Thursday, December 30, 2004

Remembering Villa.


Villa. A name that conjures images of serenity - an italian countryside, vineyards and cottages covered in creepers, bathing in the temperate summer sun. Women in thick frocks and aprons, bare-footed and laughing, crushing grapes underfoot.

Villa is the name a small village - big for Atauro standards notwithstanding - at the south eastern bend of Atauro island, Timor Leste. Hardly the idyllic European respite, but breath-taking in its own way. The place is hot and dry for nine months of the year, and only has electricity running through its cables from six in the evening to midnight.

Villa has a community hall situated just less than a hundred meters from the beach. That was where thirteen of us - a motley crew comprising people from all walks of life - slept, ate, laughed, fell ill, recovered and played for 13 days from 13 to 25 November 2004.

We were there as a marine expedition team, to conduct benthic surveys of their coral reefs, and take down scientific data on the health of the corals, fish and inverterbrate life there.

Save our expedition leader and scientific officer, 11 of us were just ordinary divers with a passion for the underwater world, but went through entry-level training on how to tell one fish from another, and identify the growth forms of different types of corals. Sufficient enough to allow us take down scientific data which our Scientific Officer would compile. With the data, she would make an assessment of the reefs of Atauro. Further down the road, when two more assessments are conducted, a report will be crafted and filed with our local NGO - Timor Aid, for future management policies of the island.

In particular, Timor Aid has its eye on developing a marine park for eco-tourism, the first form of which is already developing a repute of its own in Tua Koin, a village 5km north of Villa. Eventually, in the world's newest nation, a budgeoning eco-tourism industry will develop. The children will have more options when they step out other than fishing, agriculture and making baskets, wooden goggles and woodcraft. Let's just cross our fingers that the womenfolk will not develop the other side - the ugly one - of the tourist trade.

Our job is now done, and most of us are back in the swing of urban life in Singapore - Mei returning to her architect job, Bee to her Sports Consultation position, me to my civil service one.

I write this now so that I do not forget.

With the ochre of this virtual ink, and the pictures I post, I hope the memory will linger longer for me. And for the passer-by to catch a glimpse of that world which will be very quickly transformed with the onset of tourism.


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