OK, well this is a quick post I am making only a couple of days after my last one. I wanted to post about our Movie event yesterday with my Disability group, FJDE 😀. We had been planning this for a while (see my prior post) – A trip to Dili to watch a movie (in English) at the one movie theater in Timor-Leste (Cineplex).
I had the support of Mailys and Shelby to help with the event. The day started with the anguna driver that we had arranged, not arriving. Maun Marcos remarked the driver was “bosok teen” (habitually lazy) and so we quickly had to arrange an alternate driver and anguna which turned out to be quite straightforward. We brought my host sister (Mana Cidalia), one of my kid’s club English students (Mana Anatoria), and Shelby’s host sister, plus a couple of the disability group family members along.
The ride to Dili was fun, with just one stop along the way for a couple of travel sick people. I had a 1.5hr buffer I planned into the schedule, and we used up all of that as we arrived with 10 mins to spare before the movie started. We had to walk through Timor Plaza (the one western style mall in Timor us volunteers call “TP”) to get to the theatre. It was a little uncomfortable walking through the TP mall with the group. They looked uncomfortable and I realized that Timorese get approached by very pushy sales people (normally trying to sell mobile phones and electronics) whereas we (volunteers) normally do not. I had to save a couple of my group from being pulled aside by pushy sales girls 😐.
We watched the new Superman movie. We had popcorn (which was eaten rapidly… as in USA). The group really enjoyed the experience and the movie was full of enough action that the English language barrier didn’t stop the enjoyment. There was a total of 17 of us.
After the movie, it was time for Burger King 😋 (literally right next door). I ordered 17 Whopper Junior meals 😆. My hat off to the store manager who was extremely organized and had everything ready in less than 10mins (more organized than most USA fast food outlets I bet). Everyone ate their burger and most ate all their 🍟 fries. We finished with a soft serve ice cream🍦.
So, it was then back home but not without first visiting the beach (“tase ibun” in Tetun meaning “mouth of the sea”). That was fun, especially for Mana Cidalia and Mana Anatoria who had perhaps seen the sea once or twice in their lives. Here I have a nice video (link here) of them getting a bit too close to the water and getting wet feet 😆.
The ride back home was, thankfully, uneventful and nobody was car sick. That same afternoon Mailys and I hitchhiked BACK to Dili for our trip to Atauro Island the next day (more on that in my next blog). We only walked about 1 mile from home and got lucky and found a guy driving from Fatuquero to Dili!! We were back in Timor Plaza that evening where I drank a cool mojito and was thankful the day went well.
Thanks for reading! Until next time 😉.
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