Freedom Day....
Today is Freedom Day back home.
A day to commemorate the first democratic elections in 1994 that involved all the citizens of South Africa. On that day I was a mediator up the West Coast, stationed about 300kms north of Cape Town, in unfamiliar territory in a highly tense, potentially violent situation. With an election looming whose outcome was being predicted, but by no means certain.
A bit like the situation here in DIli today. In just over a week the country goes to the polls for the second time in about a month to decide on the new president. And the tension is mounting and palpable. Even I have been affected by the air of anticipation hanging over the city like a heat cloud. I've been wound up tighter than a guitar string and been snapping at everyone for the past 2 days.
Yesterday, I nearly caused an international incident with a group of women from the IDP (internally displaced people) in the camp next to the Lecidere office. I was beset by a group of the women who weave the traditional tais (woven cloth used as clothes, table cloths etc). Bargaining was an interesting experience with them starting low and moving higher! Eventually when I had agreed on a price for the 3 or 4 pieces and had paid them, one came back and demanded $2 more for one of the pieces. I was in no mood for haggling further, especially not when a burly chap from the camp also weighed in. It ended with me giving back the tais, demanding my money back and him screaming at me to make a sexual departure.. I told him to be more creative in his application of a rolled-up tais!!!
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