Roamin' Catholics in East Timor

The Final Moments

2009-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

As Brendan and I sit at the front of our house and watch our neighbors go by - walking with their small children, catching up with friends and relatives, or going to buy fresh vegetables for dinner - we prepare ourselves to leave this place in only 1 week to begin the journey back to America.

We will have to been gone for over 1 year, 10 months of that we have been in Timor Leste. During that time we've been through flooded rivers, dengue fever, earthquakes, met large families in wood and tin shacks, swam with a crocodile, and learned from the eye witnesses about the massacres and terror that have stalked this people through the 20th century.

More simple difficulties included adjusting to a culture where most people eat rice 3 times a day, the months of cold bucket showers, doing all the cooking on 2 gas burners, dealing with power outages and often no running water (and that the drinking water was unsafe when it was running), and washing all our dishes and clothes by hand.

But what has made every minute worth it is what we're always talking about: the people! The people here are quick to open their hearts to you, to trust you like you are part of the family, and they are disarmingly generous with the little they have.

And they have taught us so much! It's difficult now to know how much we've changed from living and working with them these 10 months, but even now some inspirations stick out.

They've taught us:

How to Live a Simple Lifestyle

In America, a lot of people talk about simplifying their lifestyle or living simply. The problem is that everyone's definition of living simply is different - to one it might mean giving up the daily Starbucks trip and to another it might mean only eating out 3 times a week instead of more often. But there's a radical difference between that simple living and the dirt or concrete floor, few modern conveniences, limited access to safe drinking water existence of many people in East Timor and all over the world.

Brendan and I have blended Western and Timorese living styles together this year (for health and nutritional reasons), but the Timorese side has taught us to appreciate so many more things than we did before. One example is laundry - it will be sooo nice to be able to use a laundry machine when we get home... but we hope that we will never forget the women who are washing clothes daily for their big families by hand (we had it easy with only 2 people). Everyone knows that we shouldn't take privileges for granted, but to a certain extent, until you've been to a developing country, you can't understand except academically just how many little things we should be appreciating.

How to be Rich in Family

Recently, Brendan and I were going for a walk and we ran into one of the high school seniors from Canossa while she was on her way with her sisters and cousins to a celebration. She was chatting with us and she told us a story of a conversation she had with her Dad. Her Dad had just come home from work and was sitting down working on something new when she approached him and exclaimed, "Dad, we are sooo rich!" Her Dad looked up in surprise and confusion because he knew, while they weren't hurting as badly as some other families, they were by no means rich.

To alleviate his confusion she continued,"...In family, Dad. We are rich in family!" And her Dad smiled. The student has brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins who all live nearby and are very supportive of each other and her family. I know exactly what she's talking about, as the oldest of 7 kids with both Mom and Dad's sides of the family in our home city. But I think I am one of the few lucky Americans to know the 'rich in family' joy, compared to the many Timorese in this family-oriented society. It's a sad thing that our independent attitude and our 0,1, or 2 child-norm seems to be costing many of us.

Living in 3 different countries now for a significant amount of time, it's clear that Italy and East Timor's cultures each have some parts that are better than ours and some worse. But one big difference is the closeness in families, especially with all generations living very close to each other or even in the same house. Going along with this, especially in Timor, is a much greater sense of respect for the elderly and the very young (including the unborn). This special respect for all people of all ages is a virtue that our own culture, sadly, often fails to show.

How to Be Rich in Faith

Brendan and I came to East Timor to support the people in their faith and to show them Jesus' love in practical ways, but I think they have helped our faith to grow even more. The witness of how they live their faith is a constant challenge to me.

One example of this is their incredible hospitality. They will sit on the floor or stand so that a guest can have a chair, and they will go hungry so they can offer a guest some food. They will give all they can and then apologize that they have not done enough. They freely give from their daily living money, instead of from their excess. As a "saver" who is more likely to save to have extra and then give from that, I am often humbled in their presence. Their overwhelming generosity is what Christians should be known for and not always are.

