As I was biking back along the coast during my morning ride it stuck me how differently I address the people I briefly interact with while en route. For instance, if I am approaching a group of international men who are out for a morning run, I usually smile and wave hello. But if I'm approaching a group of Timorese men who are usually sitting on the side of the road, I'll shift my bike to the other side of the road and divert my gaze to avoid interaction. I’m especially weary of young Timorese men. Noticing my polar opposite reactions to these men made me reflect upon my racial sentiments. Is it racist if I only feel this way about the young men and I’m perfectly happy waving and greeting the Timorese women or elderly men? And if I behave this way towards the Timorese men and not the internationals, why do I expect the people who look like me to act like me?
Logically, the international men should be more of a threat because I feel comfortable to approach them with ease, despite the fact that they are much bigger than both me and the Timorese men. However, my interactions with the local men are sometimes more confusing, therefore a little scarier. These brief interactions often consist of them shouting “mister, mister” or asking “where are you going” as they stop whatever they are doing and stare. None of these things are considered rude in Timorese culture, I just haven’t yet become indifferent to it all (especially the staring). Therefore, if I ever had to choose between running up to a Timorese male and running up to another international male (who didn’t speak English or Tetum and wasn’t white for arguments sake) I would probably still pick the international male despite the fact that I have a better chance of properly communicating with the Timorese man.
I think this preference is because as I approach these two men I automatically look for similar ground. I instinctively ask myself, “What makes him like me?” And with the international man the common ground I find is that we’re both strangers in this country. We’re outsiders. And he being an outsider like myself makes me feel like I know him a bit better and thus more willing to approach him. It’s interesting to realize that I don’t feel as comfortable around the Timorese men because simply of where he was born. He’s an insider, I’m an outsider and until I can get to know him on a personal level, that will influence my interactions with him.
An example of the insider/outsider relationship has become no clearer than in my interactions with the Pakistani guards. These UN soldiers guard the road that leads up to the President house which also serves as a prime exercising spot for internationals. Daily I’ll bike/run/walk past the guard booth, often stopping to chat and drink some water they leave out for me and my friends. When I first arrived in TL I instantly knew that these armed soldiers would be friendly so I approached them with confidence and ease. However, if I imagine myself in Pakistan coming across the same group of soldiers for the first time, I see myself feeling far less confident in our instant friendship. In the first case we are both outsiders, thus in a similar boat and in the second case, I’m the outsider, I don’t belong or completely understand and thus our relationship needs extra effort to become a friendship.
It was on another one of my bike rides that I realized just what that extra effort might look like. Whether they knew it or not, the young Timorese males had become a point of anxiety for me and I was wondering what I could do about this. As I was mulling this over a thought wandered into my mind and said, “Mariesa, just give them a coke”. After thinking about this for a moment I realized that instead of lecturing each obnoxious man on manners (which was my initial plan), reaching out to some decent normal Timorese men might go a long ways towards healing the fight/flight instinct that I had developed thanks to a few interactions with obnoxious local youth. So the next day as I went into the grocery store I counted four Timorese men hanging around the outside selling phone pulsa and passion fruit. As I finished up my shopping I bought four cokes and handed each of them one as I walked to my motorbike. It was the best $2 I have ever spent. Although I’m still weary, the smile of appreciation on their faces has gone a long ways towards me seeing the approachable and friendly side of most of the local men.
Another fear I have developed since being in TL is a fear of small, mangy dogs. I don’t think that this will continue once I’m back in North America, but certainly while in TL, I keep my distance. Unfortunately because there are so many of these creatures, keeping my distance is harder than I’d like. Most of these mangy pups are just hungry bitches that are trying to protect their nursing litter. We have two dogs at our home that sleep all day so that they can stay up all night barking with no intention of leaving their perch on our porch bench. However, I have had a few nasty interactions with some of these small dogs with big barks and sharp teeth so I’ve taken to running with rocks in my pocket. Those instances have left me very skeptical of the friendliness of these dogs and very thankful that I got my rabies vaccination.
I’m not the only one with fears in TL. Recently the Timorese in the districts have been extremely worried about ‘ninjas’ that are rumoured to be responsible for a number of murders in the districts (no one seems to know exactly how many). They have been described as a group of Timorese men, dressed in black and wearing black bandannas. It is also believed that they murdered a woman by first cutting off her breasts and another man by slitting his throat. The stories about these ninjas have many people in the districts paralyzed with fear. At one of our schools the teachers refuse to teach night classes because they are afraid of walking home, our female students want to leave the school, and we have been advised not to go out for evening walks.
It’s difficult to determine whether these measures are extreme or not. Some people say two or three of the murders were done by a group of ‘ninjas’ but now every criminal in Timor is being label a ‘ninja’ so they are receiving more credit for their terrorism than they deserve. I have also heard that the UN believes that because it is expected to pull out in 2012, some wealthy Timorese who benefit financially from their occupation have organized the ‘ninja’ gang to create havoc and force the UN to extend their stay. There are also rumours that the chief of the TL national police is being paid off to defer investigation and that any investigation into the matter has created more human right abuses as national police are being accused of beating up suspected ninjas as part of their interrogation process. Finally, others say this whole thing is nonsense and the ninjas don’t exist. However, as these stories fly around one opinion keeps on resurfacing, that this is exactly how the 2006 crisis started... Perhaps if I come across a ninja I could offer them a coke as well.
Besides the ninjas, the TL government should be fearful about what will happen in 10 years when 50 % of the population reaches working age but jobs availability remains low. With 50% of the Timorese population under the age of 15 there are a lot of children here. I mean a lot. While I’m driving home from work I’ll often see a sea of varying school uniforms as children walk home from school. While walking through a village out in the districts dozens of children will seemingly pop out of nowhere to wave at me from their from their front yards. The amazing thing (and brace yourself because this will sound very inhuman) is that they are all loved. And not just loved, but the babies are cherished by everyone, their mothers, neighbours, older siblings, extended family, everyone carries and tends to the babies. I marvel at how the parents keep track of everyone and their endless patience. The Timorese women have set a very high standard of parenting that I aspire to, although on a smaller scale.
But back to worrisome unemployment: The number of children in this country begs the question of what kind of employment opportunities the Timorese population will have in 10-15 years. Currently the unemployment rate is 50 – 70% (depending on how unemployment is defined). The growth of the economy will not be able to keep up to the demand for jobs and when the UN pulls out there will be even greater unemployment. The solution may be to export labour (this is already happening: Korea has a language school in Dili which teaches Timorese Korean so that they can work as manual labour in Korea. Many Timorese also immigrate to Ireland to work and send money home). One idea is to create a system similar to the nanny exportation in the Philippines. The Dom Bosco Salatian Sisters are currently training young women to be seamstresses, secretaries or nuns. With support from the government and Catholic church the Sisters could prepare young women to be nannies/housekeepers in foreign countries. If I were the Timorese government this is where I’d be focusing in order to avert the problems that come with masses amounts of idle youth.
Having fears does not mean TL is unsafe. Although I don’t think I’ll ever totally understand the Timorese culture and I don’t think I’ll ever become completely comfortable with people staring at me, I do know that some of my best friends in the world are Timorese and I’m so thankful to be here.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Dog Food
Blog January 29, 2010
Horrah! At last the blog drought is over! During this break my dad has come to visit and I went home for Christmas on the farm. I'm so thankful for that time, it was good to be back with my family and farm animals in my home and native land. Now that I'm back in TL here are some noteworthy events that have welcomed my return:
Sadly I found out that Guarda Kiik (my little mutt puppy) got sick and died while I was gone. My question as to where he was buried was met with an awkward silence and “Ahhh, Mariesa, Guarda Kiik wasn't buried....” Shocked, I considered the probable alternative, “So you mean he was... Wow.” My poor Guarda became our neighbour's dins.
Recently one of my Timorese coworkers has started dating a fellow Timorese guy. What's surprising is that they met on Facebook. I find this amazing. Less than 1 percent of the Timorese have access to the internet and I already know a couple who met online. Welcome new age dating!
About the third day I was back in TL I went out for a bike to the Jesus statue and back. As I was biking home I passed a pretty lady biking in the opposite direction. As we passed I knew that I recognized her but I couldn't put a name to the face. A couple days later I saw her while we were biking again and I realized that I was biking past Christie Sword, the First Lady! That's a little country for you.
Last weekend I was invited by a coworker to the 'barlaki' negotiations. The barlaki is the bride price and is negotiated between the groom's and bride's families at the bride's family's house before the wedding preparations start. It is a traditional event where the two families formally meet for the first time, negotiate how much the groom's family will have to pay the bride's family for the bride and figure out the wedding planning details. I felt so lucky to be apart of it all!
Because my coworker was part of the bride's family I went over to her house and visited with her large family as we waited for the groom's family to arrive. When they finally arrived (they were late because one of their cars had broken down) everyone gathered together and the groom's family presented the bride's family with gifts. Packs of beer, cigarettes, shoes, jewelery, and clothes were all place on the mat around which the male elders of both families were sitting. Surrounding the elders the rest of the families gathered and watch the ancient family heads greet each other. Once the bride's family had accepted the gifts, the barlaki negotiations commenced. The elders from the bride's family started by saying her price would be $1,500. The elders from the groom's family immediately balked and said that they would only pay $800 and a goat. The negotiations continued for a couple of hours, the elder men of each family chain smoking away, the elder women chewing beetle nut, the younger generation in the kitchen preparing for the post negotiation lunch, and the children running and playing everywhere.
I've learned that each barlaki is different, for instance in the Los Palos district the bride's family traditionally asks for 77 buffalo. An outrageous amount that the groom's family will be paying their entire life. In other districts it is reversed and the bride's family has to pay. TL is very tribal therefore even though it is such a small country geographically there are many cultural differences between districts. Sometimes the negotiations can go on for days and can be very complicated especially if the bride and groom are from different districts.
