How not to pack for your maternity leave

Ready for 'Mission pack-out' at Darwin airport

It probably goes without saying that our rather hasty departure from Dili meant a somewhat less-than-stellar pack-out.  This meant Chris won himself a trip back to Dili recently to make sure that we did in fact close off the house, pack away our clothes (to avoid mold taking over in the humidity), and of course to visit the cat.  As we are packing out for several months for a maternity leave that will span two continents in opposite seasons, including a somewhat formal graduation ceremony and accompanying social events in the UK in July, it was necessary to coordinate closely during the process.  We highly recommend you not try to pack for your maternity leave while on separate continents, planning for your leave that will occur on two additional continents.

Armed with a detailed list with room-by-room instructions of what needed to be packed, stored or donated, Chris set off on his second pack-out mission in less than six months.  (He did suggest to me this afternoon that we are in fact even now, since I packed us out of Baghdad and Kabul, but that he has now done so out of Boston and Dili).  I spent two looong days at the hospital (12+ hours) in serious breastfeeding training sessions, while trying to coordinate with Chris in Dili on the details of which items were to be packed or otherwise dealt with.  In the meantime, Chris had to essentially pack up our whole house to prepare for temporary Asia Foundation staff that will be filling in for Susan during her leave, and of course - entertain the cat who was seriously attention-deprived.

Matters were severely challenged by an untimely communications melt-down as we quickly learned that mobile phone calls between Darwin and Dili were prohibitively expensive, followed my internet credit running out on my 3G, which, thanks to the Easter holidays, I could not replenish!  So our only option was for me to rush home between breastfeeding sessions to connect via the slow connection at our rental house, to the even slower connection in Dili, which meant no voice communications, and Chris having to type descriptions of everything he thought I might want to pack "the blue dress with the grey trim?" "which red ring, you have three!"

Chris says his first 'goodbye' to Luka the morning before
departing for Dili

Happy to report that it was mission accomplished, as Chris packed up our house into storage boxes, stored bikes, washed linens, picked dresses and breastfeed-friendly-looking tops, collected a plethora of chargers and other gadgets we would obviously need during our leave - and still fit in a few social visits to update our fellow pregnant Dili-ites on exactly how important it is to check your health insurance and remain flexible with whatever you thought your plans were.

Luka and I were thrilled to have him back, and presented him with a whole additional 65grams we had been working on while he was away.

Note: We would like to thank Chris' colleague Heidi for bringing 12kg of our academic books, and everyone else for carrying documents and other belongings back and forth between Dili and Darwin, can't thank you enough.

PS: We will likely have to send a small bag of 'unnecessaries' back to Dili, so please do contact us if you are traveling back there in the next two weeks or so.