Another aspect of their faith that has had a lasting impact on me is their resilience through incredible suffering. It's true that everyone suffers, but here men, women, and children have died early from violence, young people have been killed without warning for peacefully protesting, and Sisters have been murdered on missions of mercy giving food and medicine to refugees. And not only the violence, but the suffering that is byproducts of conflict have killed or wounded many here: hunger, homelessness, and disease. I imagine that experiencing all these things may hurt you in a more traumatic way than other examples of suffering.

Yet, in their suffering, so many of them have looked to God for comfort and found strength in Him to start again and to rebuild and support others in doing the same. I don't know if I would be that strong in the same circumstances. All I can say is that to be with them and to hear their stories is to to be inspired.

Our friend Cas, a volunteer from Australia, described the witness of their faith very well. She said that here (compared to at her home) the people really pray and the people really sing. They put their heart and soul into it because Jesus is their Source, as He should be for all of us. The constant crazy changes in developing countries provide an opportunity for them and us to much more fully depend on God for our daily needs. And when we depend on God, we have found over and over again that He is faithful.

So that is a very short summary of some important things we learned this year. This will be the last blog written from East Timor, although there may be more from America as we have a chance to further process our experiences and what we've learned. We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog throughout our journey and that you have grown somehow too.

Please pray for us during our week long journey home for health and safe travels. And if you would like, you can meet us at the Des Moines airport October 1st! We will be flying in a little before 8 pm on that Thursday night and we would love to see you there. If that doesn't work try to see us as soon as possible. We've missed you all!

Love Always, In Christ, Your friends,
Rachel and Brendan

P.S. Also published today is the blog on Sharing Our Witness just below this one. Read that too if you get a chance.

Sharing Our Witness

2009-09-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Recently Brendan and I have been excited to have some opportunities to share our witness. The first was right before the day remembering the life and example of Saint Magdalene of Canossa (an Italian Mother Teresa who founded the Canossian Sisters). The Sisters and the 80 girls who live at the school had been doing a novena that would finish on the eve of St. Magdalene's feast day. Sister Terezinha invited us to help with the prayer on that evening.

We prayed and sang psalms together in Tetum and read scriptures. Then out of nowhere Sr. T asked us if we would be willing to share our witness of our recent life and how we ended up in East Timor. So we stood up and told all the students and Sisters how God had worked mini-miracles in our lives to bring us to East Timor and what He has been teaching us here. They seemed to understand and appreciate what we said. We just hope it will encourage them to really strive to know Jesus more and to have a good attitude about the crazy twists that happen in life that God uses to get you where He wants you.

Another opportunity came when we were asked to be on a vocations panel at a Singles for Christ retreat. Here in Timor there are very strong and supportive programs for Kids for Christ, Youth for Christ, Singles for Christ, and Couples for Christ. Each group meets regularly for prayer, praise and worship, and to encourage each other in the faith. We've been really impressed by the people who organize all of them, who we see at Mass every week and who have been a blessing to meet.

So we agreed to be on the panel, talking about both marriage and missions as potential vocations. It was a 2-day retreat and the young people were pumped up for God by the time we got there for the workshop the 2nd day. Among the speakers were a Sister (Sr. Sonia), a priest, another married couple, an international lay missionary, and us as married volunteers/missionaries. All were Timorese except us and Sr. Sonia, who is Filipino.

It was beautiful for us to see all these people - most were young graduates our age trying to pray and search out what vocation God is preparing them for. They were at this retreat hoping to hear from God in a special way.

The vocations talks also seemed very helpful for them. We couldn't understand all of the fast Tetum of the Timorese speakers, but the retreatants laughed often at the speaker's anecdotes and were also very attentive when speakers shared about more difficult times in the discernment process. For us, in addition to our mission experience, we shared about dating throughout college and trying to pursue purity in our relationship, while discerning whether or not we were supposed to be married or a Sister and priest respectively. We shared with them that for most people it's quite a process with lots of prayer involved, but the answer will come. For us that came when we felt God's blessing for us to be married and He also worked everything out for the marriage and our volunteering trip.

