Keeping Busy!

Here’s a recap of some of the fun things that have been going on lately.

Game Days

First of all on the 15-17th Sister Ervi asked us if we would help prepare some games for the senior high school students during their break days. They take their midterm tests in the morning and then they have an interclass competition, speech competition, and the rest of them could play games with us.

So the first day we played tug of war. Alberto, the third year English teacher, helped me translate the instructions into Tetum and he and the student vice president generously helped us explain the game to the students. In East Timor Tug of War is a guys’ game, but Therese, Bernadette, and I were able to jump on a couple of times. The schedule set 1st year class A against class B and C against D and then the winners played each other and same with the other classes. Once the other team didn’t show up so the four of us, Alberto, and some of the other teachers challenged the oncoming team. We’ll just say we demolished them : )

And then we had the final winners face each other. After a quick battle we had a winner and they ran off into their classroom to celebrate. But we called them back out and challenged the overall winner to face us and the teachers. I wish I could say that we demolished them too, but it was the other way around. There were many of them and they were very strong.

The next day we tried Dizzy Dingbats, the relay where you spin around ten times with your forehead on a bat and then run. But it didn’t work out as well as planned. They had the girls play this one, but we don’t think they had done much twirling as children. We started off at ten spins and girls were getting so dizzy they were running to the wrong side of the yard. We went down to five and then three and the some of the girls were still falling over on the ground. So instead we had them play basketball and they were much more content. The game had been fun for all of the students watching from the sidelines, but wasn’t as enjoyable for the participators as we had hoped.

Wednesday we were going to play soccer, but we were asked to play basketball again because they used to let the students play soccer by the school, but many windows and other things got broken. So the students played basketball and were still very happy.

A Christmas Concert

With the Sisters we were invited to a Christmas concert put on by many of the internationals and locals. It was our first taste of air conditioning in the time we’d been here so that was an added plus.

Us and our roomies waiting for the concert to start. On the left is Bernadette and then Therese.

The starter choir was the choir from St. Cecilia’s Church who have performed internationally as well as locally. They sang beautifully – having soloists that performed Ave Maria and Panis Angelicus like I have heard it sung only a few times before.

Here is the Saint Cecilia’s choir (appropriate because St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music : )

We didn’t get a good picture of the main choir, but it was composed mostly of internationals whom were in Dili working or helping. Many of them were outstanding soloists and almost half the choir took a turn singing a Christmas classic, a lot of them in English! We heard White Christmas, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, the Christmas Song… you can imagine why we felt a little homesick. But it was very beautiful and helpful. It made things start to feel like Christmas.

Since then, Brendan and I have been doing Secret Santa with each other to make it feel more like Christmas. It’s fun trying to surprise each other with something a little special. This is our first Christmas as a real family so we’re trying to make it special.

We Have a Car!

Sister Sonia, our kind boss, alerted us that she would be giving us the VOICA car that was used by volunteers in the past. She had the mechanics fix up an oil leak and they brought it over to the Balide Convent. We were there on Thursday to say night prayer with them, so we tried to drive the car home then. I say tried. It’s a nice little manual, a Toyota Carolla, but it had a few problems.

Therese showing off our new hot rod.

So Brendan started drive it home, but immediately it had problems with the battery. Eventually he coerced it into working, but we had to go really slow. The Sisters had asked Bosco, a driver, to lead us home since we weren’t sure of the way. We had made it pretty far, with a few rough times in the middle, when the car died for the final time. We got out and pushed it, but nothing could get it going again. Eventually Bosco took us home in his car and we locked the car and left it on the side of the road.

It turned out that something was wrong with the battery, but Sister Sonia got it fixed and the next day we drove it home for good. Brendan did a great job mastering the car, and everyone was impressed. All of his practice with the nicer manuals at home has been training for our lovely car here : )

It will be really nice to have a car here for health emergencies or for day trips to the beach. We’re all pretty excited to have it as an option, although we’ll still use our feet as our main mode of transportation. Until now we’ve walked EVERYWHERE, which is good because that’s what most of the local people do, including our students. Most people walk, there are many motorcycles, but not too many cars. 50% of the cars on the road are UN vehicles – no joke. The rest are mikrolets (minibuses for public transport), taxis, and a few personal vehicles. That they would give us a car is quite a blessing.

Mini Christmas in the Delta House

Our house is called Delta and is in the Delta 3 neighborhood. Yesterday we had a little Christmas party for the four of us, before we head up to Baucau to have Christmas with the rest of the volunteers. And as most things here, it didn’t go quite as planned.

Even though it was comparatively expensive (but better than buy all the individual ingredients we don’t have), Brendan and I bought a cookie mix and a suncatcher kit to surprise the girls. While they were distracted working on our gift basket for the Sisters and presents for the gift exchange at Balide that night, we tried to make cookies.

Therese, distracted by the gift basket.

Problem: This is the extent of our kitchen – two gas burners. But we made it work. After frying up four gooey cookies, people came in, ate the cookies and moved on to the cookie dough.

The suncatchers would have been really fun, but the paint has dried up in the heat and was in little blocks. We tried to use warm water and even tried to melt it over the flame of the gas burner, but it only worked on a few colors. But I’m sure that using a combination of markers and watercolor paints we will finish those suncatchers.

Brendan’s Haircut

He invested in some hair cutting equipment and buzzed his hair himself. He’s a lot happier with short hair in this heat.

