Week One for UQ In Timor Leste

 COUNTRY: Timore-Leste
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Health Science
WRITTEN BY: Emma, Molly and Brittney - University of Queensland

Botardi from Timor-Leste!

Well, we’ve had an interesting first week in Dili and have been warmly welcomed by the people here. We had an amazing view as we flew into Timor-Leste and we were looking forward to all the adventures ahead of us. Once we landed we were greeted by our in country partner Paolo who introduced us to our new mode of transport – the microlet’s. These were van’s decked out in soft toys, colourful stickers and anthem’s of Justin Beiber and 80’s pop.

We spent our first day in Dili exploring the city and the culture. Highlights from the day included trekking up to the Cristo Rei statue (almost thought we were in Rio!) and lounging around at Jesus Backside Beach. Then came our first day we had all been waiting for at Centro Nasional de Rehabilitacion (CNR). We were introduced to all the staff who we would be working alongside for the next month. That afternoon we visited the Resistance Museum to learn about Timor-Leste’s history and their difficult road to independence.

The rest of the week we have spent working with patients and our new team at CNR. We’ve all found it interesting learning about each other’s professions and all struggled along the way putting our Tetun into practice. Thankfully a lot of the staff there have very good English.

Looking forward to a weekend at Atauro Island relaxing and getting some sun before another challenging week begins.

From Team Timor – Emma, Molly and Brittney