After everyone presented there was a Q & A time when anyone could ask questions to any speaker. The question we and the other married couple received was 'How can you make sure you will stay together forever?' (no divorce). Divorce is starting to become an issue here, as it is everywhere. One thing that we told them was about being 2 + God and that the strand of 3 is a lot harder to break than 2 (especially since one of them is unbreakable already). We talked about how as a couple when you pray together, read the Bible together, and do other Church activities together it keeps both spouses focused on Christ and what's important. That's what keeps marriages together - so has been our experience in our marriage so far and it has also been the advice we've had from many long-married couples who we really respect.

In my opinion we have really benefitted from this advice. This year has been an amazing time for us not only to really make an impact on others, but because we also get to spend a lot of time with each other and much of that time is doing activities focused on Christ. To me it's obvious that our marriage is very healthy and blessed because of this time. I'm especially glad that God gave us this time together at the beginning of our marriage so that we have a strong foundation to build on in the future.

The last opportunity I'll write about was with English Club. We spent a week talking just about faith and one of the days our conversation topic was, "Is Jesus important to you? Why?" We discussed for a long time and I think it was as encouraging for me as it was for them. Each student said at least one very profound thing with a distinctly different perspective - Jesus as a friend, Jesus as a confidant when there is no one else, Jesus making the impossible become possible...We also talked about the difference between going through the motions in your faith only because it's a family thing, and the need to go much deeper into a relationship/friendship with Jesus and to let your daily actions be inspired by that friendship. They said that they want that deeper faith and I believe it. Some of them really understand already, especially some of them who have suffered most. One student's father died this year and she seems to have the deepest faith of all.

During a more recent English Club I shared my faith story with them. It was almost all in Tetum and afterward I realized that I finally have a good grasp on the language and can quickly figure out how to say what I want to. So that was a great revelation, but the better part was that they seemed to understand and react to it. I just prayed that the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts so all these little things will add up to make a real difference in their lives.

After my story and some discussion, I gave them each an English New Testament with a special note for them in the front from Brendan and I. It's great because it's really multitasking: to help them know Jesus more, to help them learn English, and to help them fulfill their life goals (the other week we made Life Goal lists and many of them said they wanted to read the Bible often or daily).

It's really been an amazing experience to work with these students who I see as my younger sisters (and one brother : ) Brendan has had similar experiences with his university classes.

So God has generously given us many formal opportunities as well as countless informal opportunities to share His love here in Timor. Maybe someday we'll know the impact He has made through us. But you don't have to go out of the country to make a difference - remember to keep making an impact right where you are (as many of you are constantly doing)!

K, hope you are all well at home! We can't wait to see you! 1 week and we'll be on our way! Love you and miss you A LOT!

Always,
Rachel and Brendan

Surprise!

2009-08-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Brendan and I are going to have a baby!!! Finding out was a bit of a process, but since we found out I'm pregnant we've been very excited!

We found out July 15 with a positive pregnancy test at a pharmacy near our house. It was funny because Brendan and I were waiting in the office while the clinician went to use the Indonesian pregnancy test. We expected her to be gone for a few minutes, but she came back after about 20 seconds, sat down, and said one word as she looked up at us... We didn't have any idea what word she said, but she repeated it a few times while pointing to the "positive" check box on her sheet and it became clear we were pregnant! So, after that 10 second delay, we burst into smiles and hugged each other as she started filling out the information for the doctor. She also gave me some advice in Tetum as a young mother with 3 children herself : )

Since that time it's been a whirlwind of telling family, friends, and the Sisters here. We've also met with two docotors to start getting information. Dr. Christiane is a German doctor who married a Timorese man and she is pregnant too! So I know she knows what she's talking about : ) She recently left to give birth in Germany, so before she left I tried to meet with her a lot to get advice (in English).

Brendan and I also met with Dr. Amita, an obstetrician from Nepal who works at the National Hospital here. She's a colorful, lively woman who told us she came to East Timor to help for 6 months and she's been here for almost 4 years now. Timor seems to have that special pull on people. It's obvious that she has a special heart for mothers and helping them ease through pregnancy.

