Indonesia

heart to heart talk with Agabus, even if it was at the crack of dawn.

When we returned to our car, someone had obtained a repair patch and we could start working again on the tyre. We hoped that this would be the last flat tyre. But in case of another flat tyre, we knew that we were now in a more populated area, and hoped we would be able to get a repair patch more easily. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The next and final flat tyre occurred in between two villages quite a distance apart. We just sat by the road and waited for a car or a truck to appear to help us out. By now it was well into the morning and it was getting hot. I was feeling hungry and tired and not in a good mood. When eventually a truck came to our rescue, I noticed a very rough patch on the inside of our tyre, which must have rubbed the tube and caused all the flat tyres. I put a sheet of paper between the tube and the tyre and hoped that this would see us home. It did. We arrived back in Kupang about 2 pm, 18 hours after we had left SoE, very hungry and very tired, after delivering everybody to their respective homes.

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During the Easter holidays of 1972 our family went touring through the centre of Timor. We took three of our students with us. We thought that they could help us with our boys. George was assigned to Sem Nitti as his 'commander', Mark to Zarus Toulasik, and James to Frans Balla. Our first stop was SoE. The road had been upgraded through UN finances and was by then already vastly improved. We stayed again at the Losmen Bahagia, and went sightseeing around town. It had not changed much since our study tour in 1970. From SoE we took the road to Kapan, 'the apple region' as the Timorese called it. It was one of the highest regions of Timor, and we really felt the cold. There was no heating in the guest house EMBUN MOLLO (Mollo's mist), and sitting around in the evenings we had to wrap up in our blankets.

Eli Kisek, one of our 1970 graduates, was then the minister in one of the villages near Kapan, called Tunua. We had to get special permission from the regional administrator, as normally the road was closed to protect the sandalwood from poachers. The road went towards Mount Mutis, the highest on Timor. It was very rocky and steep, difficult to drive, but we saw the most marvellous scenery. To drive the Toyota on top of a ridge over a grassy surface, with no path or track visible, was most exciting. As we kept climbing and eventually arrived at the top of the ridge, we had the most panoramic view of a wonderful landscape. When we arrived at the village, the church's gong was struck. Somewhat bemused we looked around and saw Eli in the valley, a long way away, riding one of those Timor ponies up the hill. It was incredible to observe the speed with which he negotiated the terrain. Our boys were fascinated and when Eli

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