For the negotiation that I was witnessing the economics were fairly simple. The groom's family brought over gifts on the day of the barlaki negotiation, but then the bride's family hosted everyone for a post negotiation lunch. Similarly, the groom's family will have to pay the bride's family in money and livestock, but the bride's family will organize and host the wedding. Thus, in this case it was fairly straight forward. But what I found most amusing was that while the elders of each family where in heated debate (they finally agreed on $1,300 and a couple goats), the bride and groom were around the corner paying on their cell phones. It made me wonder if perhaps in the not-too-distant future barlaki negotiations will be done over Skype.
It has certainly been a readjustment returning to TL but I'm happy I'm back and I'm starting to warm up for the second half of adventures!
Much love,
mariesa
Horrah! At last the blog drought is over! During this break my dad has come to visit and I went home for Christmas on the farm. I'm so thankful for that time, it was good to be back with my family and farm animals in my home and native land. Now that I'm back in TL here are some noteworthy events that have welcomed my return:
Sadly I found out that Guarda Kiik (my little mutt puppy) got sick and died while I was gone. My question as to where he was buried was met with an awkward silence and “Ahhh, Mariesa, Guarda Kiik wasn't buried....” Shocked, I considered the probable alternative, “So you mean he was... Wow.” My poor Guarda became our neighbour's dins.
Recently one of my Timorese coworkers has started dating a fellow Timorese guy. What's surprising is that they met on Facebook. I find this amazing. Less than 1 percent of the Timorese have access to the internet and I already know a couple who met online. Welcome new age dating!
About the third day I was back in TL I went out for a bike to the Jesus statue and back. As I was biking home I passed a pretty lady biking in the opposite direction. As we passed I knew that I recognized her but I couldn't put a name to the face. A couple days later I saw her while we were biking again and I realized that I was biking past Christie Sword, the First Lady! That's a little country for you.
Last weekend I was invited by a coworker to the 'barlaki' negotiations. The barlaki is the bride price and is negotiated between the groom's and bride's families at the bride's family's house before the wedding preparations start. It is a traditional event where the two families formally meet for the first time, negotiate how much the groom's family will have to pay the bride's family for the bride and figure out the wedding planning details. I felt so lucky to be apart of it all!
Because my coworker was part of the bride's family I went over to her house and visited with her large family as we waited for the groom's family to arrive. When they finally arrived (they were late because one of their cars had broken down) everyone gathered together and the groom's family presented the bride's family with gifts. Packs of beer, cigarettes, shoes, jewelery, and clothes were all place on the mat around which the male elders of both families were sitting. Surrounding the elders the rest of the families gathered and watch the ancient family heads greet each other. Once the bride's family had accepted the gifts, the barlaki negotiations commenced. The elders from the bride's family started by saying her price would be $1,500. The elders from the groom's family immediately balked and said that they would only pay $800 and a goat. The negotiations continued for a couple of hours, the elder men of each family chain smoking away, the elder women chewing beetle nut, the younger generation in the kitchen preparing for the post negotiation lunch, and the children running and playing everywhere.
I've learned that each barlaki is different, for instance in the Los Palos district the bride's family traditionally asks for 77 buffalo. An outrageous amount that the groom's family will be paying their entire life. In other districts it is reversed and the bride's family has to pay. TL is very tribal therefore even though it is such a small country geographically there are many cultural differences between districts. Sometimes the negotiations can go on for days and can be very complicated especially if the bride and groom are from different districts.
For the negotiation that I was witnessing the economics were fairly simple. The groom's family brought over gifts on the day of the barlaki negotiation, but then the bride's family hosted everyone for a post negotiation lunch. Similarly, the groom's family will have to pay the bride's family in money and livestock, but the bride's family will organize and host the wedding. Thus, in this case it was fairly straight forward. But what I found most amusing was that while the elders of each family where in heated debate (they finally agreed on $1,300 and a couple goats), the bride and groom were around the corner paying on their cell phones. It made me wonder if perhaps in the not-too-distant future barlaki negotiations will be done over Skype.
It has certainly been a readjustment returning to TL but I'm happy I'm back and I'm starting to warm up for the second half of adventures!
Much love,
mariesa
Monday, November 30, 2009
SOCRATES and chickens
So I was coming home from the districts last week where I was running the orientation for our new students who attend a Catholic agricultural school that's run by a bunch of Salation Priests (the Catholic church is a power house here, a giant statue of Jesus stands at one end of the capital and a giant statue of the Pope stands at another. We're trapped.) Anyway, I needed to get back to the capital which was about 7 hours away. One of the Fathers had a meeting part way towards the capital and offered to give me a ride ("So long as Miss Mariesa will write my English lesson plans ha ha ha... seriously.") I gladly accepted and figured that once I got to Baucau (the part way point) I would easily be able to hop on a bus going to Dili (the capital). The Father dropped me and my backpack off at the bus station, wait... rephrase... the bus "traffic jam" is more accurate, and promptly took off. As I walked through the traffic jam I yelled loudly "bis? Dili? bis?" looking for the bus to Dili. When I asked a young girl and her mother about when the next "bis" to Dili was going to arrive, she sadly shook her head no and then happily asked me if I wanted to buy something from her kiosk. Fortunately I wasn't convinced that a bus was never going to come and I ended up running into two Dili University students that were on the same Dili bis hunt.
After waiting about 30 minutes a giant bis with "SOCRATES" written across the front windshield and a seductive picture of Avril Lavine across the back pulled up and my university friends and myself quickly jumped on. I soon learned that the number of seats on the bis was no indication whatsoever of how many people, chickens, goats and other items our bis would be transporting. The bis idled for over an hour as more and more people somehow found room to climb in and a combination of animals and baggage was strapped on the roof. Shortly after seating myself next to a lovely lady, I found myself next to 40 other lovely people and their most prized Dili-worthy poultry. There was a rooster perched next to me, a chicken under my seat, and I was soon handed one to hold in my lap while more luggage, firewood, humans and livestock were loaded onto this bis. At one point I offered my seat to a little old "tia" (auntie) and ended up having to stand on one leg and gripping a rooster for balance as our bis served around the mountain hairpin corners, there just wasn't room for both my feet on the floor.
I've learned that the best way to make friends in situations like these is to start offering gum and candy to my fellow travellers and complementing them on the grandeur of their respective roosters. Roosters are the most well fed animals in TL as they are often raised as pets and then thrown into a cock fighting ring where they either meet a gruesome death or bring home loot for their owner.
As we approached our end destination one of the men in charge wearing an “i'm lovin' it” McDonald's t-shirt, crowd-surfed his way from the back to the front of the bis collecting fair. The people sitting at the time coughed up $4 while the people crouching, standing, balancing, or hanging out the doorway were only expected to pay $2. There's nothing like being squished on a bis with 40 fellow travellers and their wordily possessions for four hours of narrow, cliff hanger roads to make good friendships. It was certainly a highlight of my travels.
On another note, if I were to designe an Olympics where the people of TL would win all gold I would have the following events:
Staring contest
Coconut tree climbing
Basket weaving
Spear fishing (while swimming!)
Midwife-ing
I would NOT have:
Race walk
It's interesting to think about how new problems are delt with in a traditional manner. For example, all the littering problems that come with mass amounts of imported water bottles and snack food. This could in part be because when things were wrapped in palm branches or coconut leafs the wrapping could be simply dropped to the ground and nature would take care of itself. However, people have continued to do the same with plastic wrapping and I wonder if that's because the social sigma around littering hasn't had as much time to develop.
I had a break through moment last week in the districts with some of our agribusiness students. There was some confusion about the price of the program. Some of the students were told that it was $17 per month, some thought it was $12 and some believed that it was only $5. When they approached me I knew they were seriously concerned. They all gathered around me looking very solumn and one of them in the middle put his hands together in a prayer like fashion, bowed slighly and explained to me the problem. Once I heard them out I was able to sort through the confusion and inform them that it was actually only $5. They're excitement at the news was awesome. They were high fiving, pumping their fists and cheering. I imagine I would have lost half the students if the price was $12 or more per month. For me this was a break through experience on three levels. First, that the students felt comfortable enough to approach me with a concern, second that we were able to discuss and resolve the issue all in Tetum and finally, it was just so cool to see how excited they were that they could continue with the program. Man, I love my job.
The other day I was gathering some information on the students such as name, birthdate, place of birth et cetera when I noticed that many of the students that I had gathered the same information from a couple weeks previously had given me different birthdates. Approximately 80 percent of the students that I asked for the second time about their birthdate, gave me a significantly different number (one of them said they were born in 1970). I asked one of my coworkers about this and he said that it happens when the parents are illiterate, and as our program targets agricultural students, most of the children have parents that come from the lowest income farming class and therefore aren't very well educated.
Yesterday as I was biking home from work in the sweltering heat I was shocked to hear "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" blaring from one of the street shops. December has arrived and TL has gotten the Christmas bug. Stores have giant Santa Clauses pasted to their windows, Christmas lights are starting to be put up and all the shops are playing their christmas tunes, all the while people are sweating buckets in the humidity and reapplying sunscrean.
