In the morning we got up and strolled around. This is the first picture we've ever had with a sweater on. Great views all around.
On the way home we stopped by Timor-leste's largest waterfall. This is the middle of the dry season so the flow was at its lowest.

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