The Timor-Leste Dental Program has played a profoundly significant role in my life. I first encountered Dr. Sandra Meihubers, one of TLDP’s founders, while working for Justice Health in NSW. Upon expressing my interest in volunteering, she met me in Glebe, Sydney, where she assessed my suitability for joining the program. Evidently, I passed muster, as 17 years have swiftly passed by. That evening, I gleaned a valuable lesson—the TLDP is meticulous about the values, cultural sensitivities, and clinical, emotional, and psychological capabilities of its volunteers, a commitment that persists to this day.

In 2006, the young program employed a single Timorese dental therapist, had less than 12 volunteers in its ranks, and the teams took a very simple set-up on outreach clinics, with very few instruments, and hand-mixed, chemical-set filling materials. There was one portable chair, and very little equipment that required electricity. The teams were small and visited many different villages in central and western parts of TL. During those early years, access to electricity and running water was a luxury. Evenings spent with the Carmelite sisters, our partners, dining by candlelight, remain among my fondest memories. Mobile service was virtually non-existent, rendering a trip to TL akin to disappearing into a black hole for the outside world. It was two weeks of being fully present, long before ‘mindfulness’ entered popular consciousness.  There were no tourists – just the UN, armed forces from many countries, and many other non-government organisations (NGOs) like us. 

On my second trip to TL, Sandra also invited along one of her uni friends, Dr Wayne Pearson, and his dental assistant, Melanie Murray. This serendipitous decision birthed two enduring friendships. Wayne and I spent 10 years heading to TL in a team together, and Mel would have also carried on past the 3 years that she was with us, but for the frightening and dangerous episode of dengue fever that she contracted in Maubara one year. Thanks to Wayne, for a decade I equated a trip to TL with the consumption of a huge amount of pistachios and a beer at end of a day’s work. I was fortunate to have him on all those trips. I attribute my skills in field maintenance and my amassing of random facts about heavy machinery, road building, and farming to the countless hours I spent in his company.

I became Program Coordinator, seemingly by accident, in 2012, taking over from Sandra. The then still small committee of co-founder Dr David Sheen, Dr David Digges, Wayne, and I steered the TLDP towards where it is today – a much larger, focussed entity. Now in its 20^th year, the TLDP has had scores of volunteers, many making it a regular event in their calendar. To foster continuity, our teams now return annually to work in the same subdistricts, hoping to compound our impact. Striving for sustainability and local ownership, we have employed two Timorese dental therapists full-time in the Maubara Clinic since 2017, supported several Timorese in their dental studies and provided clinical supervision and mentoring for countless Timorese clinicians who often present themselves to our teams on outreach. Most are employed by the Ministry of Health; some are newly graduated; all come to learn. It has been a privilege and a joy to work beside these capable and enthusiastic people.

Much has changed in TL over that time. Mobile phones with multiple SIMS are now ubiquitous, so communication with our Timorese partners has become simultaneously easier and more complex, with multiple platforms and languages in use. Our teams are much larger, and the Timorese members often outnumber the Aussies, which is wonderful! The teams also carry around a lot more gear – about three times as much as we did on my first trip – and can treat huge numbers of people each trip. Electricity and water are much more reliable, at least in the larger centres, but as the teams operate mostly in remote villages, we always carry water and generators. Sadly, those candleit dinners with the Sisters are a distant memory.

Timor-Leste continues to change at a dizzying rate, and not always in a manner that could be defined as progress. The exit of the UN and other foreign military after 2012 prompted a collapse of hospitality services for a few years; now with the increase in tourism, our teams are increasingly able to enjoy meals in cafes with mountain views or by the beach. Roads have improved on some of the major routes, and the trip from Dili to our base in Maubara has reduced from the once 3-hour odyssey to less than an hour’s journey; nonetheless, driving in TL continues to be a challenge in most of the country. In the ever-evolving political landscape, navigating TL’s governmental structures and its rules and regulations is a bamboozling exercise.

The need for dental care in TL remains high, with need far outstripping available services. t has been my honour to collaborate with everyone involved in the program, and I am pleased to entrust its capable leadership to Dr. Mary Tuituinnik and Dr. Henry Gilkes. I wish them fair winds and smooth sailing!