My dad is coming on Saturday! Yayayayay!!!!
much love,
mariesa
After waiting about 30 minutes a giant bis with "SOCRATES" written across the front windshield and a seductive picture of Avril Lavine across the back pulled up and my university friends and myself quickly jumped on. I soon learned that the number of seats on the bis was no indication whatsoever of how many people, chickens, goats and other items our bis would be transporting. The bis idled for over an hour as more and more people somehow found room to climb in and a combination of animals and baggage was strapped on the roof. Shortly after seating myself next to a lovely lady, I found myself next to 40 other lovely people and their most prized Dili-worthy poultry. There was a rooster perched next to me, a chicken under my seat, and I was soon handed one to hold in my lap while more luggage, firewood, humans and livestock were loaded onto this bis. At one point I offered my seat to a little old "tia" (auntie) and ended up having to stand on one leg and gripping a rooster for balance as our bis served around the mountain hairpin corners, there just wasn't room for both my feet on the floor.
I've learned that the best way to make friends in situations like these is to start offering gum and candy to my fellow travellers and complementing them on the grandeur of their respective roosters. Roosters are the most well fed animals in TL as they are often raised as pets and then thrown into a cock fighting ring where they either meet a gruesome death or bring home loot for their owner.
As we approached our end destination one of the men in charge wearing an “i'm lovin' it” McDonald's t-shirt, crowd-surfed his way from the back to the front of the bis collecting fair. The people sitting at the time coughed up $4 while the people crouching, standing, balancing, or hanging out the doorway were only expected to pay $2. There's nothing like being squished on a bis with 40 fellow travellers and their wordily possessions for four hours of narrow, cliff hanger roads to make good friendships. It was certainly a highlight of my travels.
On another note, if I were to designe an Olympics where the people of TL would win all gold I would have the following events:
Staring contest
Coconut tree climbing
Basket weaving
Spear fishing (while swimming!)
Midwife-ing
I would NOT have:
Race walk
It's interesting to think about how new problems are delt with in a traditional manner. For example, all the littering problems that come with mass amounts of imported water bottles and snack food. This could in part be because when things were wrapped in palm branches or coconut leafs the wrapping could be simply dropped to the ground and nature would take care of itself. However, people have continued to do the same with plastic wrapping and I wonder if that's because the social sigma around littering hasn't had as much time to develop.
I had a break through moment last week in the districts with some of our agribusiness students. There was some confusion about the price of the program. Some of the students were told that it was $17 per month, some thought it was $12 and some believed that it was only $5. When they approached me I knew they were seriously concerned. They all gathered around me looking very solumn and one of them in the middle put his hands together in a prayer like fashion, bowed slighly and explained to me the problem. Once I heard them out I was able to sort through the confusion and inform them that it was actually only $5. They're excitement at the news was awesome. They were high fiving, pumping their fists and cheering. I imagine I would have lost half the students if the price was $12 or more per month. For me this was a break through experience on three levels. First, that the students felt comfortable enough to approach me with a concern, second that we were able to discuss and resolve the issue all in Tetum and finally, it was just so cool to see how excited they were that they could continue with the program. Man, I love my job.
The other day I was gathering some information on the students such as name, birthdate, place of birth et cetera when I noticed that many of the students that I had gathered the same information from a couple weeks previously had given me different birthdates. Approximately 80 percent of the students that I asked for the second time about their birthdate, gave me a significantly different number (one of them said they were born in 1970). I asked one of my coworkers about this and he said that it happens when the parents are illiterate, and as our program targets agricultural students, most of the children have parents that come from the lowest income farming class and therefore aren't very well educated.
Yesterday as I was biking home from work in the sweltering heat I was shocked to hear "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" blaring from one of the street shops. December has arrived and TL has gotten the Christmas bug. Stores have giant Santa Clauses pasted to their windows, Christmas lights are starting to be put up and all the shops are playing their christmas tunes, all the while people are sweating buckets in the humidity and reapplying sunscrean.
My dad is coming on Saturday! Yayayayay!!!!
much love,
mariesa
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
condoms and graffiti
November 2, 2009
The “Did You Know” list must be amended:
58. The Timorese consider it polite to ask “ita ba ne'be?” when they see you. This translates to “where are you going?” Therefore, an international walking down the street will often get asked by stranger, “Mister! Mister! Where are you going?” I usually respond: “La hatene” (“I don't know”)
59. None of the houses in TL have addresses. And there are very very few street signs and the streets that are marked are more often referred to by a completely different name. The best way to give directions in TL is to refer to common land marks, for example, “Turn left at the giant Jesus statue, if you reached the fish stalls you've gone too far.”
60. The TL is on the American dollar.
61. TL has two independence day holidays. One celebrating the short lived independence of 1975 (in May) and another celebrating the current independence of 1999 (at the end of August).
Here are a few other interesting items I've noticed:
After 1999 TL wanted to change its currency from the Indonesian rupiah. For the next two years the money system was very complicated as people used Indonesian, Australian, Portuguese and American dollars. In stores items would often have four different prices on them. The Portuguese and Australian dollars were the first to drop off, followed by the Indonesian rupiah. Currently TL used American cash but has its own coins.
I've found it interesting that the two major Catholic countries in South East Asia (TL and the Philippines) are also the two countries that eat with knifes, forks and spoons. This is just a thought that I have been mulling over.
I have now seen one midget and two albinos in TL. I still haven't seen any special needs children.
I was also wondering about illegal drug issues in TL. I've heard that cocaine is a problem in brothels and that people do smoke marijuana (although I haven't smelt any yet). Apparently drugs were a much bigger problem during the crises of 1999 and 2006 when there were military and gang wars.
Glasses? No one wears glasses. I have only seen about 10 people in 4 months of living here wearing glasses. All of these people have been elderly. I imagine the elderly people who have glasses have them from the Indonesian or Portuguese occupations. None of the nationals wear contacts, contact solution isn't even sold in TL.
Spreading information in the districts is mostly done by radio broadcasting or bulletins at the local church. No TV. No newspapers. No billboards. There is a newspaper that circulates around Dili that has articles in Tetum, English and Bahasa Indonesian. However, I have heard that less than 4 percent of the population reads the newspaper.
Last weekend we were in the districts trying to recruit students for our agricultural program. In two of the major districts the radio system was broken. The best way of letting the local communities know about our program was putting up fliers at the local church, asking the local priest to make an announcement about our program and then giving the church a donation. The second best way is to just talk out program up with local groups of people hanging out around town having a cigarette. The cool part is that it has worked, we've had a number of students sign up from those districts that we've visited.
Oddly enough I have seen beautiful new “School Zone” and “Bridge Ahead” signs out in the heart of ET where there is certainly no English speakers… who was the brains behind that idea?
I have also seen graffiti that said: “F*CK OOF”, which I thought was pretty funny.
I saw a used condom on the sidewalk: Usually I would think, “that’s gross” but now think, “wow someone used birth control, great.”
The price of food in the market is directly correlated with their quantity (Ah! Basic economics!). Although this is a fairly obvious fact, it goes to show how fresh I'm getting my vegetables when I can't buy cucumbers because, well, cucumbers aren't growing now.
“The closer I get to the Timorese, the further I realize I am from understanding them”. This is what a Father who has been living in TL for 40 years said. At first I thought this statement was silly and counter intuitive, but now I'm slowly realizing how true it is. In the beginning when I first arrived I thought that I was becoming more and more intimate with the Timorese and their culture. Now that I've been here a while I realize that the the more I learn about their culture, the more I realize I don't understand – and will probably never understand. I suppose having cultural secrets is a clever way of keeping a culture alive, especially when there is so much Western influence within TL. It allows for the people to maintain a unique identity.
This one's for my dad:
Getting a loan in TL: There are no banks in the districts, and often the local people have no ownership certificates for their homes, therefore cannot put up any corralteral to make a bank loan. As a consequence micro finance NGOs have a system where they start by giving small loans and slowly increase the loan amount so long as the borrower continues to make timely payments. This way people can build their credit and borrow larger and larger sums without the enticial collatoral. It helps to keep in mind that because villages are so small, the microfinancers usually have a fairly good idea who will be able to pay back their loans with interest and who is going to have to continue borrowing from family.
I find it so interesting how people without a lot of money spend what money they have. For the Timorese, weddings and funerals are extremely important affairs.
Funerals: Everyone is invited to a funeral. If I was invited to a funeral, my family would be expected to provide something for the family whose member past away. For example, I would give the deceased person's family a pig from my family. The deceased person's family would then record what my family gave so that they could give back one third of the value of our gift (perhaps a third of a pig or a small goat).
After the funeral the family is expected to put flowers on the grave everyday for a week, every week for a month, every month for a year, then annually. The family wears black for 1 year if someone young has died, but only has to wear black for 6 months when someone old has died. It's interesting that funerals are big events and birthdays are not. I was talking with one of my coworkers and he said that deaths are more celebrated than births because your ancestors will take care of you if you treat them well in death.
I'm writing this part a few days later: I just spent the weekend celebrating the All Saints and All Souls festival with one of my coworkers and his family. I have a correction: although the Timorese believe that if they take care of their ancestors their ancestors will take care of them, by pooling together and going through the extensive (and often very expensive) mourning process as a family, they are actually taking care of each other.
Wedding are also huge events. I mean HUGE. Last weekend I attended a wedding of a middle class Timorese couple. Once again, everyone is invited to the event. I was invited by a coworker who didn't even know the bride's name. At the reception there were about 500 people, all of whom were fed dinner. The cake was ten layers, the bride's dress was white and beautiful, the groom was wearing a three piece white suit complete with a baby blue vest and white gloves. The guests were dressed to the nines. And all the guests received a small gift when the entered. The amazing thing is that this was completely the norm. My coworker estimated the cost at $20,000. In all likelihood the families will be paying for it for the rest of their lives but it's considered money well spent because being able to throw a party like that is a status symbol.
