Spend It Well » 2010

Archive for July, 2010

26 July 2010

Massive storms in Timor

East Timor has been pummelled by weather again, with massive storms bringing lots of rain. The rains washed away the roads to Lequeracabu’u yet again. But the villagers have been out to fix the roads again to allow the builder’s trucks to get through. The weather has meant that only a few days of work have been done on the school, but all materials are on site which is a major accomplishment on those roads. Jenny and Agostinho are planning a site visit next week so we should have progress photos soon.

project: Lequeracabu'u East Timor

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12 July 2010

Stories from the Lequeracabu’u ground breaking ceremoney

The report from the Lequeracabu’u ground breaking ceremony give a sense of both the joy of Timor’s people and their absolute poverty.

“After leaving sealed roads (3 hours from Dili) the Minister for Education, Jenny, Agostinho and two of the Prime Minister and Kirsty’s sons drove 45 minutes on a mud track – losing the track at times, 4 wheel driving and doubling back. The Lequeracabu’u villagers had repaired a lot of the road to allow the the trucks to get in but recent rains destroyed some of their work.

As they came up over the hill to the village, with about 200 metres to go to the school site, the school kids were all up on the hill and run down screaming and followed the convoy for the last 200 metres. When everyone realized the Xanana and Kirsty’s boys were there they started screaming out ‘Viva’.

The ceremony was followed by a lunch for the community. The food for the VIPs consisted of rice and only one shared plate of a vegetable of some description. It seems that the village is incredibly poor and there is no food other than rice available. ”

So now we know how some of the extra money raised by the White Party can be spent – hopefully by providing a daily meal to the schoolchildren on an ongoing basis.

project: Lequeracabu'u East Timor

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12 July 2010

The School is underway!!

It’s fantastic to be able to report that work is underway on the Lequeracabu’u School – so all of the extraordinary White Party money and goodwill is being put to great use. Construction should take 3 months which gives an estimated finish date of early October. Keep watching for progress updates!

project: Lequeracabu'u East Timor

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01 July 2010

Sod Turning Ceremony at Lequeracabu’u!

The Lequeracabu’u school project is off and running with the offical sod turning ceremony on Tuesday attended by the villagers, the builders, the Education Ministry, Jenny Coles (Kirsty’s right hand woman) and two of Kirsty and the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s boys. The construction contract was formally signed and work is scheduled to be completed in three months. The kids loved the soccer balls which the Gusmao boys took for them. More information to follow soon – but for today some great photos.