I couldn’t think of a better title. But we are about at my halfway point through my planned service here in Timor-Leste. My time continues to be busy here with some new activities on the horizon. This time of year has many holidays in Timor-Leste (leading up to the New Year) and so it feels like a “wind down” as we move towards December. It also signals the start of the “wet season” and the afternoons are starting to have consistent torrential rain at around 3PM along with more power outages.
Mana Mailys has come to visit me AGAIN after her Asia travels, which I am very happy about. The life here seems to suit her 😁. She has been a huge help with my activities here, especially with the children’s classes.
So, for this blog, I have a bunch of interesting photographs from my last few weeks that I would like to share.
BELOW: We (Fatuquero) hosted an International Permaculture event which attracted maybe 200 Timorese AND we had some international visitors. One from USA, France, UK, Japan, Australia and others. My disability group (FJDE) has a stall at the expo day of the event and were able to sell a lot of sewn goods and coffee. They had our new portable sign on display also 😁. I was really proud of them 🙏. Shelby, myself and our local Australia and Japanese volunteer friends attended the expo day. We somehow managed to get invited to the area where the international Ambassadors were gathered and eating lunch. Shelby and I had a long chat with the Indian Ambassador and the Japanese Ambassador respectively. It was great to be part of the event and put Fatuquero “on the map”.
BELOW: My good friend Maun Mario at one of our conversational coffee mornings at the Fatin Turizmu in Fatuquero. Maun Mario and always have a good laugh. He is intrigued by western culture. I thought this was a great photo of him.
BELOW: Mana Elvira from FJDE roasting and grinding coffee in the traditional way after a couple of our English classes. I think the coffee tastes better knowing the effort that has gone into making it. Grinding the coffee in this way is not an easy task.
BELOW: The statue of Mary has been making the rounds in Fatuquero and you may remember that about 1 year ago a statue visited my first host family home back in Gleno (with Senor Domingo). Last week it was the turn of our house to host the “na’in feto” statue. This involves the statue being carried from the previous host house (happened to be my good neighbor Maun Tano) with singing and candles, and then brought to rest in our house where we prepared an altar and a “grotto” type decoration. There is then a 1 hour prayer mass in our house where we host the neighbors. The mass includes music and so had a really nice feel to it. Afterwards the visitors are given refreshments and music before being sent on their way. It’s a great community event. Everyone sings 😁.
BELOW: Last week was “All Souls” day here in Timor-Leste. It’s a day when the dead are remembered and honored. This is typically done by gathering flowers, getting them blessed at church and then laying the flowers on the graves of family members. This often requires a “pilgrimage” of travel to those graves which are typically at the family home and often in the mountains. Below is a photo of Mana Berta after her flower blessing. Mailys and I took our own pilgrimage walk (7 miles there and 7 miles back) into the mountains to a small chapel I visited last year. We saw lots of family graves and met many people along the way. It was a hard walk but so enjoyable. The Timorese are such friendly people and when you get into the mountains people are even friendlier. On our walk we met an older woman carrying a bag of blessed flowers on her head. We helped her carry the bag up some particularly steep sections of the walk.
BELOW: My class activities continue. The Children’s Maths classes have been extremely rewarding as I can see the students learning before my eyes and applying what they have learnt. Teaching English is way more challenging for me, but I know just as important to the community here.
BELOW: Mana Mailys brought her famous banana bread recipe to Timor-Leste 😀. Mana Berta has a small toaster oven she makes bread in and Mailys used that to bake with. My host sister, Mana Cidalia, was eager to help and mixed all the ingredients together nicely. When the cake was baked it was pretty good!! And it was eaten rapidly by the family. Hopefully I can repeat the process for Christmas or New Year.😋.
Finally, as any volunteer in Timor-Leste will tell you, all of our homes are also home to rats (laho boot). They generally tend to stay above the ceiling in the home and, when they run around, it sounds like an elephant is running up there. My host sister, Mana Cidalia, has been scared recently by the rats that she sometimes sees at night where her ceiling is not complete. So!! It was time for action. I went to one of the local “loja’s” in Gleno and spoke to the Chinese owner about what he had to catch rats. He was super excited and went into the back of his shop to produce a cage trap. He said I could have it for the “special friend’s price” of $3.50. SO I took it 😁😉. That was 3 days ago. Since then we have caught 3 rats……
Rat 1 was lucky. He was taken by me to the local river bed (currently dry), without anyone seeing me, and set free on his merry way (much to the anger of my host father, Senor, who thought a more brutal dispatch was necessary 😂).
Rat 2 was not so lucky. On my way to the to the river bed we attracted much merriment from the neighbor kids. Akin to a “pied piper” 😂. When I let the rat free the kids (and dog) chased it and caught it. Then they let it go and chased it again. These kids have no fear!! I didn’t hang around for the outcome but I fear it was not good for the rat.
Rat 3 was the unluckiest. By this time, it was well known that the sight of Maun James carrying a cage to the river was a rat dispatch and a time for merriment. Many children skipped along with me to the release area. When the rat was released all hell broke loose and the kids chased, threw stones and stomped to kill the rat. It ended badly for the rat 🐀. I told Senor and he seemed to be pleased his wishes were fulfilled. There WILL be a “Rat 4” and I will do my best to release that humanely. Below is Rat 1, the lucky one……
Finally, I leave you with some photos of my dog Charley. He’s a naughty dog, but has become a great friend and companion. He walks with me around Fatuquero, watches my classes and even climbs up to the Fatin Turizmu when I visit. He has stolen my shoes, on occasion, and 2 days ago I caught him chewing on the rope which our neighbors cow was tied to 🙄…. The cow was hopeful of a getaway before I managed to pull Charley off the rope 😂.
Until next time…. thanks for reading 😉.
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