The dancing at the wedding deserves a special mention. As a lady I sat at the side of the dancing floor with my hands in my lap. The band would start playing and a man would walk across the dance floor – making no eye contact – approach... approach... then suddenly look up and peg his dance victim with a stare and extended hand. If it happened to be me (and once they released that the 'malae' could dance, it often was) then off we went, two-stepping across the dance floor with the other couples. After the song was over, we would briefly nod thank you, and then return to our seats. Only to have the whole process start again.
Interestingly, for all extensive purposes the couple that got married were pretty much married before they threw the huge bash. Many couples that get married already having been living together and already have a small family before they actually say the vows.
NB: For traditional ceremonies, such as a wedding, often the groom’s family will give the bride’s family a buffalo and in return the bride's family will give the groom’s family a pig. However, in these traditional exchanges buffalo and other animals can be substituted by money, however the party that is responsible for giving a pig must give a pig.
In sum: Give buffalo/money = ALWAYS pig
This exchange is no joke. Our driver was all set to get married to a woman whom he had already started a family with (they have a young boy). The wedding was planned to be at the end of October (I even knew what I was going to wear). But then one week before the big event, word got out that it was called off because the bride's family wanted our driver's family to give a buffalo, but his family was only prepared to give a goat and some beer. Now... well lets just say, the relationship is on the rocks.
Traditional bride negotiations: Grooms family comes over to the bride’s family’s home and then men sit together and discuss the barlaki, or the price of the bride. The men are the only ones allowed to talk although many guests are invited to attend the discussions. The discussions are very serious and men bargain by putting something similar to poker chips on the table. The groom cannot be apart of the discussions and neither can the bride. They are not even allowed to listen. Often in the districts these negotiations take days. And after each day of negotiating all the guests are provided with dinner.
Back to employment in ET:
I have a coworker that has spoken with some students who have told her that they do not want to get a job because if they start earning an income their family members will ask them for all of their money. So in order for them to keep their earnings they either have to lie to their family or move out of the country.
School is starting soon! The students will be arriving on November 9th which is really exciting because the students have had an extended holiday this summer because this year the government decided to switch to the southern hemisphere calender. Therefore, the students have been out of school for almost 4 months now.
One of the challenges that we have had with the schools is the lack books for the students. Rather, the lack of access to books for the students. In two of our schools there are quite good libraries that are stacked with books on agriculture, however, whenever one of the LOL staff go to the schools and ask for the library to be open, no on ever seems to know where the key is. The issue seems to be that the teachers are afraid that if they open the library the students will steal the books. Therefore, all the books are locked behind a door and none of the students get to use them. This is very frustrating, and certainly something that we're going to work on for this year.
MUCH LOVE,
m
The “Did You Know” list must be amended:
58. The Timorese consider it polite to ask “ita ba ne'be?” when they see you. This translates to “where are you going?” Therefore, an international walking down the street will often get asked by stranger, “Mister! Mister! Where are you going?” I usually respond: “La hatene” (“I don't know”)
59. None of the houses in TL have addresses. And there are very very few street signs and the streets that are marked are more often referred to by a completely different name. The best way to give directions in TL is to refer to common land marks, for example, “Turn left at the giant Jesus statue, if you reached the fish stalls you've gone too far.”
60. The TL is on the American dollar.
61. TL has two independence day holidays. One celebrating the short lived independence of 1975 (in May) and another celebrating the current independence of 1999 (at the end of August).
Here are a few other interesting items I've noticed:
After 1999 TL wanted to change its currency from the Indonesian rupiah. For the next two years the money system was very complicated as people used Indonesian, Australian, Portuguese and American dollars. In stores items would often have four different prices on them. The Portuguese and Australian dollars were the first to drop off, followed by the Indonesian rupiah. Currently TL used American cash but has its own coins.
I've found it interesting that the two major Catholic countries in South East Asia (TL and the Philippines) are also the two countries that eat with knifes, forks and spoons. This is just a thought that I have been mulling over.
I have now seen one midget and two albinos in TL. I still haven't seen any special needs children.
I was also wondering about illegal drug issues in TL. I've heard that cocaine is a problem in brothels and that people do smoke marijuana (although I haven't smelt any yet). Apparently drugs were a much bigger problem during the crises of 1999 and 2006 when there were military and gang wars.
Glasses? No one wears glasses. I have only seen about 10 people in 4 months of living here wearing glasses. All of these people have been elderly. I imagine the elderly people who have glasses have them from the Indonesian or Portuguese occupations. None of the nationals wear contacts, contact solution isn't even sold in TL.
Spreading information in the districts is mostly done by radio broadcasting or bulletins at the local church. No TV. No newspapers. No billboards. There is a newspaper that circulates around Dili that has articles in Tetum, English and Bahasa Indonesian. However, I have heard that less than 4 percent of the population reads the newspaper.
Last weekend we were in the districts trying to recruit students for our agricultural program. In two of the major districts the radio system was broken. The best way of letting the local communities know about our program was putting up fliers at the local church, asking the local priest to make an announcement about our program and then giving the church a donation. The second best way is to just talk out program up with local groups of people hanging out around town having a cigarette. The cool part is that it has worked, we've had a number of students sign up from those districts that we've visited.
Oddly enough I have seen beautiful new “School Zone” and “Bridge Ahead” signs out in the heart of ET where there is certainly no English speakers… who was the brains behind that idea?
I have also seen graffiti that said: “F*CK OOF”, which I thought was pretty funny.
I saw a used condom on the sidewalk: Usually I would think, “that’s gross” but now think, “wow someone used birth control, great.”
The price of food in the market is directly correlated with their quantity (Ah! Basic economics!). Although this is a fairly obvious fact, it goes to show how fresh I'm getting my vegetables when I can't buy cucumbers because, well, cucumbers aren't growing now.
“The closer I get to the Timorese, the further I realize I am from understanding them”. This is what a Father who has been living in TL for 40 years said. At first I thought this statement was silly and counter intuitive, but now I'm slowly realizing how true it is. In the beginning when I first arrived I thought that I was becoming more and more intimate with the Timorese and their culture. Now that I've been here a while I realize that the the more I learn about their culture, the more I realize I don't understand – and will probably never understand. I suppose having cultural secrets is a clever way of keeping a culture alive, especially when there is so much Western influence within TL. It allows for the people to maintain a unique identity.
This one's for my dad:
Getting a loan in TL: There are no banks in the districts, and often the local people have no ownership certificates for their homes, therefore cannot put up any corralteral to make a bank loan. As a consequence micro finance NGOs have a system where they start by giving small loans and slowly increase the loan amount so long as the borrower continues to make timely payments. This way people can build their credit and borrow larger and larger sums without the enticial collatoral. It helps to keep in mind that because villages are so small, the microfinancers usually have a fairly good idea who will be able to pay back their loans with interest and who is going to have to continue borrowing from family.
I find it so interesting how people without a lot of money spend what money they have. For the Timorese, weddings and funerals are extremely important affairs.
Funerals: Everyone is invited to a funeral. If I was invited to a funeral, my family would be expected to provide something for the family whose member past away. For example, I would give the deceased person's family a pig from my family. The deceased person's family would then record what my family gave so that they could give back one third of the value of our gift (perhaps a third of a pig or a small goat).
After the funeral the family is expected to put flowers on the grave everyday for a week, every week for a month, every month for a year, then annually. The family wears black for 1 year if someone young has died, but only has to wear black for 6 months when someone old has died. It's interesting that funerals are big events and birthdays are not. I was talking with one of my coworkers and he said that deaths are more celebrated than births because your ancestors will take care of you if you treat them well in death.
I'm writing this part a few days later: I just spent the weekend celebrating the All Saints and All Souls festival with one of my coworkers and his family. I have a correction: although the Timorese believe that if they take care of their ancestors their ancestors will take care of them, by pooling together and going through the extensive (and often very expensive) mourning process as a family, they are actually taking care of each other.
Wedding are also huge events. I mean HUGE. Last weekend I attended a wedding of a middle class Timorese couple. Once again, everyone is invited to the event. I was invited by a coworker who didn't even know the bride's name. At the reception there were about 500 people, all of whom were fed dinner. The cake was ten layers, the bride's dress was white and beautiful, the groom was wearing a three piece white suit complete with a baby blue vest and white gloves. The guests were dressed to the nines. And all the guests received a small gift when the entered. The amazing thing is that this was completely the norm. My coworker estimated the cost at $20,000. In all likelihood the families will be paying for it for the rest of their lives but it's considered money well spent because being able to throw a party like that is a status symbol.
The dancing at the wedding deserves a special mention. As a lady I sat at the side of the dancing floor with my hands in my lap. The band would start playing and a man would walk across the dance floor – making no eye contact – approach... approach... then suddenly look up and peg his dance victim with a stare and extended hand. If it happened to be me (and once they released that the 'malae' could dance, it often was) then off we went, two-stepping across the dance floor with the other couples. After the song was over, we would briefly nod thank you, and then return to our seats. Only to have the whole process start again.
Interestingly, for all extensive purposes the couple that got married were pretty much married before they threw the huge bash. Many couples that get married already having been living together and already have a small family before they actually say the vows.
NB: For traditional ceremonies, such as a wedding, often the groom’s family will give the bride’s family a buffalo and in return the bride's family will give the groom’s family a pig. However, in these traditional exchanges buffalo and other animals can be substituted by money, however the party that is responsible for giving a pig must give a pig.
In sum: Give buffalo/money = ALWAYS pig
This exchange is no joke. Our driver was all set to get married to a woman whom he had already started a family with (they have a young boy). The wedding was planned to be at the end of October (I even knew what I was going to wear). But then one week before the big event, word got out that it was called off because the bride's family wanted our driver's family to give a buffalo, but his family was only prepared to give a goat and some beer. Now... well lets just say, the relationship is on the rocks.