He can now wear his Aussie hat around Dili and not die from the insane sunbeams.

Or he can go without it and smile because things are so much cooler!

Final Perk

We really are on the outskirts of Dili. This really nice road was just put in the week before arrived. You can tell it’s new because it doesn’t have giant potholes all over it. Driving on any other road is like a game because of all the potholes you have to try to avoid.

In the distance are big rolling hills covered by tropical foliage. Usually it is bright and hot and the green is a vibrant color that you can’t get in a crayon package. Here all the colors seem to be more vibrant with all the tropical flowers and fruit. In the Tetum language they even have two words for blue: azul and azul escuro (a very bright blue) to distinguish between blue and radiant blue : )

Brendan catches me walking to school.

K, that’s all! And Happy Jesus' Birthday to you again! We'll let you know about Christmas and New Year's in East Timor when we get back to Dili. God bless!

Love you all!

Rachel and Brendan

Getting Used to Things

Things are settling down now. It’s been about two weeks and it doesn’t quite feel like home, but it’s not entirely foreign now either. We’re starting to know the area around our house better, even past the supermarket, school, and church. We even walked to the U.S. Embassy on the ocean front to check in, so we can get any safety updates so we know what’s going on. There was nothing significant right now, but it’s nice that they have our information just in case.

We’ve also solved a lot of the problems that made things a little awkward before:

Problem: Lots of bugs, especially mosquitoes that carry Dengue Fever and Malaria.
Solution: Death to bugs spray. Our house has gone from regularly having bugs appear and termites eating our door frame, to no termites, less little red ants that get into our food, and our room is practically mosquito-proof.

Problem: Mosquito-proofing our room.
Solution: We have our mosquito net bed, extra pieces of mosquito net that cover the holes in the windows and open space over the door to the bathroom, and we’ve covered the standing water in our bathroom.

As you probably know, mosquitoes lay their eggs in still water, and then the eggs hatch and you get more mosquitoes. In our bathroom we have a big tub of water for showering and flushing the toilet. This is where the mosquitoes were laying eggs and we could also see some other things in the water. But since then, Brendan has taken out the mosquito eggs and little things and now we cover it with bubble wrap. So showering is not nearly as scary of an experience, and can ever be relaxing depending on the heat of the day : )

Problem: Not sleeping enough.
Solution: All four of us dove right into volunteering at the school even though the Sisters have pushed us to take it easier. But after Chris, Sali, and Dogmara came to visit for a few days they convinced us that we need to sleep more. We’re here for a year and it’s a marathon, not a sprint. So even though we’ve continued our duties at school we’ve designated a few mornings to sleep in, which I think will help us in the long run to not get sick and exhausted. The change from cold Rome to hot hot hot Dili has confused our bodies a lot and adjusting has taken longer then we would like. But it’s been almost two weeks now and it’s getting better.

So those were basically the only little issues we had and all of them we’ve resolved. So don’t feel bad for us. I apologize for scaring you with what I said about the water (although it was true – before you really could see things swimming in it). But we have easy access to safe water to drink all the time and in two weeks no one has gotten sick from the food preparation. Here, more than ever, we learn to appreciate little and new things... like not getting malaria, not having creepy crawlies in your shower water, and not getting sick from your food : ) So life is good! Hope all is good with you too!

Love you,

Rach and Brendan

Merry Christmas from Dili, East Timor!

Merry Christmas! It's coming up quickly and even though it's December 17th, we know this will be our last time to use the internet before Christmas! So here are some more details about our first impressions of the set up here and what we're doing and then a special Christmas greeting from us : )

Dili, East Timor –

Amazing! Big city with a small town feel. HOT HOT HOT, but I like it! We haven’t gotten to explore much yet, but within a few weeks I think we’ll know our part of it well.

Our house –

Amazing! So much better than I expected! It’s small and clean. Brendan and I were given the big bedroom because the other bedroom has bunk beds (which aren’t so good for married couples). They’ve fixed things up and now we have access to water when we need it for cooking, cleaning, and showering. Very nice! We even have a real toilet, even if it’s the type that you flush by dumping a bucket of water in it. It’s all so much better than I prepared myself for.

The only problems –

The electricity is completely crazy – on again, off again (mostly off again). It’s ok, except for at night because it runs our fans and lights when we need them.

Oh, and the showers… Here the word shower means pouring cold, dirty water all over you and hoping you won’t get it in your eyes, nose, or mouth. I have been introduced to the bucket shower and am getting comfortable with it slowly, mostly by necessity. It scared me a little at first (trying to clean myself with water that I could see things swimming around in), but it’s not bad. We’ve been blessed and we’re taking care of ourselves (boiling all of our water for important things, etc.) and no one has gotten sick yet in the first week.

And in our room there was a problem, but we fixed it! The problem was that we have two single beds again and the queen size mosquito net we got didn’t cover two beds. So after a few nights we used Brendan’s knot-tying skills and my sewing skills to create a four-poster bed like in the Victorian Era. We used boards and extra mosquito nets from past volunteers we found in the closet + our mosquito net to make a sanctuary from mosquitoes. Building the addition to this bed was awesome! I feel like the guys who made those chairs out of tires because we used what we had to solve a problem.


Neighborhood –

We live in neighborhood Delta 3. It seems safe and relatively clean. There are also lots of nice people, including the locals and many U.N. Peacekeepers who live in our area. We even met one of the UN Peacekeepers who lives right across the street from us when he offered us a ride to the school. His name is Freddy and he’s from Zambia. Judging by the number of UN cars we see there must be at least five Peacekeepers right around our street. We’ll try to get to know them soon.

