Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 153

hickory nuts

In non-Timor-Leste news: it will be a good year for hickory nuts this year. On my way to buy bread and tomatoes just now, I picked up one still all wrapped up in its green fruit, and it was *warm*, as warm as exultation.

Exultation, conversely, as philosophers, theologians, and winners of road races have observed, is as warm as a sun-warmed hickory fruit.

Mt. Kablaki, heroes, and dogs

Mt. Kablaki is not the tallest mountain in Timor-Leste; I think it's the third-tallest. But it's a sacred mountain, like Mt. Ramelau, the tallest--and it's visible (and hike-able) from Ainaro.

Mt. Kablaki



One of the students asked me when American independence day was, and I told her it was July 4th and asked when Timor-Leste's independence day was. May 20th, she told me. Then I told them the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. It's a myth, but it encapsulates values we'd like to th...

Water and food

As in much of the world, water access is an issue in Timor-Leste. The town I was in, Ainaro, has a piped water supply, but it’s often not working. About half the time I was there, there was no running water. At the house where I stayed, the volunteers keep four large trash bins filled with water, so that when the water is off, they don’t need to go out to fetch it. Most people fetch it, though.

This water’s not for drinking without boiling or otherwise purifying. 1.5-liter bottles of drinking...

A bus ride

The day after I arrived in Timor-Leste, I made the six-hour journey up to the mountain town of Ainaro. I rode on some vehicle which was not quite an anguna (term borrowed from Indonesian: an anguna is a pick-up truck with seats in the back, so people can ride in it) and not quite a bus--it was open-air, like an anguna, but with seats facing forward, like a bus, rather than parallel to the side of the vehicle, like an anguna. There were sacks of rice on the floor, for delivery along the way, a...

Home again, home again!

Dear all, I am back from Timor-Leste! I have adventures and photos to share, but it may be 24-48 hours before I'm back in the groove (ha! I typed grove... the LJ grove!)

A big personal thank-you goes out to khiemtran , though, who met me with his family in Sydney on my long journey home, and showed me some pretty wondrous sights--but more about that later.

And yamamanama , I could almost never get online while in Timor-Leste, but one of the times I did get on, I visited your last.fm page! I hope...

advanced civilization

TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR TIMOR-LESTE. I am pretty excited and nervous. It's quite possible I won't be posting at all for the whole time I'm over (I return on 17 August); if I do post, I'm unlikely to be able to respond to comments or to read others' entries, alas.

But I'm still online today, a little, anyway. And yamamanama posted this in their journal, which I thought was pretty funny:

We are an advanced civilization with automated gates for our parking garages and displays that tell you how long...

How they make nets

Johannes Peregrinans traveled extensively in the lands of Faery and encountered one place, by the water margin,

where they do not make nets in the usual fashion, though the knitting together of fibers in a loose weave, but rather, through the careful excavation of a whole fabric, wherein is hidden a net, which their efforts reveal.

Johannes Peregrinans, Travels in Faery (London, 1622)

Post Office

I had to return a completed job by post this morning. While I was filling out a form, the door opened and there was an amazing sound of CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP emanating from a cardboard box, marked "live chicks" and with sides punctuated with air holes and with hay sticking out from those holes.

"The beats are the heart of the party," the person carrying this box was saying into his bluetooth. He set the box down on the counter and left.

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP! said those live chicks.

"Ed's c...

fruitful

Over ten years ago, I planted an apple seed in a little pot, and it became an apple seedling. We moved to our current house, and I planted the seedling in the ground, and it grew into an ugly little apple tree, prone to rust on its leaves, with nobs on its trunk, never giving any apple blossoms, and, consequently, never giving any apples. But, I let it grow, because I think if I were an apple tree, I might be prone to rust and with nobs on my trunk!

This year, like every year, it failed to pro...

Ziggy, the skateboarding bulldog

Our neighbors are babysitting a most talented bulldog.












I need to get pointers!