What a great weekend!

While yet again we didn’t come away with a win I can only congratulate and thank all those involved for making the Sgt. Matthew Locke MG Charity Event so wonderful. Well done Thunder on winning and the Magpie Barbarians for keeping it nail biting to the end, your entertaining play capped off a sens

ational round of games. Stephen and Kathy Glyde, the entire Glyde family,

and the Magpies for your support. Thank you.

This year we were lucky enough to have new and old activities contributing to the event. Starting on Friday with golf and concerts. Thanks to the Bellingen Golf Club team for putting together an entertaining day, I am pretty sure all our golfers enjoyed themselves. At the same time as the Governor was playing golf, Mrs Hurley was doing the rounds of the local schools.

Thanks to Kathy Glyde for organising the Bellingen Public School concert and visit. Reports back are that it was highly entertaining and all were impressed with Mrs Hurley leading the congretation in ‘You are my Sunshine.’ This was followed by

 a visit to Bellingen High School. Earlier members of the Australian Army Band had held a musical workshop with students followed by a concert. Again Mrs Hurley was the guest of honour. The muscians led an entertaining hour of music culminating in the conga line.  I believe there were more tha

n a few surprised people with a great time had by all. Thank you to Mrs Hurley and the Australian Army Band and Annie Phelan

from Bellingen High School.

Saturday it all comes together with our huge day of football. There are always winners and losers on the sporting field, but not on this day. How lucky am I to claim this place as my home town. Thank you to all those that helped

from the sporting teams to the Lions Club, to TripleB, our annoucers, gate guardians, security personal, family members…and the list goes on. And especially to all those who came. There is no way in this world I could do this without you, thank you.

Sunday we backed up again for the Army Band Concert at C.ex Coffs Harbour. I can’t thank Dave Ellis and team for helping us each year, and this year was a cracker! The band (made up of Newcastle and Brisbane) dressed formally for the occasion and again introduced with the Coffs Harbour Regional Brass Band, blew us away. Wow! So much talent.

Thank you to Leigh and Jo for delaying their return long enough to join us, such an honour. Thank you to his excellency, The Governor of NSW, Gen. David Hurley (Retd) and Mrs Linda Hurley for their unfaltering support.

Overall we were able to hold our own and raise $20,000 for our nominated organisations. Soldier On, The Grub Club, Bellingen Junior Rugby League and Covered Arena Horse Group. Thank you to all of you – Bellingen and community. I will finish with the words of Gordan Parsons from ‘Where the Bellenger River Flows”

I’ve been in most country towns,

and some cities of renown,

I’ve travelled north, south, east and west,

but there is none to compare,

with that valley so green and fair,

The Bellinger is the place I love the best.

Boramba kindergarten.

Well what a month Belinda and I have had. We spent 10 days visiting Bei Cala village and area, visiting schools and supporting the network of kindergarten teachers we are building.

Kindergartens in Bei Cala and Boramba and progressing well. Student attendance is up, with it being higher at the beginning of the week. Not much different to home. Thursday is market day and many students go with parents and who doesn’t want a long weekend on Friday. Despite this, I am confident that numbers are slowly building, with around 60 preschool age students having consistent attendance across the wider region.

The Grub Club was able to supply 2 computers purchased through computers4learning a project of Rotary Nundah. One for each kindergarten. While they don’t have internet service they can write programs and keep attendance, it also allows the teachers to build computer skills and gives an opportunity for our teachers to get together and collaborate. While there I held some computer lessons with the help of Paolo Alves. Paolo was invaluable as my tetum is a bit scratchy. We were also able to hand over a few extra resources to both kindergartens.

A big thanks to Juela Da Costa Ramos, Zelia Maria Da Costa and Rosalia Da Costa from Boramba Kindergarten and Baselia da Costa and Sandra Maria Paco-Real from Bei Cala Kindergarten. These ladies are all volunteers and deserve my eternal gratitude.

While there, we also had the opportunity to visit Bobe. Bobe is the site of our third kindergarten. Bobe school is slightly isolated but also part of the Hatu Udo administrative area. The weather had been very mild and rainy, which we thought was going to prevent us from making it to the village, but the day before we left, roads had dried out enough to let us through. Thanks to Amalie, a very experienced driver, we visited and handed over the first down payment for the kindergarten. The kindergarten’s budget is USD$12000, which has to cover everything. This school should be finished within 6 to 8 months.

While there was plenty of rest time, with a visit to the beach at Betano, we also got to visit Suai. Suai is located about 2 hours driving south west. It is by the sea and the location of the new airport (I think there is 1 flight a day). There we stayed with Antonio Gomez’s family. Antonio is a serving member of the Australian ADF and works in logistics in Dili. He has been with the ADF for over 12 years. He is also translator and interpreter. We were lucky enough to meet Antonio last October and will now collaborate with his family to bring a kindergarten to Kammenos, Suai. Antonio’s sister (in Suai there is a matriachal relationship for inheritance), Emilia Da Costa and her husband Paolo Da Costa have donated the land. Antonio will head up the project and look after financials, his brother Mersu Gomez will be the on site project manager and another brother Ameu Barras a builder/carpenter will be in charge of the actual build. This is another family affair for which we are very grateful. They will build for a total budget of USD$12000 and are at present drawing up plans to suit their local site and environment. We envisage in 12 months time we will have a fourth kin

Bin playing with students at Boramba.

dergarten.

We were lucky enough to not only travel with Antonio and family but we met Lance Corporal Lisa White who also accommpanied us. Thank you very much, it was an absolute pleasure, thank you to Major Andrew March and Sgt David Marshall for allowing both Antonio and Lisa out of the office. I will be sending thank yous to all.

Finally, on our return we drove on a death defying road from Suai to Balibo. It improved slightly after that. Thanks to Bin (apparently it means big sister in Tetum) for driving, I certainly wouldn’t have, but I got to tick a bucket list item. I visited the site of the Balibo 5. This is a haunting place. The museum while small tells the story of the Australian journalists and more. It is one of those news items I can actually remember from 1975 and the following years. So much more to tell.

Well in a nutshell that was visit 2018. I look forward to my next journey to Timor Leste, probably next year.

  Teacher Juela Da Costa Ramos working with students at Boramba.

Teachers and Paolo at Bobe.

Kindergarten site Bobe.

A class at Bobe.