Week 4 and 5 at Boneca de Atauro

 I started making walks at dawn, as I was finding the rest of the day too hot to walk around much, and I really enjoyed the walks. There is so much to discover on the shoreline including incredible amounts of  plastic bottles and dead shoes, especially flip flops. There is no rubbish collection on the island so the rubbish has to go somewhere. Also unless the water is filtered it is probably best not to drink it. I loved finding all the shells or bits of shell and urchins who hang around in colonies with starfish. I often see fishermen head out to sea at dawn to catch fish for their meal during the day, and everything is so peaceful and calm.

I had to look twice when I found this on the beach close to the urchin colony- it looked like a mask of sorts until I realised what it was- part of the rubbish that collects on the shoreline.

We have been working hard at making linocuts and new glasses cases and ipad bags printed with the linocuts. We have also been doing a bit of hand stitching. I have tried to encourage my students to be inspired by what is around them and also how they see the world around them. The first image is of a little hand stitched piece by Jacinta from a linocut she made. These little pieces will form part of our exhibition at the Boneca de Atauro shop in Dili on 15 December.

The two images below are of the work the ladies do every day- as you can see everything is very heavily free motion stitched in hoops and on treadles. Each design is hand drawn onto the fabric before being stitched by one of the ladies.

I had to return to Dili to pick up my emergency passport which was issued as a result of losing my passport wallet on the day I arrived. Things went a bit downhill from there. It turned out that the immigration authority were not able to give me a visa to be able to stay until 18 December because there had been a change in immigration law. In fact I had to leave East Timor by 11 November so that I would not be an illegal visitor. I was insured, by my insurance did not cover my return to East Timor to finish the project- it was an insurance that I transacted when I purchased my original ticket as I thought it would be easier to do it all in one transaction ( I don't normally do this) so the insurance was contracted before  reading the policy. I did skim through the policy to ensure repatriation was covered if needed and what losses were covered ( during the cooling off period)but did not see the bit that the only way resumption of journey would be paid for was if the interruption had been caused by medical reasons- sigh....So I will never use that insurance again! I am still waiting to hear whether they will meet the rest of the claim even though I was advised by telephone that my change of booking would be covered.

The long and the short of it is some generous people have enabled me to raise the money for a return airfare and also insurance so that I can return to Boneca de Atauro next  Tuesday ( I leave Monday and the flights do not connect unless I pay an exorbitant ticket fee). I am extremely grateful that people have helped. This week was spent getting a new passport and because I was born outside Australia and despite having the relevant documentation of citizenship it is always a sit and wait until it is issued thing. So I did not  dare to book a ticket until I was holding the new passport in my hand.

 I am so looking forward to going back and finishing what we started! We will have to work doubly hard to get everything ready for our exhibition. The trip back to Australia has enable me to pick up one or two supplies which I think will be useful for the women.There is of course no  haberdashery store  on Atauro island, there is one in Dili but some of the things which I think would be extremely useful have never been heard of- so the only way is to show what I mean! I will write more about the remarkable co-operative at the end of my residency. Meanwhile here is a link to their new catalogue which tells some of the story and also showcases the products they make.