Traditional bride negotiations: Grooms family comes over to the bride’s family’s home and then men sit together and discuss the barlaki, or the price of the bride. The men are the only ones allowed to talk although many guests are invited to attend the discussions. The discussions are very serious and men bargain by putting something similar to poker chips on the table. The groom cannot be apart of the discussions and neither can the bride. They are not even allowed to listen. Often in the districts these negotiations take days. And after each day of negotiating all the guests are provided with dinner.
Back to employment in ET:
I have a coworker that has spoken with some students who have told her that they do not want to get a job because if they start earning an income their family members will ask them for all of their money. So in order for them to keep their earnings they either have to lie to their family or move out of the country.
School is starting soon! The students will be arriving on November 9th which is really exciting because the students have had an extended holiday this summer because this year the government decided to switch to the southern hemisphere calender. Therefore, the students have been out of school for almost 4 months now.
One of the challenges that we have had with the schools is the lack books for the students. Rather, the lack of access to books for the students. In two of our schools there are quite good libraries that are stacked with books on agriculture, however, whenever one of the LOL staff go to the schools and ask for the library to be open, no on ever seems to know where the key is. The issue seems to be that the teachers are afraid that if they open the library the students will steal the books. Therefore, all the books are locked behind a door and none of the students get to use them. This is very frustrating, and certainly something that we're going to work on for this year.
MUCH LOVE,
m
Friday, October 9, 2009
Now you know
Did you know that….
1. The price of gas in Dili is about 97 cents a litre
2. There are Pakistani UN soldiers guarding the road that the president lives on
3. Taxis don't run at night
4. There used to be electricity and telephones and paved roads in the districts during the Indonesian occupation but now there is not
5. People drive on the left hand side of the road
6. A pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream cost $17.00
7. In the countryside people don't fence in their livestock
8. If you hit someone while driving in your car you have to drive away as quickly as possible to the police station and send the police back to the accident so that the local people don't attack you in an attempt to deliver justice
9. The average number of children per family is 7
10. Average life expectancy is about 60 years old
11. You can buy almost anything in Dili, even Ben and Jerry's ice cream, because so much food is imported
12. Even the rice (which people eat for 2 meals a day) is imported
13. Even eggs (which are sold in the local markets) are mostly imported
14. Vegtables are not imported
15. You can buy 3 foot long green beans and they’re good!
16. There are 32 different dialects and languages spoken in ET alone
17. If you hit any animals (even a stray dog) while driving on the road you have to pay for it. For example, last week we hit a small dog and had to pay the nearest old lady $5.
18. It gets dark at about 7pm everyday throughout the year
19. There is one beach in Dili where many expats go and you can wear two piece swimsuits on most of the other beaches it is best to swear shorts and a t-shirt
20. There are traffic lights in Dili, I haven't seen any in the other small towns around ET.
21. After dark (around 7pm) the traffic lights only flash yellow for every direction
22. “Pulsa” is cell phone talking and texting minutes that are bought from venders on the side of the street in $1, $2, $5 and $10 amounts
23. The ‘Pulsa Venders’ assume that all malae (foreigners) are in desperate need of more pulsa
24. The Pulsa Venders hang out in packs and are aged anywhere from 7 to 45
Portuguese will be ET only official language soon. Although this decision makes little sense practically, it is a political decision
25. Timorese only have to pay taxes if they make over $500 a month. After that they are taxed at roughly ten percent of their income
26. It costs $30 a semester to go to UNTL, University National Timor Leste
In Dili there are Turkish, Nepalese, Japanese, American, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and many other different types of restaurants
27. Traditional houses in TL have thatched roofs and are raised about 5 feet off the ground on wooden legs (perhaps because of the flooding during rainy season)
28. ET has an enclave in WT which is Indonesia
29. There are 13 districts in ET, one of which, Oecusse, is the enclave in WT.
30. Many districts have distinct culture, traditions and languages
31. I type “TL” or “ET” because I don't want my blog posts to be picked up by the major list serve here
32. There are no beggars in TL
33. That local yell “Mister! Mister!” to foreigners as they are walking down the street, no matter the foreigner’s gender
34. The average speed of drivers on the road is approximately 20 m/hr, yet as soon as the traffic lights turn green horns start blaring and the car take off at snail’s pace
35. Many older Timorese women chew a form of nut (similar to beetle nut) that makes their teeth and mouths blood red
36. Most adolescent men have at least one outrageously creepy long finger nail (I’m talking two inches at least)
37. By the age of 11 all Timorese are considered adults
38. The UN has been in TL twice in the last ten years. The most recent mission started after the 2006 crisis and is schedule to depart by 2012
39. The 2006 crisis was a inter country conflict between the Eastern supported military and the Western support national police force
40. There isn’t any public transportation; however there are privately owned “microlettes” which are minibuses that drive around town on specific routes. A person can get on a microlette and get off a microlette where ever they want on route for 10 cents
41. That ‘cents’ are called ‘centivu’
42. Numbers from 1-10 are said in Tetum, numbers above 10 are said in Bahasa. And prices are always said in Bahasa Indonesian.
43. In some districts there is a “barlaki” which translates to “bride price”. This is the price a male has to pay his in laws when he wishes to marry.
44. The most expense barlaki is in the district of Los Palos where going price is 77 buffalo, a debt a man could end up paying for rest of his life
45. Some districts have the opposite of a barlaki, where the woman’s family has to pay their in laws. This complicates marriage that are between families from patriarchal and matriarchal districts
46. May 20th is the Timorese Independence Day.
47. This past August, TL celebrated their 10th anniversary of the referendum which was the democratic vote where 70 percent of the Timorese voted for independence
48. There was a 98 percent turn out for the 1999 referendum vote
49. After the results of the referendum vote instigated the 1999 violence
50. One of main roads in Dili is named “Hudi Laran” which mean “In Bananas” because either side of the road is lined with a forest of banana trees
51. There are two season in ET, rainy season (November – March), and dry season (April – October)
52. Approximately 98 percent of Timorese people are Catholic
53. The majority of Timorese believe in some sort of form of black magic
54. Rooster crow, dogs bark, baby cry at any odd hour at night and often all at once
55. If you don't wear a helmet while driving a motor bike you will be fined by the police
56. However, passengers don't have to wear helmets
October 7, 2009
Teacher quality is a huge problem in ET. One of the reasons is that to be qualified to teach a subject a person only has to have studied that subject in University. For example, I would be qualified to teach economic because I majored in economics in university. Therefore, although the teachers may understand the material, they are not necessarily good teachers. Furthermore, having a teacher with a university education is certainly the exception rather than the norm. Many of the 'teachers' at the agricultural high schools are simply students that have graduated from the program in previous years.
On the other hand, the life expectancy for Timorese is about 60 years old and the average age in TL is around 20. Therefore, not only is TL a young country, but it's population is also very young. As a consequence, youth are given the responsibilities that a middle aged North American would receive. For example, my best teachers were the ones with the most experience, most of which were over the age of 40. However, the minority of the population in ET is over the age of 40 and those that are the minority are most likely grandparents. I have to keep on reminding myself that the students that graduate from out program are approximately my age, and our expectations for these students is to go out and create small farming cooperatives and businesses, a task that I would find very daunting, even with a steller education.
The other challenge that our young graduates face is simply invisioning what their cooperative/agribusiness could be like. I have to remind myself that in North America we have people and stories like Bill Gates that shape our dreams, where as in TL (unless they have access to TV and movies) the youth look around and they see a lot small vegetable stands, a few private shops, many decrepid buildings, and most of the profitable stores and restaurants owned by internationals. I imagine that this can dampen the creativity and imagination needed for young entrepreneurals.
There are no beggers in TL. I have only seen one old lady who was once sitting on the steps to a shop, she wasn't begging, but I quitely took the money that I gave her. When I talked with my coworkers about this they told me that there is a lot of shame associated with begging and only old people who cannot do jobs such as selling fruit off of wagons or dusting off parked cars in exchange for a dollar, lower themselves to begging. However, just because there are no beggers, doesn't mean that there aren't people who desperately need money and are without a job. My coworker was telling me that he often gives money to people that he knows and asks him. It is expected that families support each other. I believe that all of my Timorese coworkers live with extended family and they are paying for their brothers' and sisters' education. The story that this reminds me of is about a Timorese man who opened a bar in Dili that was quite successful but he had a hard time making a profit because his family and extended family would walk behind the counter and take money out of the cash regrister. They did not believe that they were stealing, only taking what was also belonged to them.
On another note, the LOL USAID project recently had representatives from USAID in Washington come and evaluate our program. I believe that the evaluation went well and that the main concern was the quality of teachers for our program. I had an interesting conversation with the USAID representative who was telling me that most USAID projects get funding for 2- 5 years. This came as a surprise to me because one would think that after a couple of year a project would be most efficient and that in fact development projects should have longer term funding because development takes time. However, I was reminded that congress determines which projects USAID will fund and it's possible that after a couple of years they get tired of supplying money to one project. Therefore, in order for a USAID project such as LOL to get funding for more than 5 years the program has to keep on changing its 'pitch' to congress. For example, there is a coffee growing USAID funded NGO that is ten years old. However, during the last ten years it has broaden its focus from coffee plantation to cow fattening projects and other agricultural development. Although the expansion of the program is great, expansion doesn't necessarly mean that more people are help. What is more often the case is that the farmers who initicially received NGO assistance with coffee production are the same farmers that are receiving assistance with the cow fattening project (this project organises farmers to fatten their cattle and then export the cattle to West Timor, Indonesia). So there's a bit of a catch: for an NGO to continue to receive funding from USAID their pitch to congress has to have new bells and whistles. However, perhaps more local farmers may benefit if a project maintained a single focus for over 5 years rather than having fewer farmers continuing to benefit in different ways.
