The Trapani's in Timor Leste

We chartered an airplane and flew to nearby Atauro Island to check out our humanitarian project. It was only a 20-minute flight. If we took the ferry it would have taken two and a half hours each way. It only cost $290 for the round trip including about an hour and a half of waiting time for the pilot.  We took off from the Dili airport. We landed on a short dirt runway. The plane was in excellent condition and we had a very professional and experienced pilot. They are part of a NGO that provides discount charters to charitable organizations and they also do the Medevac flying for the country.  Upfront is our replacement sister Gruwell. Behind her is the head of the NGO who rebuilt the building for. Her name is Maria and the NGO is called Diak We were met at the runway with a modified golf cart that was used to transport us to our building. This is the building we financed to be constructed. It will be a dormitory for a mentoring program for young adults on the island.

This is Sister Staples and sister Gruwell. They have arrived here for a 10-day transition as our replacements. They were transferred in from the mission office in Jakarta. They are here until the middle of November until Elder and sister Bitter arrive. They have a great attitude and are very capable. We already feel some of our load being lifted.  One of our English classes wrote us some thank you notes. More thank you notes. Things are starting to wrap up very nicely. We got all of our legal agreements approved for the three projects that we just got approved. We will able able start all three projects and get them funded before we leave. The projects are a village water system, teaching intermediate English classes in a neighboring rural Village and training farmers and helping them start a community garden.

 We had a field trip for our combined English classes. We went to a place called $1 Beach. There was a pavilion facility there that they let us use. Just like all of our field trips in the past each of the classes put on a skit or a presentation. It went well. It lasts a long time. Each class gets about 25 minutes. We had about a hundred and forty people attend. We use the normal mode of transportation for large groups which are pickup trucks. We had three this time. The third dump truck was from a town called Tibar which is just outside of Dili. It's a farming Community where we teach English to the town in one of their elementary schools on the weekends. The classes are taught by some of our advanced English class students. About 35 of them came. The beach here was beautiful. The weather was a little mild that day, so it went very well. After the presentations we had the traditional Timorese dance. It turned out to be a very successful activity. We are always su

  I was able to get an appointment with the director general of the Ministry of Justice. His name is John DeCosta. I was able to take about 20 minutes and explain what we're doing in this country and answer questions. This all was done through an interpreter. He is very supportive. He said he was very happy with what we've accomplished so far and that if we needed anything in the future he would be glad to support us and help.  If you look closely about 1/2 way up the cell tower there is a worker there. What's amazing is that there is no ladder and he has no safety harness. He moved around like he was working at ground level. When life is cheap and liability laws are lax you get of workers doing some pretty dangerous stuff The city actually built a park. It's a nice park by the ocean. This was all done in conjunction with the country's 20th anniversary of their independence. The Independence Day celebration was on Friday. We did not attend any of the activit