Howdy Folks and Greetings from East Timor!
Bet you thought I was gone for good didn't you? No, just the small problem that there are no phone lines anywhere in the country and communication is just downright difficult. Luckily, depending on how you look at it, I managed get a bit of the Malaria (or is it Dengi? I should find out tomorrow). So, I've been evacuated to Darwin for a bit of R&R, and surprise, surprise they've got phones here. So for the next week I'll be able to communicate with the rest of the planet.
Anyway, for those of you who are interested, I'm attaching my first letter to the folks back home that I wrote and mailed back in early December. If you find it interesting and want to drop me a line you would be best off writing to the address at the bottom of the letter. My e-mail is still working, but for the time being I'm only able to check it when I'm in Australia (which isn't often). After this week, I probably won't be back until maybe the end of February. We'll see.
I hope everyone in the group is doing well (even with the lack of snow)! I'm sure y'all will find something to keep you busy. If you are wondering what I've been up to for the last month, I'm almost done with a second letter. I hope to finish it as soon as the swelling in my head goes down.
Cheers,
Karl Klemmick
Hello Everyone!
Ita diak kai lay? (How are you?) Hau diak! (I am Fine!) Well, here I am trying to start letter #1. I've got a blank page in front of me and a lot of gobbly-gook in my head. That should equate to a pretty good letter. However, it has been some time since I've written one of these things and I'm feeling somewhat rusty. Oh, well! I've got to start sometime so here goes ....
Where am I? (Those of you who already know can skip to the next section).
I know I kind of left in a bit of a rush, and a few people reading this might not know where exactly it is that I ended up. There may even be a few folks out there that don't even know that I'm gone. I'll give you folks a few hints (those of you who already know the answer - Keep Quiet!)
Hint #1: I'm not in San Francisco anymore.
Hint #2: I'm not in Kosovo, as originally planned.
Hint #3: It's not cold here.
(actually it's damn hot and I haven't really stopped sweating since I got here.)
Hint #4: I'm on an island.
Hint #5: Some very bad stuff happened here real recently.
Hint #6: The country has only been independent for about three months now.
Got it yet? Anyway, to cut to the heart of the matter, I got rerouted and ended up here in East Timor, formerly a piece of Indonesia. Here is what happened...
I was supposed to fly to New York on Sunday, November 14th for a one day training session before boarding a plane to Rome, Skopje, and eventually Pristina, Kosovo. I had a full compliment of winter clothes all but packed on Friday the 12th. My plane ticket arrived in the mail as planned and I was just heading out the door to finish up a few more errands before my going away party, when the phone rang. It was IRC (International Rescue Committee), New York. They proceeded to inform me that they had just received a sort of cryptic phone call from Kosovo, stating that there may or may not be a problem with the shelter program funding. The folks in Kosovo were using a satellite phone and the connection was not very good, but the folks in New York were pretty sure that they were asking if I had left yet. Then they got cut off. Anyway, they felt the need to call and inform me that my position may or may not be in jeopardy and by the way, "How do you feel about Indonesia?". What!??
It turns out that they also need someone to help build shelters in East Timor (an off-shoot of IRC's Indonesian Program) to keep the rain off the heads of approximately 70% of the population who got their houses burnt down in their recent bid for independence. But, they aren't sure. They may or may not want me to go there or maybe Kosovo, or then again maybe not. They then suggest that I get on the plane to New York on Sunday and when I get into the office on Monday morning, they will tell me what direction I'm flying. Hmmm? The mountains of Kosovo in winter, or a tropical island in the middle of the hot season? How the hell do you pack for that? I suggested that they figure it out and give me a call. I'll wait in SF until I know whether to bring thermals or Tevas. That's when I left for my party.
Monday rolled around and I learned I was heading off for the South Pacific via Los Angles, Sydney, and Darwin. I was given a few extra days to repack and for them to get me another ticket. I left Friday, November 19th.