Besides the people we are close to everything that we need. There are small, family-run food stands less than fifty from our door, lining the main streets. That’s where we get our fresh fruits and vegetables when the Sisters don’t give us some from their garden. Meet and packaged goods we get from the supermarket, The Leader, which is a fifteen minute walk down the street opposite to the school. It’s a general store that you can get most anything at which helps a ton!

The Canossian school and clinic where we spend most of our day is a twenty minute walk down a dead end road to the school. It’s nice because there’s not much traffic, so we don’t have to worry about all the kids that walk that road. Most of the students and teachers walk, but there are a few motorcycles. You should see the people on motor cycles here. They’re cheaper than cars, so often they are the family vehicle of choice if they have money for any type of transportation. There will almost always be at least two people on a motorcycle and four is the most I’ve seen so far (one or two adults with a couple of kids). Safety conscious people might have a heart attack here, but somehow it always seems to work out.

Our Community –

Our new roommates are Bernadette (23) and Therese (21) from Sydney, Australia. They are sisters who are going to be here for six months. They are good conversationalists and very strong in their faith.

They got here a week before us and started right away helping in the Kindergarten at the Canossian school. Next semester they will be teaching music in the senior high school.

Things are going well so far. One unexpected challenge – the language barrier : ) We thought we’d left it behind in Rome, but now we have two quick speaking Australians and with their slang sometimes it’s tough to understand them. But everyday it gets a little better and I think in another week it won’t be a problem.

Our Work –

Brendan was asked to teach English in the Canossian University and I’ve been helping out. He’s been working very hard on lesson plans and finding out where the class needs to go. His classes go for seven hours straight on Thursday and on Friday afternoon. He’s in charge of two sessions of English for the first-years and the English class for the third-year students (the final year). Together we are teaching an English specialization class for the teachers at the university and senior high school. It will go all semester on Monday mornings and Tuesday afternoons.

We had our first class this Monday and it was very nice. Eight teachers showed up, which is impressive because this is the students’ examination week and everyone is busy, and we have a Christmas party. We practiced introductions, and taught them two Christmas carols to practice pronunciation and comprehension. We did We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (we had Silent Night too, but there wasn’t time). Rudolph was the hardest to explain, because all the words dealing with snow were tough because there is no snow in East Timor ever. But when we had talked it through I think they enjoyed the story (and they could sing the song pretty well too).

So those classes will keep Brendan very busy and me too. Other than the classes, I’ve started meeting some of the students on my own to practice conversational English. They are so enthusiastic to learn English because they know it’ll help them find a better job in a country where jobs are scarce. Even for university scholarships, if you speak English better you are more likely to be chosen for a scholarship to Australia or the Philippines. For many kids, a scholarship will be the only way they can afford to go to university, so they are doing everything they can to get them.

I’ll also be running an English club with Brendan in the senior high school for the third year students. We’ll meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons and practice reading, writing, and speaking. We have some ideas for fun things to do to practice because it’s an extracurricular. We’ll probably try to teach them songs and prayers in English, do dictation of Bible passages, do field trips to English Masses or events, and have a few movie nights watching movies in English.

So a lot of our time is going to be spent teaching English because it’s something they feel will really help the students in the future. But on the mornings when we’re not teaching class, I’ll be helping out at the clinic at the school with Sister Aquelina.

You should see it. It’s the size of one big room, split into an entryway, an examination room with a table and a sink, a room for a dentist (who I haven’t seen yet), and a room with two beds and a small bookshelf of medicines.

I was getting oriented there last week and looked at the medicines – most of them are past their due date, some of them by years. Many of them also had instructions to store in a cool environment, and might have gone bad already from the 95 degrees and above that are typical in Dili. Also, many of the medicines had instructions written in English and they didn’t know what they were. So that afternoon I went through and wrote down what ailment the medicine was for and the instructions on giving it to children of different ages on each box.

Besides the condition of the medicines shocking me, I was surprised to see snacks outside. I thought maybe they were just being nice, but I asked why and they said that before they had many students coming to them with upset stomach aches. But these stomach aches weren’t from sickness, just from hunger, because many of the students don’t eat until they get home. So now they have some juice and snacks outside of the clinic for students to eat during breaks if they are very hungry. It's a lot to think about and after Christmas we will probably try to get advice on how to do something about the situation.

Ok, I think that’s it. This is our life in Dili after one week. We have special plans coming up for the holidays though. We leave on Saturday to spend Christmas in Baucau with Chris, Sali, and Dogmara. Then we will go with Sister Sonia to Suai and finally back to Dili on New Year’s Eve with everyone for a celebration! We’ll let you know how it goes when we get back. School is just getting finished and will begin again on January 5th. Please pray for the holidays here that they go well.

Know that we are missing you sooooo much! We went to a Christmas concert a few days ago with the Sisters and many of the songs were in English and homesickness hit me like a wave. To be honest, it hasn’t felt much like Christmas here lately because it’s so hot and we’re starting volunteering and getting settled – everything is so busy. But that concert really hit home that it is Jesus’ birthday in eight days!!! So since the concert we’ve been making an effort to lift our Christmas spirits and prepare our hearts to meet Jesus on Christmas.

