Postcard to Monash from East Timor
Greetings from Timor Leste (East Timor).
I received the 2005 Mathew Peck Scholarship from Monash's Victorian College of Pharmacy and have come to East Timor to work with the Pharmacy Department of the Ministry of Health.
My experience here has been overwhelming, eye-opening, confronting and inspiring.
One of the first things that stood out for me was that Timor Leste will remain, for many years to come, strongly affected by its difficult and turbulent past. However, the country has so much to offer.
Dili, the capital city, sits on a flat plane on the north coast. All around it mountains rise dramatically, up to 2000 metres or higher. The majority of Timor Leste's land is mountainous. It also has stunning coral reefs and marine life, making for fantastic snorkelling and scuba diving.
I ventured to Timor Leste with the understanding that I would be undertaking a situation analysis and collecting data on certain unsafe over-the-counter and prescription medicines that are widely sold in community pharmacies. I arrived wide-eyed and keen to start my project, but I had little understanding of how I would go about it and no expectation of the challenges ahead of me.
I learned that development in general is a slow process. The way foreigners work in developing settings must be compatible with the culture and working style of the local people.
Visiting Timor Leste has enriched my life in so many ways -- it has opened my eyes to an entire world of work opportunities and global issues and taught me countless lessons about setting goals, achieving objectives and overcoming challenges.
-- Jana Dostal
See also
|
