Bondia Timor Leste!

Ok, I suppose many of you are wondering if we’re any closer to knowing what’s happening with East Timor. We’ve been learning bits and pieces the whole time, but now we know more details.

We will be leaving Rome during the first few days of December, by December 3^rd at the latest. After a really long time flying, and a bus trip through West Timor to East Timor, we will make it to Dili. Dili is the capital of East Timor and the largest city. Brendan and I will stay in Dili, but Sali and Chris will continue on by bus to Baucau where they will live in the volunteer house with Dogmara (Sali’s sister).

Oh, and another important piece of information: since we are leaving for East Timor during the first few days of December, we will return to Rome at the very end of November and be home in Des Moines early next December – a month earlier than we anticipated! We’ll probably be dying of cold after a year of 100^o F days, but it will great to be home a month earlier than we thought.

Ok, more on where we’ll be staying. We just found out that Brendan and I will be staying with two Australian volunteers in the Dili volunteer house near Comoro, the name of the complex run by the Canossian Sisters.

The house we’ll be living in doesn’t look bad at all. To be honest it’s not much different from living in the Roman VOICA house. We really are getting back to the basics here – we cook on gas burners, no microwave, we dry our laundry outside, we don’t watch any TV…everyday is an adventure compared to the conveniences we’re used to. In Timor the house looks similar - little and very simple, but clean, which will be great!

Another picture of the volunteer house.

And now we know more about what the Sisters do in Dili and Baucau. In Dili the Comoro complex is home to all levels of school – kindergarten through college, has a boarding area for students that come from the country side, a church, an area for the community of Sisters, and a health clinic. Here are some of the pictures from past volunteers.

Past longterm volunteers by the classrooms. We heard that the volunteer house had a squatting hole-in-the-floor toilet before, but because of the volunteer second from the right was older and the squatting hurt her knees they got creative and made some type of makeshift toilet. Hopefully that’s still there!

Here are some of the primary school kids. We’re being especially groomed to be teachers in the school, because they’re really trying to teach the children English. Once we have a better grasp on Tetum we may be able to teach other classes too. They even have some old school computers and try to teach them the basics. With Australia so close, having English and computer knowledge can greatly improve their job prospects in a country where unemployment is one of the biggest problems.

They also have a health clinic at the school and that’s where I’m hoping to work in addition to teaching a bit. Sister Sonia, the volunteer coordinator for Dili, has asked Sister Pat for our resumes so she can start thinking about the best place to put us. Please pray that God puts us in the jobs He wants us.

And here are some more pictures of volunteers in classrooms. It gives us an idea of what it might be like for us.

This is the college section of the school.

The Sisters are obviously doing a great job of trying to lift the people up here spiritually and with a quality education. The pictures look fairly calm and not so different from home, but the reality is that Dili and all of East Timor were ripped apart by violence and the destruction of most of their infrastructure only nine years ago during their struggle for independence.

Last night we watched a movie called Answered by Fire about East Timor’s independence in 1999 and the violence that followed. I felt like I was watching Hotel Rwanda again… but it felt closer, because the movie held the experience of the people who we are going to live among and serve. We will be teaching not Iowan children, but children and teens who may live with the memory of watching a relative be murdered by machete. They may still be trying to comprehend a world full of uncertainty and evil.

But the deep faith and their courage are apparent in what we have learned of their history, in the East Timorese we met at World Youth Day, and in our teacher Sister Ana Florinda. It is easy to act courageously when you know you are safe, but to be courageous when you know you will probably be killed for it, is completely different. I have never been courageous like that…

The movie makes me wonder who am I to be given the blessing of security based on the place I was born and family that I was born into? All I know is that to those who are given much, much is expected from (like in the parable of the talents). I have been given the world, a wonderful husband, family, and friends, and a confidence in an unconditional love, so it would be fair to expect that my whole time here on earth should be devoted to those who were given less by birth.

In the gospel at Mass this morning, God read my mind as He usually does. Still thinking a lot about the movie, I thought about the many people who risked their lives to save others when the Indonesian militias were on the rampage. And the part of Luke that was read was where Jesus says not to be afraid of those who can kill your body but can’t touch your soul, but be afraid of the one who can condemn your soul to hell. And I thought of the people who knew by faith that to do the right thing they might lose their life, but save their soul.

Brendan and I are blessed that God has allowed us on this trip to be history-makers with them as they form their new country. Hopefully we will be able to help in some incredibly small way, if only in showing solidarity with them. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We love you!

Always,

Rachel and Brendan