The start of my second week in Dili. Also the second day of my workshop with the Martial Arts Groups which has proceeded relatively slowly because, as always with these processes, the landscape keeps on changing. New people come in, those who were there before and who knew about the previous process are no longer available and so the wheel turns - squeaking as it does - and the frustration at the slow rate of change and progress mounts.
For me too the challenge is not to become too frustrated. I have to remember and remind myself to trust the process, that I must not hold fast to what I think the outcome should be. I I become an outcomes advocate, I might fall into the same trap that many of the international experts around have - that I know better. I just know different.
Of course I am not a mediator in this situation. Actually I am playing more of a developmental activist role so I should have some idea of a possible outcome. But I think imposing my ideas too strongly runs the risk of quashing homegrown, more appropriate solutions bubbling up.
...
It's after dark now. I'm sitting at the little Indian Tandoori restaurant that has become my nightly stop on my way back to my container. For some seafood fried rice tonight. Although the mutton biryani of Saturday and the chicken korma last night were as close to a taste of home as I'm likely to get here.
Time is flying though... I hope I will have sufficient time to finish the task at hand - while attending to what needs attention back home. This time round I feel so far away. So much has changed... And still I have a sense of stuckness.
Being stuck is not necessarily a bad thing - it often presages a shift, gaining clarity or new insights - unless one succumbs to the quicksand.....
On the TV in the corner of the restaurant a couple dressed in brilliant white and an even brighter fuschia are singing in falsetto voices declaring their love for one another. A white suit can only be worn by a man in a Bollywood video!
Now there's another video in which a very pretty girl is flying through the air into a tree where her lover awaits. Amazing how Indian singers and dancers can pack so much meaning in just one langorous glance...
1 comment:
Hi SenseiGG,
You don´t know me but I read your blog through the East Timor Studies list on Yahoo. Re. the picture (posting 18th of June): I see Josh! Can you please say hi to him from Ruth, the Dutch girl (who has unfortunately been gone for a year)?? Thank you very much in advance, Ruth Klaase R_klaase@yahoo.com
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