But even though the homesickness hits, this also seems like one of the best places to understand the real meaning of Christmas. The people here are very poor, but there love for Jesus is apparent. We'll tell you more stories after Christmas, but these people are ready not just for presents but for Jesus! Maybe because Jesus was like them...

Child of the Poor

Helpless and hungry, lowly afraid,
Wrapped in the chill of mid-winter
Comes now among us,
Born into poverty's embrace,
New life for the world

Who is this who lives with the lowly,
Sharing their sorrows, Knowing their hunger?
This is Christ, revealed to the world
In the eyes of a child, a child of the poor.

Who is the stranger, here in our midst,
Looking for shelter among us? Who is this outcast?
Who do we see amidst the poor,The children of God?

Who is this who lives with the lowly,
Sharing their sorrows, Knowing their hunger?
This is Christ, revealed to the world
In the eyes of a child, a child of the poor.

Bring all the thirsty, all who seek peace;
Bring those with nothing to offer,
Strengthen the feeble, say to the frightened heart:
"Fear not, here is your God!".

Who is this who lives with the lowly,
Sharing their sorrows, Knowing their hunger?
This is Christ, revealed to the world
In the eyes of a child, a child of the poor.

This is one of my favorite songs to think about around Christmas time. I hope you like it too : )


And now, from the island of East Timor Brendan and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We will be praying that you have a beautiful memorable Christmas! We'll miss you like crazy, but we'll tell you about our holiday adventures when we get back to Dili after New Year's.

All for Jesus,

Rachel and Brendan Egan

Sunday

One more first – our first Sunday here. Today was the third Sunday of Advent (the season of spiritual preparation for the birth of Christ that takes place in the four weeks before Christmas every year). This Sunday is special and is supposed to be a time of special joy, because Jesus is almost here! Well, today lived up to that expectation.

We were able to sleep in! That was wonderful, because we’ve been waking up at 5:45 am everyday to get to 6:30 Mass, so it has definitely been early mornings. And Bernadette made banana pancakes for breakfast (except I was informed that in Australia this type are called something else), so we woke up smelling those.

We went to English Mass together at 10:30 which was filled by people of all nationalities and many Timorese. I believe many of them are here working with the U.N. and the many non profits in our area. Just in our area we’ve already seen the Canossians, Austracare, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, and others. Many non profits are here helping the people recover from the violence that came with their independence.

Mass was so beautiful though. The people here sing with such life! It’s like listening to a gospel choir singing their hearts out – it’s like the music comes out loud and strong from somewhere deep inside them, even from people who speak very quietly. Oh, and they’re bringing the tambourine back : ) Everything was great and the readings were perfect for preparing our hearts for Christmas.

But while the readings led to some great reflections, they didn’t touch me the most. Before going up to receive the Eucharist we say “Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed” in an act of faith that Jesus will cover our sins with grace so we can be in communion with Him in the Eucharist. As I was kneeling I was overcome not only with how much I need to grow in my faith, but how unworthy I am to be living in East Timor with these people.

I can’t express to you how generous they are and friendly beyond reason. We take the twenty minute walk between our house and the Canossa school several times a day. Even if you wanted peace and quiet you couldn’t get it - every few feet of the way you are saying hi to someone because everyone is interested in each other (and especially us newcomers). Dili is their capital city, but it’s more like small towns in Iowa. Big city, small town feel : )

Anyway, the Sisters, the students at the Canossa school who we have been teaching, and the people on the streets that we have met have really impressed me with their love. And they have suffered so much; more than I will ever understand having grown up in safe area with good options for education and access to all the food and clothes I might need and more! And the past few days we’ve heard them singing songs about peace. To a country where peace has been regularly disrupted every few years by more violence, “let there be peace on earth” (the song of St. Francis) takes on a whole new meaning,

So I was contemplating this right before getting up to receive the Eucharist. Jesus, as always, was amazing, and I got back and was kneeling down when something caught my eye. A girl coming back up the aisle was walking very slowly and I wondered why. Then I saw the man who was in front of her on the floor. His legs were very small and malformed, looking like they may have been like that since birth. He was pulling his body along on his hands and knees.

And my eyes brimmed with tears at the witness of this man. I can’t imagine what rejection and suffering he has faced in his life by no fault of his own, but he was here at the table of the Lord. He knew where to find Love and healing and hope. And I wondered if I were in the same position would I drag myself up the aisle for Communion. Could I go on with life with the same confidence that Jesus loves me? This man’s inner strength I will probably never match…

After Mass was over I told Brendan what had happened and we looked for the man on the way out so we could meet him, but no luck. But I’ve made a promise to myself that I will meet him soon.

It’s interesting. There are so many people here… you would think it would be overwhelming to try to help each one. We know we can’t help each one personally, but we’ll do what we can. More importantly they show us that what really matters is our witness of coming here and living with them. They know we come from America, which is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, where many of them would love to live. A man at Mass the other day said that volunteers are a mystery to him, because they give up so much to come to the poorest countries in the world. But if only he knew what we receive… the encouragement, friendship, and growth of our faith. Then he would know that the scale is balanced heavily in our favor.

