Had you forgotten about the existence of my blog? No drama, folks, because so had I! As a good friend of me asked me if there’s any World Cup fever in Timor-Leste (East Timor) – and there really is! – I somehow remembered my blog and thought that I could give him a proper reply this way instead of in a private email. So, if you scroll down just a tiny little bit you’ll find two new blog posts:
1. Conducting a Census in Timor-Leste: a Challenging Affair
2. World Cup Timorese Style
So, why on earth am I writing about a census (a population count) in Timor-Leste? Well, some of you might not know it, but I’m no longer a United Nations Volunteer, working as a Public Information Officer in tiny Timor’s even tinier enclave Oecusse. Since April, I’m working for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as their “Census Publicity & Advocacy Officer”, which means that I’m based in Dili and responsible for making everybody aware of the 2010 Census, which will take place between the 11th and 25th of July.
My new job is a lot of fun, really. I get to do all kinds of stuff and learning heaps. I’m now used to writing speeches for high-level people (including the President and the Prime Minister), writing scripts for radio and TV publicity pieces, negotiating Memos of Understanding with TV channels and a lot of other things I never thought I’d be doing, and that’s pretty cool!
The first post below, right before the post about my Timorese World Cup experience, is therefore an article I wrote about the 2010 Census in Timor. I’m posting it here as I believe it will give you a pretty good idea about what I’m up to at the moment.
I write “at the moment” because my current contract expires at the end of October. What I’ll be doing after that? I’ll tell you something: your guess is as good as mine!
Cheers and welcome back to my blog,
Filip