Although I doubt it's that black and white, I do find it very interesting that development projects usually only receive 2 years of funding with possible extension to 5 years when you would think that a program in it's fifth year would be a lot more effective than another new program.
As we were driving through the districts last week a coworker of mine pointed out a coffee bean planation. The coffee bean plants were very mature and it looked more like a forest than a farm. My coworker was telling me that the government had tried to convince the local farmers that production would increase if the farmers pruned their coffee bean plants. However, the farmers were not willing to do so because they could not afford to lose the year of production that would result from the pruning. I asked my boss why the farmers didn't just prune 25 percent of their crops over 4 years. He said that the farmers or the government officials may have just not thought of that or that maybe the farmers were so close to having nothing that they couldn't afford to lose a quarter of their crops even if it was only for a few years.
This is something interesting that occurs when a county changes its national language: as we were driving home, over the national radio station (which normally plays a variety of English and Bahasa Indonesian music) an audio language course came on. There was a lady's voice that would say something in Tetum and then a man's voice would repeat it in Portuguese and then there would be a pause for the listener to repeat the Portuguese out loud! So all over Timor for a couple of hours a day people are practicing Portuguese!
Finally, I got a small look into some of the traditional beliefs of the local Timorese when we were having lunch at a fish stand one afternoon. The family that own the fish stand was warning us not to swim in the ocean because there were crocodiles (TL is one of two places in the world where there are salt water crocodiles). She went on to tell us that not to long ago a man had killed a crocodile and they had to skin it and then wrapped its skin in black clothe and then through it into the ocean so that they would have rain this year. She was very serious and so cool to listen to.
Alright, I'm off!
mariesa
1. The price of gas in Dili is about 97 cents a litre
2. There are Pakistani UN soldiers guarding the road that the president lives on
3. Taxis don't run at night
4. There used to be electricity and telephones and paved roads in the districts during the Indonesian occupation but now there is not
5. People drive on the left hand side of the road
6. A pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream cost $17.00
7. In the countryside people don't fence in their livestock
8. If you hit someone while driving in your car you have to drive away as quickly as possible to the police station and send the police back to the accident so that the local people don't attack you in an attempt to deliver justice
9. The average number of children per family is 7
10. Average life expectancy is about 60 years old
11. You can buy almost anything in Dili, even Ben and Jerry's ice cream, because so much food is imported
12. Even the rice (which people eat for 2 meals a day) is imported
13. Even eggs (which are sold in the local markets) are mostly imported
14. Vegtables are not imported
15. You can buy 3 foot long green beans and they’re good!
16. There are 32 different dialects and languages spoken in ET alone
17. If you hit any animals (even a stray dog) while driving on the road you have to pay for it. For example, last week we hit a small dog and had to pay the nearest old lady $5.
18. It gets dark at about 7pm everyday throughout the year
19. There is one beach in Dili where many expats go and you can wear two piece swimsuits on most of the other beaches it is best to swear shorts and a t-shirt
20. There are traffic lights in Dili, I haven't seen any in the other small towns around ET.
21. After dark (around 7pm) the traffic lights only flash yellow for every direction
22. “Pulsa” is cell phone talking and texting minutes that are bought from venders on the side of the street in $1, $2, $5 and $10 amounts
23. The ‘Pulsa Venders’ assume that all malae (foreigners) are in desperate need of more pulsa
24. The Pulsa Venders hang out in packs and are aged anywhere from 7 to 45
Portuguese will be ET only official language soon. Although this decision makes little sense practically, it is a political decision
25. Timorese only have to pay taxes if they make over $500 a month. After that they are taxed at roughly ten percent of their income
26. It costs $30 a semester to go to UNTL, University National Timor Leste
In Dili there are Turkish, Nepalese, Japanese, American, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and many other different types of restaurants
27. Traditional houses in TL have thatched roofs and are raised about 5 feet off the ground on wooden legs (perhaps because of the flooding during rainy season)
28. ET has an enclave in WT which is Indonesia
29. There are 13 districts in ET, one of which, Oecusse, is the enclave in WT.
30. Many districts have distinct culture, traditions and languages
31. I type “TL” or “ET” because I don't want my blog posts to be picked up by the major list serve here
32. There are no beggars in TL
33. That local yell “Mister! Mister!” to foreigners as they are walking down the street, no matter the foreigner’s gender
34. The average speed of drivers on the road is approximately 20 m/hr, yet as soon as the traffic lights turn green horns start blaring and the car take off at snail’s pace
35. Many older Timorese women chew a form of nut (similar to beetle nut) that makes their teeth and mouths blood red
36. Most adolescent men have at least one outrageously creepy long finger nail (I’m talking two inches at least)
37. By the age of 11 all Timorese are considered adults
38. The UN has been in TL twice in the last ten years. The most recent mission started after the 2006 crisis and is schedule to depart by 2012
39. The 2006 crisis was a inter country conflict between the Eastern supported military and the Western support national police force
40. There isn’t any public transportation; however there are privately owned “microlettes” which are minibuses that drive around town on specific routes. A person can get on a microlette and get off a microlette where ever they want on route for 10 cents
41. That ‘cents’ are called ‘centivu’
42. Numbers from 1-10 are said in Tetum, numbers above 10 are said in Bahasa. And prices are always said in Bahasa Indonesian.
43. In some districts there is a “barlaki” which translates to “bride price”. This is the price a male has to pay his in laws when he wishes to marry.
44. The most expense barlaki is in the district of Los Palos where going price is 77 buffalo, a debt a man could end up paying for rest of his life
45. Some districts have the opposite of a barlaki, where the woman’s family has to pay their in laws. This complicates marriage that are between families from patriarchal and matriarchal districts
46. May 20th is the Timorese Independence Day.
47. This past August, TL celebrated their 10th anniversary of the referendum which was the democratic vote where 70 percent of the Timorese voted for independence
48. There was a 98 percent turn out for the 1999 referendum vote
49. After the results of the referendum vote instigated the 1999 violence
50. One of main roads in Dili is named “Hudi Laran” which mean “In Bananas” because either side of the road is lined with a forest of banana trees
51. There are two season in ET, rainy season (November – March), and dry season (April – October)
52. Approximately 98 percent of Timorese people are Catholic
53. The majority of Timorese believe in some sort of form of black magic
54. Rooster crow, dogs bark, baby cry at any odd hour at night and often all at once
55. If you don't wear a helmet while driving a motor bike you will be fined by the police
56. However, passengers don't have to wear helmets
October 7, 2009
Teacher quality is a huge problem in ET. One of the reasons is that to be qualified to teach a subject a person only has to have studied that subject in University. For example, I would be qualified to teach economic because I majored in economics in university. Therefore, although the teachers may understand the material, they are not necessarily good teachers. Furthermore, having a teacher with a university education is certainly the exception rather than the norm. Many of the 'teachers' at the agricultural high schools are simply students that have graduated from the program in previous years.
On the other hand, the life expectancy for Timorese is about 60 years old and the average age in TL is around 20. Therefore, not only is TL a young country, but it's population is also very young. As a consequence, youth are given the responsibilities that a middle aged North American would receive. For example, my best teachers were the ones with the most experience, most of which were over the age of 40. However, the minority of the population in ET is over the age of 40 and those that are the minority are most likely grandparents. I have to keep on reminding myself that the students that graduate from out program are approximately my age, and our expectations for these students is to go out and create small farming cooperatives and businesses, a task that I would find very daunting, even with a steller education.
The other challenge that our young graduates face is simply invisioning what their cooperative/agribusiness could be like. I have to remind myself that in North America we have people and stories like Bill Gates that shape our dreams, where as in TL (unless they have access to TV and movies) the youth look around and they see a lot small vegetable stands, a few private shops, many decrepid buildings, and most of the profitable stores and restaurants owned by internationals. I imagine that this can dampen the creativity and imagination needed for young entrepreneurals.
There are no beggers in TL. I have only seen one old lady who was once sitting on the steps to a shop, she wasn't begging, but I quitely took the money that I gave her. When I talked with my coworkers about this they told me that there is a lot of shame associated with begging and only old people who cannot do jobs such as selling fruit off of wagons or dusting off parked cars in exchange for a dollar, lower themselves to begging. However, just because there are no beggers, doesn't mean that there aren't people who desperately need money and are without a job. My coworker was telling me that he often gives money to people that he knows and asks him. It is expected that families support each other. I believe that all of my Timorese coworkers live with extended family and they are paying for their brothers' and sisters' education. The story that this reminds me of is about a Timorese man who opened a bar in Dili that was quite successful but he had a hard time making a profit because his family and extended family would walk behind the counter and take money out of the cash regrister. They did not believe that they were stealing, only taking what was also belonged to them.
On another note, the LOL USAID project recently had representatives from USAID in Washington come and evaluate our program. I believe that the evaluation went well and that the main concern was the quality of teachers for our program. I had an interesting conversation with the USAID representative who was telling me that most USAID projects get funding for 2- 5 years. This came as a surprise to me because one would think that after a couple of year a project would be most efficient and that in fact development projects should have longer term funding because development takes time. However, I was reminded that congress determines which projects USAID will fund and it's possible that after a couple of years they get tired of supplying money to one project. Therefore, in order for a USAID project such as LOL to get funding for more than 5 years the program has to keep on changing its 'pitch' to congress. For example, there is a coffee growing USAID funded NGO that is ten years old. However, during the last ten years it has broaden its focus from coffee plantation to cow fattening projects and other agricultural development. Although the expansion of the program is great, expansion doesn't necessarly mean that more people are help. What is more often the case is that the farmers who initicially received NGO assistance with coffee production are the same farmers that are receiving assistance with the cow fattening project (this project organises farmers to fatten their cattle and then export the cattle to West Timor, Indonesia). So there's a bit of a catch: for an NGO to continue to receive funding from USAID their pitch to congress has to have new bells and whistles. However, perhaps more local farmers may benefit if a project maintained a single focus for over 5 years rather than having fewer farmers continuing to benefit in different ways.