Recently Sali asked Brendan what effect his experience in India had on him. He said that the experience made his heart expand. You meet so many people, have to use all of your skills, and have many demands on your time. You think that there won’t be enough of your heart to go around, but somehow there is. Because when what’s humanly possible stops, God starts and it is enough : )

But anyway, back to Sunday. Later on that afternoon, we were picked up to go to the Balide Convent of the Canossian Sisters – fifteen minutes drive from our house. Bernadette was teaching English to the girls there that she knew, so we helped her, and then we played a giant game of basketball! Their two favorite sports here are soccer and basketball (which is awesome because those are Brendan and my two favorite sports), so they have a b-ball court that doubles as a soccer field at the convent for the girls. We played for probably an hour and a half with no stops, until everyone was soaked with sweat and exhausted. But it was nice to play and a great way to get to know the girls.

Then we had prayer and dinner with the Sisters before going home. All four of us have been very impressed with the Sisters here, just like in Rome. To be around so many Sisters or religious in general (priests, brothers, and sisters) is really a transforming experience. But we’ll give more specific examples as they come up. It’d been a long day and we finally went home with a few of the Sisters accompanying us. We all sang some Christmas carols like Feliz Navidad and Silent Night – all the classics : )

This is a good example of a day here. It’s jampacked with people to meet and things to do. Everything is new and there are so many shocks and changing emotions throughout the day. So if this entry is all over the place it’s because we are too : ) I’m sure things will become more clear as we get more settled and time to put things in perspective, but until then…this is what’s going on in our heads. Hope you enjoyed it!

Love always,

Brendan and Rachel

More Firsts

Here is a continuation of our “firsts” on the way to and in East Timor.

My 1st Night Under a Mosquito “Mozzie” Net

After we were picked up at the airport by some of the Canossian Sisters in Kupang, we were dropped off at the Salesian Brother’s guesthouse. The convent was small and didn’t have four extra beds, so they set it up so we could spend the night with the Brothers. We had a great afternoon walking around Kupang with some of them and going to Mass celebrated in Bahasa Indonesian. Later, after dinner and some 500 (a fantastic card game) we went to bed.

Each of us had a bed covered by a mosquito net (a “mozzie net” to our Australian roommates) that was held up by two wooden Y’s at the head and foot of the bed. In the box-like mosquito net I felt a little like a princess.

That night Brendan and I didn’t get much sleep, but it wasn’t from maniacal mosquitos. Our biological clocks were still confused so we woke up in the middle of the night and Chris and Sali’s alarm clock was confused so they came to wake us up at 4:30 in the morning thinking it was 5:30 and that we needed to get ready so we could all leave for the bus at 6:00. So we played chess for a half hour and got ready in plenty of time. So from there we headed out on our…

Our 1st East Timor Bus Trip

You may not see the East Timor part of the title as significant, but believe me it is! From 5:30 am - 7:30 pm we rode from the far side of West Timor to Dili, East Timor. The bus wasn’t the best quality by American standards, but it was luxurious by Timorese standards! We crammed twelve travelers and our backage into a small, but clean, van. The back of the van was so stuffed that the door kept flying open while we were driving, but nothing fell out because it was packed so tightly : )

The group we went with was Timor Tour and Travel. The Sisters used the bus frequently when traveling between convents and Sister Sonia (our coordinator in Dili) had made reservations for us. The driver and employees were very nice. They gave each of us a bottle of water and a big package of “rose” cookies. The Indonesian rose cookies are white cookies with a little dab of green frosting that tasted like banana laffy taffy : ) Still, a very nice gesture from a seemingly well run company.

And we were off! On the way we were driving on very windy roads through the mountains. Sali usually gets car sick so she tried to sleep the whole time and even I felt a little nauseas with the constant turns at high speeds. Brendan let me lean on his shoulder and when I would start to pray the rosary I was finally able to fall asleep.

We stopped for scheduled breaks every three hours or so. That was for bathroom breaks and a chance for us to buy more food if we wanted. We stopped at a sit down restaurant around 10:30, but the four of us weren’t hungry to we sat outside in chairs made out of used tires.

Not an especially great picture of me, but it’s a great one of the tire chairs : )

In their poverty these people are so creative! It’s real recycling. Anything you have can be turned into something else that you need more. Where we just go buy a patented item for a specific purpose, they make it themselves. I hope that they get great satisfaction in their work, because when you solve a problem and successfully make something yourself it’s one of the best feelings in the world!

So the trip was going well. When I was awake I was able to talk with Stefan and Martina from Switzerland who were vacationing in Indonesian, doing a lot of scuba diving. Martina is a physical therapist so I got to talk to her about that and life in general. There were many fun and interesting people to meet. Then we stopped at an agency in Atambua by the West Timor border and they helped us get our exit cards ready. There, Doctor Lucy, another VOICA volunteer, met up with us and picked up the letters we were to deliver to the Sisters there. She was very kind and knew what was going on locally.

From there we made it to the Indonesian border where we exited the bus with all of our luggage and our passports and exit cards were checked. Then we had to walk along the no man’s land between the two countries for about 100 feet before meeting other Timor Tour and Travel buses.

No man’s land between West and East Timor – land of the goats.

Stefan took this picture of us right before we officially entered East Timor. Even though it was cloudy, it was beautiful. They loaded us up and took us to the East Timor entrance and we got visas for one month and continued. Our first view of East Timor was looking down the road at the ocean.

Soon we were driving in a rainstorm, which continued for some time. A few hours later we came to a dead stop behind eight semitrucks, and other buses and cars. Rain higher in the mountains had flooded the area and destroyed the bridge! We all got out of the bus and surveyed the damage, but it was also like a party! The whole village was out sitting on the banks of the river trying to help or waiting to see what would happen.

