I’m writing this post on the 3rd of November, the day after All Souls Day (Loron Mate -Bain) here in Timor-Leste. It’s a national holiday and a time when Timor people remember their family who have passed away. Generally graves (“Rate” in Tetun) are on the family home and that is where the focus of the celebration is. A lot of families in Glen have family graves based further and higher up the mountain (the Foho) and this means that there is often a walking pilgrimage by the family to the grave up the mountain (in Gleno we are already at 2280 ft, but the mountains go way higher).
As my host family has the grave here, on Friday I decided to make my own pilgrimage up the mountain to visit another Volunteer (Will, has been here 2 years already) in a small village called Ermera. It was a generally steep walk with 1800ft elevation. Red route on the map below is the route I took. Super enjoyable and beautiful views. I took a lot of photos. The below ones made the cut 😁……
The initial part of walk was Domingo showing me a shortcut through the “Toss” which seems to be a communal vegetable garden where workers are able to use produce for themselves (and their families) and also get benefits when the produce is sold. This is Domingo’s main job. The guy is 12 years my senior but as fit as a fiddle. We went through the Toss, over the river and up a steep hillside as the initial shortcut to start the walk. It was difficult for me to keep up with Domingo 🥵.Photos of the Toss (and Domingo) below….
Once at the road, I sweated my way up. There were some children (“labarik”) who ran to grab my hand and walk with me for about 10 mins. Super friendly 😃.
I took many photos on the way up and down, it was a really beautiful walk. There are many graves along the road and I tried to capture some of the more colourful ones (they were all very ornate). People were also super friendly. I stopped many times to talk to people in my broken Tetun. They seemed to appreciate it 😁🤗. I also show the road condition, which was pretty bad in certain spots but other spots have had concrete laid (I assume that is an ongoing project). The rainy season is about to start so I think part of this route will degrade much more between now and March next year…
At the peak elevation of the route is an old chapel which Will had told me about. Its hidden up the top of some overgrown stairs. Like something out of Indiana Jones 😁. As I walked up, some Children raced up to catch me and chat AND put flowers at the chapel.
I arrived at Ermera on market day. It was busy. There are a lot of used clothes which I think are imported from Indonesia or China. This is where “fast fashion” ends up. Unfortunately the clothes imported are all too small for me. Thankfully I brought enough, for now. I even spotted a young lad with a Liverpool football shirt on 😁, although he seemed to not understand that it was a Liverpool shirt and why I was jumping up and down with excitement…
In Ermera myself and Will walked to a local pool (billiards) hall (“Belyar Joga”) which I thought was pretty cool. Looks like its more of an evening hang-out as it was closed when we arrived (probably too hot during the day). Picture below….
On the way back down the mountain Will and I got “summoned” (arm twisted) to join a group of men at a grave. They were drinking, eating and generally partying and thought a couple of “Malae” would bring additional entertainment. They had made an alter and brought the bones from their dead relatives (I assume they dug them up), wrapped and placed at the alter. I got a picture of the elder “Senior” in front of the alter. We drank Palm Oil Brandy, known as Tua Mutin, which tasted a cross between white wine and brandy. It was out of a water bottle so I don’t exactly know where it came from. To date, no ill effects 🙏.. The most amazing thing was that we had actually stumbled on the grave of Domingo’s Grandfather. Completely by chance! Small world…
Loron Mate-Bain
The day after my walk was All Souls Day. I made the effort to dress nice and went to Church (standing room only, a busy day) where the majority of people brought flowers to be blessed with holy water (distributed with splashes by the Nuns) which were to be put on graves that day.
We had a ceremony at the grave at my host families home and a bunch of relatives came to celebrate. The night before, the family made an alter and added plates of food and things that Domingo’s Dad enjoyed while he was alive. Cigarettes, Palm Oil Brandy and Beer. I joked that his Dad had a “good life”, and Domingo concurred (with a cheeky smile). Photos of the alter, ceremony and some group photos below. I felt privileged to be part of it all. A few minutes after the ceremony, the heavens opened and we had big rain 🌧.
So, today is Sunday. Pretty quiet, hence I am getting my Blog post in while I have a chance. Did my clothes washing this morning and managed a trip to the market to buy vegetables for the family. Training and language learning classes will continue tomorrow. I will leave you with a photo of a beautiful butterfly (moth?) I captured last week at the training center and myself and another volunteer, Ian (fantastic friend), at the equivalent of a Starbucks here in Gleno (a small coffee place at the Market which is becoming a regular). Stay safe out there!!! 👊.
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