The rainbow never sets

remind them of our hygene rules: not to eat anything from the streets, and no drinking of unboiled water. We all rested in the afternoon and then went exploring in the evening. The local people seemed very friendly and we felt that our children would soon find some friends among the local population.

We had to spend two nights in Dili, and we looked upon this as a well earned rest before we plunged ourselves into our work in Kupang. We walked through town and looked at all major buildings including the Governor's 'palace' with the two guards standing sentry. Our children remarked that it looked a bit like Buckingham Palace. Well Ñ not quite.

Our connecting flight to Kupang was a Zamrud Airline DC3. Our boys managed to get a window seat each, inspite of the plane being fully booked. Everybody had to be weighed, and when we saw the huge figure of the steward we knew why! The flight took us along the north coast of Timor and we had a good view of the rugged and inaccessible mountains of the island. Then suddenly a town appeared below us.

"I can see Kupang," exclaimed George over the din of the roaring engines.

It looked quite impressive after Dili, much larger and bigger buildings. The air strip, however, was not sealed. The plane circled low over the landing strip to chase away some sheep and goats before landing. Then the plane landed in a cloud of dust and stopped in front of some low Nissen huts. As we walked off the plane we saw a family waving to us. That must be Peter and Jane Stephens and their three children, I thought, the only Europeans around. They had come to meet us and took us to their home in Jalan Tugu for lunch. It was a most sumptuous meal of Indonesian food which tasted absolutely fabulous. We all showed our appreciation with a good appetite. What a wonderful welcome! It felt great to have finally arrived at the place of our work.

Settling in took a little longer than expected, though. We had to move into temporary accommodation, a room at Nusa Lontar, a 'Losmen', or guest house. Peter had booked a house for us in Jalan Kartini, about two kilometers from their place, where we could move in four days later. So we made the best of it at Nusa Lontar.

Our children could not be kept inside. They again explored the surroundings, met a crowd of local children and made contact with them immediately. We had practiced some Indonesian at home around the dinner table, which came in very handy at that point. They could jump the language barrier by sign language and their few words they had learnt. One of the boys had a monkey on his shoulders as a pet. From then on it became our boys' ambition to have a monkey too. Then they watched a pig being killed in the back yard.

Peter Stephens showed us the house in Jalan Kartini which we could rent, if we agreed. It had enough rooms for us all, and was quite adequate. We would need our own staff to help with the cooking and cleaning,

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