At first there was talk of all of us spending the night in the van and having to wait a day or two for the water to recede. Chris and Sali started playing Polish Scrabble, Brendan walked around by the river, and I tried talking with some of the women in Tetum. They knew a little English too so we were all able to practice our new languages some. It was a big confidence booster to be able to actually speak (slowly) the language we’ve been learning for two months.

At this point, some of the drivers became impatient to get to Dili and decided to attempt a crossing on the dirt road that went through the river and up the other side. First a white car with four-wheel drive tried it, almost lost it, but made it across! Everyone on both sides of the river was clapping and cheering. Later one of the semitrucks made it. After a few more cars, our driver loaded us up and we drove down to the river. Stefan took a video as we crossed the river – I wish we had it! We made it to the road on the other side and all of us were cheering! It had been a big delay, but we didn’t have to sleep in the van (although it would have been an adventure)!

We wound around on a coastal road with spectacular ocean views. There was more flooding before Dili so we took it slow, but we crossed it easily. It was dark when we finally reached Dili and the bus driver dropped the four of us off at the Canossian Sisters’ Balide convent. They fed us and shipped us off to our new house to spend our first night there and begin getting settled! That was the end of our trip to Dili, but the beginning of time in East Timor! I think our life here will always be exciting!

Don’t worry, when we get a chance we will write about Dili and our set up here. Hope things are well with all of you! God bless you!


Much love,

Rachel and Brendan

We've Made It!

It’s like a whole new world over here! So here is our book of firsts as we start a completely new life for one year, and a lot about our journey to East Timor.

Right before we left we took one final picture. From left to right: Diggy, Sali, Chris, Michela, me, Alex, Brendan, Sr. Lisa, and Sr. Pat.

Our 1st Time on Qatar Airways

Chris, Sali, Brendan, and I were able to travel together and after some fierce hugging at the Fumicino we began our journey. Our flights from Rome to Doha, Qatar, to Singapore to Jakarta were all booked with Qatar Airways. They were the nicest flights that any of us had been on (including Brendan who is quite the world traveler). To be fair though Quantas is a close second. But anyway, it was incredible – a ton of entertainment for the very long flights, enough space so you actually attempt to fall asleep, and we were begging them to stop giving us food toward the end of each flight. Also, we had a six hour layover in Doha and Qatar Airways paid for passengers with layovers over five hours to have a free meal. And all this was for economy class!

During our layover we were able to meet some interesting people, including Father Lorenzo. He is an Italian priest who was on the same flight from Rome to Doha with us. He has been in the Philippines completing seminary and being a missionary for a long time. He’s only thirty-three and has been there since he was nineteen! He shared some chocolate with us and got us each to share our faith stories. He had to run off to catch his 1 am flight (ours wasn’t until 2 am), but it was really nice to meet him.

My 1st Time in Asia

Brendan’s been as happy as I’ve ever seen him, but for me 3rd world Asia has been a bit of a shock. It’s like all the pictures and stories except vibrant and 3-D. Everyday completely new experiences remind me just how far away from the USA I am.

Brendan’s been great though! From the minute we pulled away from the airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, he’s been smiling because it reminded him so much of Calcutta: the crazy traffic, the heat, the people…

Of course there have been places that looked similar to home – the view from the Singapore airport was familiar and downtown Jakarta has many high rises and nicer areas. The afternoon that we were in Jakarta Sisters Mela and Joseline took us into the city center and up Monas. Monas is the equivalent of the Sears Tower or Hancock building in Chicago and has a great view of the city. Monas is their national monument – a giant white stand with 250 kilograms of pure gold on top in the shape of a flame (a little bit like an Olympic torch). We took an elevator up to the top and had a long look at giant Jakarta.

Monas, one of Indonesia’s national monuments.

Brendan admiring the view.

Here I am with one of the decorative fans that were given to us. And we needed them – Jakarta was hot!!!

Brendan showing Sister Mela how NOT to work the binoculars : )

Our 1st Indonesian Wedding

The same day that we visited Monas, the four of us (Chris, Sali, Brendan, and I) went for a walk around the Canossian convent we had spent the night at. We visited the only Catholic Church in the area, which was nearby (Indonesia is predominantly Muslim). It was decorated beautifully with fresh flowers, but we didn’t think much of it. Then an older couple in traditional Indonesian wedding clothes came up to us. They explained that there was a wedding in an hour, they were the aunt and uncle of the groom, and that would love it if we came! So we said we would be back, left quickly, and bought some wedding gifts.

Here are the aunt and uncle of Chandra (the groom) with us at the entrance to the church.

The wedding was beautiful, including all the Indonesian wedding clothes that were our first taste of traditional South Pacific outfits. The wedding was at 10 in the morning and went for about an hour. Even at that time it was hot and they gave each of us a decorated fan so we could fan ourselves.

The Mass was all in Bahasa Indonesian, but had a very similar format to Brendan and my wedding. The bride and groom, Boca and Chandra, had picked out different readings and different songs, but it was cool because many of the songs were in English, including “Here I Am, Lord” and “The Prayer.” So we were able to understand those at least : )

One thing that was different was that during the wedding the bride and groom knelt before each of their parents and the parents put their hands on each of their heads in turn in a blessing. Again, it was beautiful! We are starting to get used to being in cultures that focus less on being independent and more on family and community. These cultures seem to do a much better job at valuing parents and grandparents, which is something we can all strive for.

