. . . well there are some gum trees in Dili, but I don’t need to be nestled amongst them. I’d settle for a home with some of the basic comforts I’ve come to know, love and okay, find it difficult to live without. Simple things like a decent-sized fridge, water pressure that’s capable of rinsing the soap of me, plumbing that doesn’t flood whenever you use the washing machine.
This is perhaps one of the most challenging things about Dili – accommodation. For those of us not lucky enough to have an employer willing to pay upwards of $1500 a month to assuage our cravings for creature comforts, finding decent and affordable accommodation can be a major challenge. To give you an idea of how over-priced Malae accommodation is let me tell you what I’ve heard different Timorese workers earn. And yes, these figures are based on heresay but even if you double or triple them, the numbers still don’t add up to a neat pad with reliable electricity, hot running water and a 24/7 internet connection.
A security guard (and there are plenty) can earn as little as $90 – and yes that’s a month. Admin people in a good job might earn $400; NGO (non-government organisation) workers might earn $200.
Clearly their rents are not as exorbitant as though for the cashed-up (and not-so-cashed up) foreigners. I have to say this though, many Timorese who own rental properties are aware of their value and often negotiate upfront payment of say six month’s rent in exchange for an upgrade, say a new bathroom, kitchen or interior paint. Some will also take the cost of any furniture the tenants buy off the rent. Try finding an Australian landlord willing to do that.
The challenge is the disparity between the way the Timorese live and the way we (and I really mean I) have become accustomed to living. Take fridges for example. The fridges in most Timorese rentals are little more than over-sized bar fridges. But only a Malae would have things to store in there. The Timorese can buy their vegies daily and ice cream? Who could afford ice cream, let alone keep such a sought-after treat long enough to need to be stored? Geez, the relatives would here the container being opened and flock from a 5k radius. This becomes problematic when there is more than say, oh one person living in the house. There simply isn’t enough room to store a week’s worth of food for more than one and a half people.
Then there’s bathrooms. Many, if not the majority, of bathrooms are based on the Indonesian style of a ‘mandi’ (yes, I am an amenity!) This is basically a big square that comes up to my chest (and other people’s waist) level. It’s filled with water and there’s a little plastic saucepan-like device that you use to bucket the water over you. And yes, the water is cold and yes, the floor of the bathroom gets wet. One bathroom I saw had barely enough room for you to stand there and douse yourself – and it had a toilet squeezed in too.
Ovens too are a luxury. If you have an oven in Dili, you are a friend indeed – whether you want to be or not.
There also isn’t the emphasis on finding compatible personalities as there is in Australia. Often the job of finding new roommates is palmed off to a friend and as long as the rent is paid, no one particularly minds if the body inhabiting the room comes home pissed, breaks a few things and then passes out while their phone rings merrily through the night.
I, of course, am the exception. I want my comforts. I want genial company. And finally . . . dare I open the proverbial can of worms by shouting it loud enough to reach Dare (a rather high point just outside Dili that I might just boast of having ridden my cycle to), that I have found such a place. Not only that, it is within my price range. I move in on Saturday. Yippeee!!!! Hooray!!!!
It’s even down my preferred end of town. Oh don’t ask me how I’ve got a preferred and non-preferred end and no, although it’s closer to the school, it’s not necessarily closer to where I teach and yes, it is close to the beach, but there is beach at the other end, so no, I don’t know how and why I have a preference, I just do.
Anyway, back to my new abode. It has a new bathroom – with hot water and water pressure! Oh the bliss of water pressure!! It has two fridges, (Count them! One! Two) and a freezer. It has a microwave, a two-burner stove (at least, this could be four, but I think two). A garden, a cleaner who cleans and does the washing every day except Sundays – and she’s included in the rent, as is the electricity. There is a dog! Yay, a pet!! And my new housemate spends two weeks every month in Bali.
Of course I haven’t lived there yet . . . it could turn out to be a fizzer . . . oh who am I kidding the place is going to be heaven! Heaven I tell you!!! . . . and I’ll confirm that in a couple of weeks ;-)
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