Team 1’s Aussie contingent returned home 2.5 weeks ago. Team 1 consisted of dentists – Dr Leslie Leong (LL) and Dr Tom Li (Tom); oral health therapists – Ana Tilman (AT), Ana Martins (AM), Nicolau Pires (NP) and Diamantino Morais (TM); and admin organiser, Ana Paula Salgado (AP). Following is an excerpt from the team leader’s (LL) trip report:

Dropping in on the Saturday afternoon, Tom and Leslie were greeted to beautifully cool Dili day. Dili was a ghost town – peaceful, but somewhat unnerving. So election day swept through Timor (almost everyone who lives in Dili isn’t ‘from’ Dili, and has to go back to their home town to vote), which left Tom and LL the luxury of a day’s holiday. This was well-spent on underwater exploration.

On Monday morning, coconut and caffeine hit taken in, we set sail for Maubara. There, we picked up the sister’s Landcruiser, which thankfully was looking in much better nick that 8 months ago. With the two Toyotas at hand, we loaded one Toyota up with dental equipment and the other up with Ana’s (three Ana’s!). With now AM, AP, AT, NP, Tom and LL together, we needed only to sweep up one more (TM) on the way past Gleno, and we were ready to rock and roll.

Image: Team 1 – Left clockwise – Tom, LL, NP, AM, AT, TM, AP)

Up in the mountains made for stunning viewing. We were spoilt with views of the clouds sweeping across the valley while we sat and ate our morning bread and afternoon rice. The sisters were tight on space so the girls stayed with the sisters and the boys stayed in the priest’s guesthouse.

We set up in the clinic beside the church and were treated to an enormous room. Here, the community steadily flowed in. Tom slotted into the Timor rhythm like a seasoned pro. His Tetun for under a week of exposure was impressive! He also got involved in another TLDP tradition: screening and transporting kids from local schools. Does anyone know the Troopie’s max capacity? Tom and AT fit 15 littlies at one point.

Letefoho was super busy. Starting each day at 9am, we frequently powered on to 5-6pm. Extractions were Letefoho’s favourite procedure. They loved it so much that by day 4, we were running out of gauze. A generous donation from the health centre was welcome, and we also boosted supplies by modifying paper towels with a knife and scissors.

AT, NP, Tom and LL shared the duties on the two chairs reserved for restorations. What AT can do with limited materials is absolutely amazing. Her passion to improve a person’s smile is infectious. (Image above: AT performing her magic)

On the third dental chair, AM and TM were tag teaming nicely, with TM providing excellent mentoring along the way. It’s been really noticeable how AM’s extraction skills have improved since the last outreach trip. (Image below: Our longest serving Timorese mentee and volunteer, Tino, now mentoring himself)

AP was our trusty gatekeeper. Although she has been in Fiji the past few years, it really feels like she never left. How did we manage without her? (Image below: AP, organiser extraordinaire)

Three days in Letefoho turned into five. Our final two days were planned for Dukurai (30 min drive from Letefoho), however the sisters organised the Durukai people to travel to Letefoho themselves, saving us the pain of packing up and setting up once more.

The priest’s place was extremely comfortable. Fit with a dining room with million dollar views, and a table tennis table, it was relative luxury. There was the infrequent visit of a rat in Tom’s room, keeping the newbie on his toes [I probably was visited by that rat’s grandmother – Ed].

Each night, the team had dinner at the priest’s place, and then Tom and LL took turns dropping the Ana’s back to the sister’s place in the Landcruiser. Only perhaps a 1.5 kilometre walk, it was treacherous stretch of road. LL found the hard way, going down the wrong stretch of road, and having to reverse back for 400+ metres in the dark with a cliff on one side. Tom however, found out the very hard way, ending up in a ditch. Pulling the Landcruiser out required many, many helpful locals, the cheapest looking rope, crazy good knots, the Troopie, and several hours. Amazingly, no Landcruisers were harmed.

Travel day Sunday and heading back on simply awful roads on the segment from Letefoho to Gleno. We said goodbye to the ever smiling TM (but not before he pinched extra gauze from his health clinic in Gleno for us-thanks Tino) and plowed on. As much as LL and Tom love driving, they were pretty over it by the time we reached Maubara.

Monday struck another surprise. A close family member of Tom’s had fallen ill and he had to fly out later that day to go and see them. Onwards and depleted, a 1.5 hour drive to Lisadilla from Maubara and another 45-60 minutes of setting up, we were feeling slow.

Fortunately, the students of Filadelphia school had surprisingly excellent teeth (apparently a team was there a few years ago) and our workload was kept to a minimum.

Rinse and repeat for the schools of Folara on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the combined 5 hours of driving and setting up/packing down each day had us far more drained than any of the dentistry. Folara’s school however had a curveball.

Walking into our designated room, we were met with a dusty, messy heap that they called a library. It looked like it hasn’t been used in awhile and we soon realised why. Bees were flying through the open wall and had set up 3 lovely bee homes. Nico was more than up for it. Armed with tiny artery forceps, he extracted 3 bee hives, later to find out there were another 3 hives, only bigger. Nico had 4 stings after the rehoming and half a can of Mortein later, we had a bee free working environment. (Image above: Nico, our saviour)

Here we learnt that Thursday is ‘youth day’ and all the kids have the day off school. Got to love Timor’s schedule of public holidays. The team welcomed a day off and celebrated with a hearty bowl of Bakso, sate and many coconuts.

Back in on Friday with a visit to the final Lisadilla school. Nico has been a powerhouse in setting up the clinic day to day. The physical efforts and the efficiency in getting the clinic from the back of the Troopie and functional 45 minutes later is mighty impressive.

Friday flew by and we said goodbye to Lisadilla and those roads. Those roads will not be missed.

Bintangs all round closed out our two weeks in Timor for Team 1. Super proud of the hustle from the team.

A mighty effort from Team 1 and superbly managed by our youngest team leader yet. Well done Leslie. Team 1 saw 756 people, carried out 432 extractions, filled 126 teeth and performed 199 preventive procedures. Well done Team!!

Onto Team 2 – which hits TL soil today.