My 1st Bed Bugs

The next morning I woke up presented with many little gifts – bed bug bites all over my legs! They were behind my knees and around my ankles and itched like crazy! I told Brendan I must have been mosquito dinner, but he told me about bed bugs. I’d heard about bed bugs of course, but never experienced them in all their glory : )

We’ll just say it wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t so bad. I was a little paranoid to go to sleep the next night (even in a new bed in a new city), but it’s been about a week now and no new bed bug attacks including in our permanent beds in Dili. Yay!

Our 1st Wet Season Storm

From Jakarta we flew to Kupang, West Timor. We were picked up at 5:30 am to start the traveling process and we finally made it to Kupang around 1 pm.

The whole flight was over hundreds of tiny islands that are part of Indonesia. That’s when it started to become real that we are going to be living on an island for a year! And the weather on the flight was great for sight-seeing until the very end when we ran into a thunderstorm. It was our first storm of the many that occur almost daily here in the wet season.

It was pouring when we landed and had to leave the plane and run for the airport. Mandala Airlines was actually very nice and gave big umbrellas to passengers so we could make it inside. Brendan and I chose to share one, but we still got hit by some rain – but it was like Brendan had said about Indian rain – it’s warm!!!

I love playing in the rain, but the problem is always that you get cold during or after. Here that problem is solved! But, to be fair, other problems do come with daily torrential rains. Anyway, it was an interesting welcome to West Timor and one more big sign that we are no longer in Iowa.

The view out the airplane window when we landed in Kupang.

All wet after sprinting from the Kupang airport to the car with the Sisters.

Alright, take a break, and come back tomorrow to read more about our trip to East Timor!


Love,

Rachel and Brendan

Into Deep Silence

First of all, STOP!!!, go back and look at Brendan’s blog that he just put up – it's pretty funny, has great pictures (all the photos he's been taking while I got fountain pictures), and is a great review of our time in Rome!

Ok, now that you’re back…Today we leave for East Timor. We’ve had a great last couple of weeks. Awhile ago my cousin Nora and her friend, Tracy, came to visit from the Netherlands. We were able to revisit some of the tourist highlights that we had a chance to see at the beginning. We spent most of Sunday showing them our favorite places here. Monday and Tuesday they were on their own, but we got to see them sometimes at night to talk. It was a pleasure to see some people from home, especially Nora, and to get to meet Tracy. Here are some pictures from their visit : )

I taught them everything I know about posing in front of fountain pictures! They learned well : )

Nora, Tracy, and I each tossed a coin into the Trevi fountain to guarantee our return to Rome someday. Who knows what will happen?

Brendan and Alex have been playing a lot of chess in the past few weeks too. They are both very good. Alex’s brother played chess representing England and she played in tournaments when she was younger. Brendan’s learned many new strategies while playing her so you’ll have to watch out when he gets home!

Meanwhile, most of the rest of us have been becoming Chinese Checkers masters and have learned the real way to play from one of the Chinese Sisters here – Sister Agnes. It was confirmed by Sister Pat who spent sixteen years there at the mission. Very fun!

We also have had to say goodbye to our Tetum teacher, Sister Ana Florinda. She was a great teacher and we will miss her a lot. But we hope to see her again, maybe as we leave Timor. Right now she is preparing to go to a convent in Jakarta, Indonesia.

And then there was Thanksgiving! The only thing I could think to be thankful for at the beginning of the day was the wonderful people at the Poste Italiane who God was using to teach me patience. On Thanksgiving, Michela came with me to get my last Hepatitis B vaccination and on the way we tried to mail the packages with Christmas/birthday presents for our families four times at four different post offices (and I had tried twice before!). It was finally mailed yesterday with Brendan’s help, thank goodness!

Once we made it back to the house the day picked up a lot. The girls spent the afternoon running around the kitchen. There was soup, Diggy cooked a whole chicken (turkey wasn’t really an option), Michela made rice pastry things, and Sali and Kasia made us pierogis (pronounced peer-row-gees), a traditional Polish food, and Alex was in charge of snacks and she helped me peel apples for…

Apple Pie!

It was a super big apple pie that turned out PERFECT! I learned a lot of helpful hints off the internet about soaking the apple slices in water with a little bit of lemon juice to make them more juicy and to keep them from turning brown. See Mom – I really am learning to cook!

And here was our celebration!

Diggy and Alex eating the last spoonful of the apple pie : )

A final group shot - Thanksgiving with VOICA!

We were also able to go to Tuscany to visit Michela’s family and e sent off by her parish. Tuscany is truly one of the beautiful places in the world. Michela’s family farm is on the top of a hill with groves of olive trees and vineyards in all directions. And her family and the people of her country church were so generous! Michela led a youth group there, played guitar for Mass, and everyone loved her!

By the end of Mass everyone was crying. Her Bishop said how proud he was of us, especially Michela, and he prayed for us and they gave us each a cross and a Bible (it’s in Italian, but it’s the thought that counts : ) Then they had a big party for the whole church – kind of like a graduation party for Michela. There was pizza and desserts and drinks – the Italians know how to feast!!! Then the parish priest wanted us to come so he could make us pasta, but we had to decline. It was a great day!

We also had a beautiful sending off Mass with the Sisters and many guests we’ve met during our stay in Rome. We picked out the readings and gospel and the songs and we did different parts in English, Polish, and Italian. We read a committment prayer to Jesus that all of us had written together. We received our VOICA missionary crosses and feasted with our friends and spiritual family! Everyone was so nice - especially the Sisters! And now we are ready to go!