Although I doubt it's that black and white, I do find it very interesting that development projects usually only receive 2 years of funding with possible extension to 5 years when you would think that a program in it's fifth year would be a lot more effective than another new program.
As we were driving through the districts last week a coworker of mine pointed out a coffee bean planation. The coffee bean plants were very mature and it looked more like a forest than a farm. My coworker was telling me that the government had tried to convince the local farmers that production would increase if the farmers pruned their coffee bean plants. However, the farmers were not willing to do so because they could not afford to lose the year of production that would result from the pruning. I asked my boss why the farmers didn't just prune 25 percent of their crops over 4 years. He said that the farmers or the government officials may have just not thought of that or that maybe the farmers were so close to having nothing that they couldn't afford to lose a quarter of their crops even if it was only for a few years.
This is something interesting that occurs when a county changes its national language: as we were driving home, over the national radio station (which normally plays a variety of English and Bahasa Indonesian music) an audio language course came on. There was a lady's voice that would say something in Tetum and then a man's voice would repeat it in Portuguese and then there would be a pause for the listener to repeat the Portuguese out loud! So all over Timor for a couple of hours a day people are practicing Portuguese!
Finally, I got a small look into some of the traditional beliefs of the local Timorese when we were having lunch at a fish stand one afternoon. The family that own the fish stand was warning us not to swim in the ocean because there were crocodiles (TL is one of two places in the world where there are salt water crocodiles). She went on to tell us that not to long ago a man had killed a crocodile and they had to skin it and then wrapped its skin in black clothe and then through it into the ocean so that they would have rain this year. She was very serious and so cool to listen to.
Alright, I'm off!
mariesa
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Black Stallion
September 13, 2009 Sunday 9:27pm
I just had a wonderful week in the districts. I was suppose to helping with the student registration in Fuiloro but the Fathers decided that I would be more use teaching English to the masses of local children (and indeed, I wasn’t need for registration as the turn out was quite low). Thank goodness I had classroom experience from China to call upon, I used every trick in the book and really had a fulfilling week teaching English, learning tetum, and hanging out with the Fathers and local students.
The other day I noticed that when people are filling their car tanks up with gas they often rock the car. I asked a coworker why they did this and was told that they rock the car because they think that filling up the tank with gas is similar to filling up the tank with gravel or grain. When a person is filling up a bucket of gravel they shake the bucket to let the gravel settle so that they can get more in. Of course, gas is liquid therefore there is no need to settle the gas in the tank so the rocking is pointless. I wonder if there may be other reasons why they rock the cars when they are filling them up with gas because this reason really surprised me.
At school we had a wonderful debate among the student about “barlaki”. Barlaki translates to 'bride price’; it is the price a man has to pay his bride's family when he marries her. In the district of Los Palos, the barlaki is traditionally the most expensive. A man has to give the family of his potential wife 77 buffalo! Barlaki negotiations involve the entire family and often the price demanded by the bride's family is so high that couples can't afford to marry so just live together and have a family until they can save enough money (or buffalo) to be married. Once a man agrees to marry a woman for a certain price he can spend the rest of his life in debt to her family. This happens in matriarchal districts, the confusion increases when a woman from a matriarchal district marries a man from a patriarchal district (because then it's the other way around and the woman must buy into the man's family). Although most of ET is matriarchal, there are a few districts that are patriarchal. One of my coworkers has been living with a lady for quite sometime but cannot marry her because her family's barlaki price is too high (they believe that he can pay a lot because he works for an international organization). As a consequence he cannot marry her until the price decreases (perhaps as his bride-to-be ages her barlaki decreases). Both sides of the students' debate brought up interesting points. One student said that the barlaki fosters domestic violence as the husband can claim that he's not beating his wife, but the buffalo with which he paid for her.
The students had to make presentations on a short essay that they had written and then be prepared to answer questions from the class. One of the boys in the class called me over during a presentation and asked me to proof read his essay. His essay was titled, “How to Attack a Girl”. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only did this boy have the gull to call me over to proof read an essay on attacking women, but he also had a fellow female student leaning over his shoulder helping him write it. When I quickly snatched the paper from his desk and started about the importance of style and brains in choppy English, I suddenly realized that it wasn’t an essay about ‘attacking’ women rather, it was intended to be an essay about ‘attracting’ women! My darling student was preparing a presentation on ‘How to Attract a Girl”!
I was reminded once again of the importance placed on hierarchy in the TL society when I accidently wandered into lunch two minutes late. I had been told that lunch was in the mess hall at 1 o’clock and that all the student would be there eager to spend the time practicing their English with me. On my walk over to the mess hall I got a little confused and ended up getting slightly lost. I wandered into the hall a few minutes after 1 o’clock looking slightly confused. My confusion was then compounded by the arousing applause that I received from approximately 40 students that stood up to welcome me to lunch. The food was all layed out on a table in the middle of the hall but no one had touched it yet as I (the honoured English speaking malae) had not yet arrived to serve herself first. Couple with my confusion (it feels a little out of the ordinary to wander around lost looking for a dining hall and then to be greeted by a standing ovation when randomly entering one of the campus buildings) was the feeling of embarrassment as I had kept all the hungry students waiting on their lunch. As soon as I had served myself there was a rush as all the students scrambled up to fill their dishes. Needless to say, for the rest of the week I made sure I was 10 minutes early to the most important appointment of the day.
I had another wonderful memory of my week in Fuiloro. This is perhaps my favorite memory of TL thus far. After class everyday I would go for a run down a dirt road that went through the school’s cattle fields and out to neighbouring villages. As I ran down the road student who were walking home would wait for me to pass on the side of the road. Without saying a word they would join me on my run and follow along behind me. At one point I probably had 20 students thumping along behind me with their notebooks and sandals flapping about. I had to chuckle to myself as I saw our silhouette over the fields, it reminded me of the scene in Forest Gump where he’s running across the country and people are just joining in for no real reason at all.
Last weekend I went for a wonder run with an Australian friend of mine. She has been living in ET for a while now and is working with an organization that is helping create the new land law. Land ownership is a seriously complicated ordeal here. As I had previously mentioned there are issue with traditional ownership of land and ownership transfers during the Indonesian occupation. And to further complicate matters, in the last 10 years there have been two occasions where people have fled their homes to live in IDP camps. Although I am still very confused about the land title procedure, I was enlightened about some other questions I had about ET.
First, I was wondering why in 1975 Indonesia was so intent on taking control of ET. Apparently this had something to do with the fact that Australia had just given up Papa New Guinea and ET had just gain independence from Portugal. Rumor has it that the Indonesian government wasn’t keen on any of the boisterous islands that made up its territory to start thinking along the same independent lines. Thus to illustrate its strength and intolerance to any disloyalty to the Indonesian government, the Indonesian military was told to invade the then independent ET (there was about a 3 month window of ET independence between Portugal’s rein and Indonesia’s in 1975).
Prior to Indonesia’s occupation the ET population lived in the mountains, above the malaria line. They lived in small villages self sustaining villages and ate mostly mais, cassava and sweet potato, rather than rice. After Indonesia took over, the population was forced to move down to the valleys where they could be controlled and better organized. Furthermore, propaganda was used to change the diet of the ET people so that they ate more rice. Propaganda such as, “Only the uneducated don’t eat rice”. In addition to not having the correct temperate to grow rice in the quantities needed, having all the people living together on the flat land, rather than in smaller communities in the mountains, made it difficult for sufficient food production. Moreover, because ET is in a ‘rain shadow’ and thus doesn’t get as much rain as other Asian countries, in order for the people to eat mass amounts of rice they had to become dependant upon Indonesian imports.
There was also mass deforestation during the Indonesian occupation as the Indonesian military would burn forests in order to prevent people from sneaking away to provide the resistance movement with supplies. There are different feelings about the Indonesian occupation depending on whom you talk to. This past week I was travelling with two coworkers who reflected fondly on the Indonesian times. They both said that they had good jobs (although one of them is a native of Indonesia, thus he would have received benefits natives of ET would not have) and that the roads were better, small villages in the districts had electricity (now there remains only the telephone polls without any electrical cord) and that more money was spread over ET into the districts rather than all the government spending in the capital city. Currently, the government seems to have been giving the capital all its attention rather than making improvements and creating employment out in the districts. Although both of my coworkers spoke longingly of the Indonesian days, they told me that they had both voted for independence during the 1999 referendum. “Independence is better, and we are making progress” they argued as our truck drove along a semi paved road in the jet black night.
My running partner also made the interesting point that a county of 1 million was able to defeat a country of 200 million which also had the support of the United States. She said that everyone contributed towards the resistance movement in whatever way they could. In such a small country, the lines where drawn in the sand, you were either for the resistance moment or against, there wasn’t much room in the middle and everyone knew where you stood.
On another note, I have two animal stories. I saw my first cock flight the other day in Fuiloro. Well, I didn’t actually see the roosters fighting, I didn’t particularly want to, but there was a huge crowd of men in the middle of a field by the side of the road. Around the crowd of men there were dozens of roosters tied up waiting for their turn to flight. The roosters have large sharpened talons attached to their feet and are trained to fight to the death. What I find particularly sad is that the roosters aren’t just birds to the ET men, they become what a pet dog would be to someone in North America. The roosters become companions more than anything else. These birds are cared for, trained, groomed and cherished by their owners until they are put in a ring and expected to fight for their lives. It sad for me to think that in addition to the bird losing its life, the ET man loses his pet.
