Timor Leste day 1

Tuesday June 7th... Or I think that's what today must be. I'm not sure because we seemed to have skipped a day in time on our flight over here. We also experienced a 17-18 hour night. It seems our plane chased the darkness across the planet. "It seems that Dili has a very narrow and short runway, so brace yourselves for an abrupt impact". I just heard the pilot say this on the speaker overhead. I don't think I can take anymore of this flying. 16 hours from San Fran to Singapore was enough to make my calves get phantom cramping pains that I was sure were blood clots. I managed to survive by getting to know Aylin, a very nice biologist from Argentina who works with stem cell research at NIH in WA DC. Very impressive. She also tried to talk me into going back to school. I couldn't help but feeling a little sad, cause I know that I would very much like that. I don't think that'll fit in the budget any time soon though. Oh well. She was very talkative and for someone who has lived in America for 13 years, was very hard to understand. I wish I somehow could keep in touch. I'd like to pick her brain some more. The Singapore airport was much nicer than any I've ever seen before. There were coy ponds with huge orchid gardens throughout the halls. SilkAir has turned out to be a surprisingly comfortable airline to travel with as well. Not at all the sketchy thief-ridden girl-selling Asian airport I imagined. I guess I knew Singapore was one of the cleanest and tightly policed counties in the world. Maybe that airport will be Bangkok. The air hostesses both in the airport and on this flight dress like they're still in the 50s, with tight immaculate French twists and they're actually.. well.. skinny. It's weird how thin people actually seems different than the norm. I just got my first glimpse of Timor. Wow. Wow. Steep mountainous jungle dramatically diving into the ocean.

I keep imagining this sight from the eyes of a WW II fighter pilot, discovering these skies by airplane for the first time. What an experience. This is going to be an adventure. Our side of Timor is a little more dry. Were greeted by a Christus statue.

As we come in for our "abrupt landing" I scan the living conditions of the houses below to get an idea of what we're in for. Wood or cinder block  walls mostly with corrugated metal roofs distributed among very dreamy looking palm trees and jungle landscape. We float over muddy river and I can see naked little brown boys- surprisingly dark- playing in the water alone. The scenery around the runway looks like something printed on a tourists button up shirt. These coconut trees are massive compared to the little things you see in California.

Our taxi driver is named Joseph and he wears a white fedora and round rimmed sunglasses as he steps into the RIGHT side of the car to drive us. I've never been in one of these cars before! But it doesn't convert into driving on the left side of the road.. he drives wherever the heck he wants to. He tells us about how the whole island was burned to the ground in 1999 during the fight for independence. At the beach I see teenage fishermen boys paddling wooden canoes with fishing nets, dressed in soccer jerseys.

Later I see them selling their fish on the side of the road. We walked down the beach, and then risked venturing down the main streets to the shopping center.

We walked a full loop back and got to the beach at sunset.

It was all very surreal and beautiful, and the children treated us like movie stars.