During the last school holidays (April) I had the pleasure to catch up with the people from village of Bei Cala, Timor Leste. This time Wayne accompanied me and Dean West from Brisbane. We travelled to Dili via Darwin and were met by Jino at the airport.

On our first night we met the boys from the Defence Cooperation Program Timor-Leste (DCP-TL) in Dili.  We met Daniel, Craig, Roy and Brad who would be travelling up Monday and meeting us in Bei Cala to help with the work ahead.

We had set ourselves and ambitious program to fix up our original school building at Boramba. A couple of floors had been laid too thinly and consequently had broken up from wear and tear. We also hoped to weather proof the ends of the building as rain could come in.

After travelling on the Monday, I can report that road improvements are still in progress, we caught up with the boys and Karabina and Aniseto and extended family in Bei Cala.

Over the next three days were were able to re-cement one room completely by barrow and hand, fix two others, seal both ends of the building, fix furniture, hang new solid lockable doors and hang blackboards. It was an incredible pleasure to see the work undertaken by our crew, ably assisted by half dozen local boys. Thanks to all of boys for their assistance, it couldn’t have been done without them.

We also took over resources for our kindergartens and are planning on returning in the October holidays to continue the work.