August 16, 2009 8:03pm
It’s Sunday evening after a very busy and fun week. Here are some of the thoughts and observations and questions that I’ve had bouncing around my brain this week:
What would it take to get the grocery stores to stock local fruits and vegetables instead of importing everything in packages?
When I go to the local markets, everything that is sold is fairly similar from veggie stand to veggie stand. I wonder why there isn’t more competition in the market. The stand that I happen to stop in to buy tomatoes is almost completely random. There is no bargaining, and there is no added value to any of the piles of tomatoes. I always buy 4 for a dollar. That’s the going rate for all the stands and all the tomatoes look exactly the same. I wonder if there is something here that I don’t understand, for instance, the other market people would beat up a market person would sold the tomatoes at a better deal, but I’m curious as to why there isn’t more competition between the market stalls.
Everything here is very hierarchal. I noticed this when I was working with the students in Fuiloro and Maliana. As we were working on the student CVs and cover letters with the students, I would be politely interrupted in the morning and afternoon in order to inform me that morning and afternoon tea was ready. The first day I thanked the assistant kindly and told them that I was just going to finish my work on the student’s CV that I was currently working on and then I would meet up with everyone at tea. It wasn’t until later on in the week that I realized that the students couldn’t have their tea until I had mine because if they did that would be considered very disrespectful. So the teachers and the LOL staff would all leave the classroom to go to the room where tea was served and we would all drink and mingle, and then after we were finished the students were able to join us. So once I realized that it was necessary for me to have tea before the students were able, I stopped whatever work I was doing mid task and joined my coworkers for tea so that the students could then join us.
The other thing I learned while working in the districts with the students was that although it was valuable for the students to have CVs, cover letters and interview practice (we were running a job prep workshop), most of our students would be returning to their family and local farms after graduation and probably wouldn’t be applying for a job where they would need a CV. At first I didn’t understand this and was disappointed in this information, but then I was informed that this is exactly where the students need to take their knowledge after graduation. During the Indonesian occupation, from 1975 -1999, the farms were all run by Indonesians. As a consequence a generation of Timorese farmers was lost along with their agricultural knowledge. The students have been educated in farming techniques that they may have never known had they stayed on their family farms and had not gone to an agricultural technical school.
I was also talking with one of my local Timorese colleagues and he was saying that often a farming family will work for a year, save enough money to eat for a year and then take the next year off. There doesn’t seem to be much practice in financial savings. This is not a issue that is unique to Timor, it seems to be something that all poor countries struggle with as the poor discount the future at a very high rate. I can understand why someone would rather just relax for a year than slave in the hot sun, especially when they feel that there is little reason for them to save for anything more than food. I wonder even if they even think that saving to send their children to school would be worth it if they believe that their children will just be living the same life as they are. I wonder if an education in could be seen as a competitive advantage some how. For instance, family X works every year so that they can send their children to agricultural school, but family Y does not and just works a year and then takes the next year off, living day to day. If family X’s kids could come back to the farm knowing how to operate a hand tractor and were then able to increase their crop production. I wonder if family Y would see this and think to save to send their children to school. Although that would depend on family X being able to save enough to buy a hand tractor in addition to sending their children to school.
The other thing I was thinking about and talking with Jonathan and my Portuguese mother about was how being able to take care of special needs children was luxury of rich countries. My Portuguese mother’s husband works with special needs children in Portugal. It’s interesting because although there has to be special needs children here in Timor, I haven’t seen any at all. I have been told that they get locked in a room and hidden away. That is so sad, but I understand how that can happen when a family has 7 other children to feed and are working to feed those children day to day.
The other thing that I have to be careful about is not judging the intelligence of the students by how well they speak English. I found myself doing that a little bit when I was in the districts. It’s amazing though how wonderful and accepting and gracious the students are. It was a lot of fun working with them on their CVs and I understand how they must be feeling right now so close to graduation. Proud of themselves for accomplishing their schooling, but nervous that they will have to find jobs and create a life of their own and sad that they will be leaving their friends and school. I so admire how the students can leave home to go to agricultural school and many of them do not see or hear from their parents until they go home for holidays. That takes so much courage.
I have to say a little bit about our weekly soccer games. I’ve joined a soccer team of international women who work in Dili. Our numbers and skill vary and our coach is a forensic detective from Portugal. One of my favorit times during the week is on Saturdays when we play a local soccer team of Timorese girls. These Timorese girls are very skilled and have beaten us every game except one. But both teams have so much fun playing as hard as they can and the wonderful thing about sports is that the language is so simple. We also get quite a crowd. The soccer pitch is below a busy road so we get a crowd of people who are driving past (often taxi drivers) and are curious so they just pull over, get out of their cars and watch. There are also a bunch of local people who line the field and oooohh and awwee whenever either team get a good chance. They LOVE it when block shots and last Saturday I got quite a cheer when the ball came down and hit me square on the top of my head (I would like to say intentionally).
My puppy has open its eyes and the neighbours decided to name it “Guarda Kiik” which means “Small Guard”. Fittingly, their dog is named, “Guarda Boot” which means “Big Guard”. The originality cracked me up.
Much love,
mariesa
