Farewell to Rote

26 February 2010

Today was spent giving away things that John did not want and I could not afford to or did not need to send back to the UK. I was also giving out small thank you cards I had made. Then in the evening quite a group of us got together to drink the last of my alcohol and to eat a pizza I had cooked with the last of my cheese.

27 February 2010

I had made the decision to leave a couple of days early as the waves were getting larger and I could not risk not getting to Kupang. This morning was frantic as the ferry was leaving from Papela – due to the large waves making docking in Baa impossible - at the far east of the island so we had to leave very early. The director arranged for his car to be driven by one of the drivers and agreed for Ibu Femi to spend the morning accompanying me to Papela and for Om Jek to come to Kupang so we did not miss out on a final night of drinking and so I was not alone for too long in Kupang. Even the Bupati was at Papela and shook my hand - he was actually returning from Kupang and not there especially for me but it felt special. It has been the most amazing 11 months of living on Rote and I hope I will be able to maintain contact with some of the amazing friends I have made.

2 March 2010

Ari one of the policeman I had drunk with on Rote was in Kupang for a conference so I met up with him and some of his friends for drinks this evening.