I also saw a real horse the other day. A real live big horse! This shocked me so much because besides this one incident all I have ever seen are small rugged ponies. I don’t even think this horse was all that impressive on the whole, but to me he looked like the Black Stallion. It’s amazing how magnificent he looked in comparison to all the other small packer ponies. I was in love instantly.
The children here are simply the best. Just this past week when my two coworkers and I were in Suai we went to dinner at one of my coworker’s friend house. It was a small little shack in the middle of a farmer’s field. We only had a candle to light our faces as we all chatted and I played with the children. There were millions of stars in the sky and besides the 10 foot radius of candle light, the scenery was pitch black. But what I love about the children is how beautiful they are and how quickly they smile. Although there was a little bit of a language barrier, we were quickly all laughing and giggling during a game of hide and go seek and then laying out on the grass with out heads together staring up at the stars. It was a wonder meal and another one of those special moments where I feel like I get to taste the real ET culture. What fantastic people!
I just had a wonderful week in the districts. I was suppose to helping with the student registration in Fuiloro but the Fathers decided that I would be more use teaching English to the masses of local children (and indeed, I wasn’t need for registration as the turn out was quite low). Thank goodness I had classroom experience from China to call upon, I used every trick in the book and really had a fulfilling week teaching English, learning tetum, and hanging out with the Fathers and local students.
The other day I noticed that when people are filling their car tanks up with gas they often rock the car. I asked a coworker why they did this and was told that they rock the car because they think that filling up the tank with gas is similar to filling up the tank with gravel or grain. When a person is filling up a bucket of gravel they shake the bucket to let the gravel settle so that they can get more in. Of course, gas is liquid therefore there is no need to settle the gas in the tank so the rocking is pointless. I wonder if there may be other reasons why they rock the cars when they are filling them up with gas because this reason really surprised me.
At school we had a wonderful debate among the student about “barlaki”. Barlaki translates to 'bride price’; it is the price a man has to pay his bride's family when he marries her. In the district of Los Palos, the barlaki is traditionally the most expensive. A man has to give the family of his potential wife 77 buffalo! Barlaki negotiations involve the entire family and often the price demanded by the bride's family is so high that couples can't afford to marry so just live together and have a family until they can save enough money (or buffalo) to be married. Once a man agrees to marry a woman for a certain price he can spend the rest of his life in debt to her family. This happens in matriarchal districts, the confusion increases when a woman from a matriarchal district marries a man from a patriarchal district (because then it's the other way around and the woman must buy into the man's family). Although most of ET is matriarchal, there are a few districts that are patriarchal. One of my coworkers has been living with a lady for quite sometime but cannot marry her because her family's barlaki price is too high (they believe that he can pay a lot because he works for an international organization). As a consequence he cannot marry her until the price decreases (perhaps as his bride-to-be ages her barlaki decreases). Both sides of the students' debate brought up interesting points. One student said that the barlaki fosters domestic violence as the husband can claim that he's not beating his wife, but the buffalo with which he paid for her.
The students had to make presentations on a short essay that they had written and then be prepared to answer questions from the class. One of the boys in the class called me over during a presentation and asked me to proof read his essay. His essay was titled, “How to Attack a Girl”. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only did this boy have the gull to call me over to proof read an essay on attacking women, but he also had a fellow female student leaning over his shoulder helping him write it. When I quickly snatched the paper from his desk and started about the importance of style and brains in choppy English, I suddenly realized that it wasn’t an essay about ‘attacking’ women rather, it was intended to be an essay about ‘attracting’ women! My darling student was preparing a presentation on ‘How to Attract a Girl”!
I was reminded once again of the importance placed on hierarchy in the TL society when I accidently wandered into lunch two minutes late. I had been told that lunch was in the mess hall at 1 o’clock and that all the student would be there eager to spend the time practicing their English with me. On my walk over to the mess hall I got a little confused and ended up getting slightly lost. I wandered into the hall a few minutes after 1 o’clock looking slightly confused. My confusion was then compounded by the arousing applause that I received from approximately 40 students that stood up to welcome me to lunch. The food was all layed out on a table in the middle of the hall but no one had touched it yet as I (the honoured English speaking malae) had not yet arrived to serve herself first. Couple with my confusion (it feels a little out of the ordinary to wander around lost looking for a dining hall and then to be greeted by a standing ovation when randomly entering one of the campus buildings) was the feeling of embarrassment as I had kept all the hungry students waiting on their lunch. As soon as I had served myself there was a rush as all the students scrambled up to fill their dishes. Needless to say, for the rest of the week I made sure I was 10 minutes early to the most important appointment of the day.
I had another wonderful memory of my week in Fuiloro. This is perhaps my favorite memory of TL thus far. After class everyday I would go for a run down a dirt road that went through the school’s cattle fields and out to neighbouring villages. As I ran down the road student who were walking home would wait for me to pass on the side of the road. Without saying a word they would join me on my run and follow along behind me. At one point I probably had 20 students thumping along behind me with their notebooks and sandals flapping about. I had to chuckle to myself as I saw our silhouette over the fields, it reminded me of the scene in Forest Gump where he’s running across the country and people are just joining in for no real reason at all.
Last weekend I went for a wonder run with an Australian friend of mine. She has been living in ET for a while now and is working with an organization that is helping create the new land law. Land ownership is a seriously complicated ordeal here. As I had previously mentioned there are issue with traditional ownership of land and ownership transfers during the Indonesian occupation. And to further complicate matters, in the last 10 years there have been two occasions where people have fled their homes to live in IDP camps. Although I am still very confused about the land title procedure, I was enlightened about some other questions I had about ET.
First, I was wondering why in 1975 Indonesia was so intent on taking control of ET. Apparently this had something to do with the fact that Australia had just given up Papa New Guinea and ET had just gain independence from Portugal. Rumor has it that the Indonesian government wasn’t keen on any of the boisterous islands that made up its territory to start thinking along the same independent lines. Thus to illustrate its strength and intolerance to any disloyalty to the Indonesian government, the Indonesian military was told to invade the then independent ET (there was about a 3 month window of ET independence between Portugal’s rein and Indonesia’s in 1975).
Prior to Indonesia’s occupation the ET population lived in the mountains, above the malaria line. They lived in small villages self sustaining villages and ate mostly mais, cassava and sweet potato, rather than rice. After Indonesia took over, the population was forced to move down to the valleys where they could be controlled and better organized. Furthermore, propaganda was used to change the diet of the ET people so that they ate more rice. Propaganda such as, “Only the uneducated don’t eat rice”. In addition to not having the correct temperate to grow rice in the quantities needed, having all the people living together on the flat land, rather than in smaller communities in the mountains, made it difficult for sufficient food production. Moreover, because ET is in a ‘rain shadow’ and thus doesn’t get as much rain as other Asian countries, in order for the people to eat mass amounts of rice they had to become dependant upon Indonesian imports.
There was also mass deforestation during the Indonesian occupation as the Indonesian military would burn forests in order to prevent people from sneaking away to provide the resistance movement with supplies. There are different feelings about the Indonesian occupation depending on whom you talk to. This past week I was travelling with two coworkers who reflected fondly on the Indonesian times. They both said that they had good jobs (although one of them is a native of Indonesia, thus he would have received benefits natives of ET would not have) and that the roads were better, small villages in the districts had electricity (now there remains only the telephone polls without any electrical cord) and that more money was spread over ET into the districts rather than all the government spending in the capital city. Currently, the government seems to have been giving the capital all its attention rather than making improvements and creating employment out in the districts. Although both of my coworkers spoke longingly of the Indonesian days, they told me that they had both voted for independence during the 1999 referendum. “Independence is better, and we are making progress” they argued as our truck drove along a semi paved road in the jet black night.
My running partner also made the interesting point that a county of 1 million was able to defeat a country of 200 million which also had the support of the United States. She said that everyone contributed towards the resistance movement in whatever way they could. In such a small country, the lines where drawn in the sand, you were either for the resistance moment or against, there wasn’t much room in the middle and everyone knew where you stood.
On another note, I have two animal stories. I saw my first cock flight the other day in Fuiloro. Well, I didn’t actually see the roosters fighting, I didn’t particularly want to, but there was a huge crowd of men in the middle of a field by the side of the road. Around the crowd of men there were dozens of roosters tied up waiting for their turn to flight. The roosters have large sharpened talons attached to their feet and are trained to fight to the death. What I find particularly sad is that the roosters aren’t just birds to the ET men, they become what a pet dog would be to someone in North America. The roosters become companions more than anything else. These birds are cared for, trained, groomed and cherished by their owners until they are put in a ring and expected to fight for their lives. It sad for me to think that in addition to the bird losing its life, the ET man loses his pet.
I also saw a real horse the other day. A real live big horse! This shocked me so much because besides this one incident all I have ever seen are small rugged ponies. I don’t even think this horse was all that impressive on the whole, but to me he looked like the Black Stallion. It’s amazing how magnificent he looked in comparison to all the other small packer ponies. I was in love instantly.
The children here are simply the best. Just this past week when my two coworkers and I were in Suai we went to dinner at one of my coworker’s friend house. It was a small little shack in the middle of a farmer’s field. We only had a candle to light our faces as we all chatted and I played with the children. There were millions of stars in the sky and besides the 10 foot radius of candle light, the scenery was pitch black. But what I love about the children is how beautiful they are and how quickly they smile. Although there was a little bit of a language barrier, we were quickly all laughing and giggling during a game of hide and go seek and then laying out on the grass with out heads together staring up at the stars. It was a wonder meal and another one of those special moments where I feel like I get to taste the real ET culture. What fantastic people!
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