To be honest, I wasn’t sure that this day would ever come, but I’m glad that it has! We are flying out at noon, traveling with Chris and Sali to Jakarta, Indonesia. We’ll spend a few days with the Canossian Sisters there before flying to West Timor and then on to East Timor via mikrolet (a minibus). This experience in general, and even the trip to East Timor, is sure to teach and challenge us. It’s going to take everything that we have to offer, but probably give us back even more – as usually happens in service.

Things will be a lot different after today. Rome has been a great transition time for us - less electronic time, lots of practice cooking, a preview for our new language, and practice learning how to live in community. Without this time I think East Timor might have been too much culture shock too fast for me (I’m sure Brendan would have been fine either way : ) But now we are as ready as we’ll ever be! Please don’t worry, be excited for us! Keep us in your prayers especially these first few weeks of Timor if you can! We’ll need every bit of prayer we can get : )

One of the biggest challenges will be how frequently we can communicate with home. Here in Rome we’ve had easy access to a computer with quick internet, there we’ve heard the internet (which, with Skype, we also use as our phone) will be unreliable at best and very expensive. But we’ll find out more when we get there.

What YOU need to know is this: we will still be writing blogs at about the same interval as in Rome, but they won’t go up on the internet as often. To put them up on the internet we will have to go out and find an internet café. It sounds like the time in the mission is very busy, but we’ll try to put up all the blogs we’ve written once every week or two weeks.

Communication will be different to be sure, especially during our journey to East Timor. That’s why this blog is called “Into Deep Silence.” It reminds me of when space shuttles fly around the back side of the moon and all their communication from Mission Control is cut off for awhile. Traveling to East Timor will probably be like that – it will take three to five days if all goes well and when we finally get there we will be unpacking and finding out what is going on. We probably won’t be able to put anything up online for a good two weeks. Trust and pray that we’re safe and getting settled!

With that said, we just wanted to say thank you all for being part of our lives. We are so blessed to know all of you! It will be hard being even farther away from you, but it’s for a good cause and we’ll be back in a year, ready to pick up where we left off. Until then, STAY IN TOUCH, especially through e-mail, facebook, and blog comments. I don’t think you know how encouraging a message is to us. And always keep us in your prayers; you will be constantly in ours.

With all of our love,

Rachel and Brendan

Kangaroo Boy

Rachel and I are leaving Rome and flying to East Timor tomorrow. We are very excited and are prepared to be missionaries for Christ in lands foreign to us. Pray for us on our journey.

On to the blog, which has a bit of pre trip humor for everybody.

A. I am from Australia.
B. Kangaroos are from Australia.
C. Kangaroos can jump very high.

Therefore, according to some really great transitive law in Philosophy, I can jump very high.

One day the volunteers and I were playing soccer and I jumped to kick the ball. It was then that I truly discovered that I could be a professional jumper……..

I quit the soccer game and ran to the nearest small car. Then I jumped! It felt amazing, just like the first time Peter Pan flew into the night sky.

I ran across town as fast as humanly possible and did a leap in honor of Spiderman at the Coliseum.

I looked at the picture on my camera and quickly realized that I was on the wrong side!! Oh my! So I changed clothes and darted around to the front and leapt for joy.

So I said goodbye to the Coliseum with a last jump. I decided since I was so close to St. John Lateran Church, why not run there and jump as well?!?

St. John’s, how are you?

I borrowed some ladies orange scooter and scooted to the Vitoriano, which is this super big, imperial, WWII looking building. And then I jumped.

I left the scooter and jogged to the Trevi Fountain. But as I jumped my head got cut off….

After the disappointing head chop at the fountain, I went to Rome’s most famous blue-ish blob.

After the famous blob, I went skateboarding without a skateboard.

Well the day was halfway over at this point. So, needless to say I was getting tired. I remembered that I still hadn’t seen the Sistine chapel, so I jumped over the Vatican wall into the Vatican Museum. Unfortunately, they shoot you with lasers if you try to take pictures in the Sistine chapel, so this is as close as I could get.

I did a bit more Church hopping.

And then a little bit more.

Then I watched Ben Hur, and thought about the grand chariot races in the movie, so I ran out to the Circus Maximus where they happened in real life, and took a jumping picture.

It was now early afternoon, so I hopped onto this train. The fellow volunteers came along too. Here is the British one, Alex.

And we took it all the way to Assisi, where we jumped in front of St. Francis’s Church.

I skipped over to Florence and jumped in front of their most famous Church.

I thought to myself, I have had enough of Italian jumping, so I asked Rachel if she wanted to take a train to Ireland with me and do some hopping. She said yes, and got into the conductor’s seat. I said choo-choo and away we went.

We got to Ireland and it was cold, but the people were amazing, so I was further inspired to jump




In front of castles and everything else.

This really isn’t a jumping picture, it’s one of my atomic sneezes caught on film for all to see.

Rachel got in on the act and jumped her way to fame.

After Ireland we ran home. We had missed Rome, so we continued the day with our American friend Nora and our Irish friend Tracy, whom we brought back with us.

We all ran to the Pantheon and jumped with glee.

The day was nearly over at this point. It was a long day, but it needed a grand finale of a jump. So I leaped for St. Peter!

God Bless.
Brendan