On July 21st, Dr. Amita did our first check up and ultrasound. It was amazing...she expertly twirled the wand around until she found our baby and she pointed out his or her beating heart! Using the computer she was able to determine, based on the size of our baby and the gestational sack, that the baby was 6.5 weeks old at the time! But today our baby is 11.5 weeks old - almost 3 months! And when we get home I'll be 4 months pregnant. The time goes fast, especially with all these new things to think about.

But the ultrasound was really special. The emotions that you feel when you look at that black and white screen and see the pulsing of your baby's heart are difficult to describe. For me, I think the overriding feeling was AWE - awe that there was another life inside me and awe of the God-designed perfectness and complexity of our bodies that allows life to continue. It made me think a lot about grace. I've done nothing that could merit this gift, but it was given all the same, and that is grace.

So since the ultrasound I've been reading up on the do's and don'ts. Brendan had found a book about pregnancy at the school library that was written by an Australian nurse. A line in the book that made me think of the ultrasound said: " Being pregnant and having a baby are the closest things to a miracle that you will ever see." That's how I feel right now : )

I sped through that book and one of our Australian volunteer friends, Therese, bought us a copy of "What To Expect When You're Expecting" while she was visiting home. The book is super-thorough and has been wonderful to read so I'm not so worried about being pregnant in Timor.

But, because we are pregnant, some things have changed and we're starting to figure everything out. The biggest change is that we will be coming home a little early so that we can find jobs and housing soon. We will already have been here for the full school year and we will stay until we see our students graduate. After that we have a few weeks for goodbyes and to finish our side projects and then we will be coming home. We will arrive at the Des Moines airport October 1st around 8 pm.

It's a Thursday night and it would be incredible to see as many of you as possible at the airport! We've missed you A LOT and will be looking forward to transitioning back into life at home with the support of family and friends!

So that's our big news! Please pray for the health of our baby and that we would finish our work here well, and that God would guide our future. Thanks!

Love always,

Rachel and Brendan

P.S. Interesting fact: The Tetum word for pregnant is "isin-rua" literally translated it means "two bodies" : ) Appropriate...

Update

2009-08-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Just wanted to apologize quickly for not writing much recently. Most of you understand because of our special news that many of you already know: WE'RE PREGNANT!!! It's very exciting, but more on that in the next blog (which is already written, just needs to be typed, etc).

Just to fill you in, lately we've been REALLY busy but when we weren't figuring out final details about when to leave, going to Doctor's appointments, continuing our projects at school, etc., we were:

- Going to a Timorese wedding party (our first)!

- Taking a relaxing weekend trip with other volunteers to Atauro Island (the little island 2 hours from Dili that is part of East Timor)!

- Preparing for and attending the official accredidation of the Canossian university. Brendan worked long and hard to help prepare for it, and it went really well and we're sure that they passed and the school gets to stay open!

- Saying goodbye to other friends who have finished their term of service. Chris and Sali and Dagmara are back in Poland and two of our Australian friends leave in less than 2 weeks. It's been difficult and sad, but at the same time we are preparing to come home ourselves - we will be home on October 1st!

- Preparing to finish school. My 3rd year students at SMA are finished, but we are continuing English Club. They will graduate on August 29th, earlier than expected. Then we have about 3 weeks before we leave to get ready, say goodbye to all of our friends, and finish working out all the details of our homecoming.

I think that's about it. Again, sorry it's been so long. Coming in and spending hours on the internet has been low on the priority list the last few weeks. Depending on how many of the blogs we get put up you may have to enjoy the few quality ones and then have lots of questions for us when we get home : )

Ok, we'll put up a blog about our baby soon : ) So don't get discouraged when there isn't anything new for awhile - just keep checking.

Love you all,
Rach and Brendan

P.S. Check out the b-day blog. Even though it says July 19th it was put up, it was started then and finally finished and put up today. So you can read about how awesome my birthday was : )

Birthday Extravaganza

2009-07-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

(Sorry it has taken us so long to put up another blog, things have been really busy and the computer has been playing tricks on us. There are more blogs to come in the near future!)

On Sunday, June 28th, I was blissfully happy! As you've read, the week before had been great and activity-filled, so naturally my birthday was going to be the climax of all the excitement : ) Brendan had planned everything and told me nothing except that it wouldn't be a day for resting - it was going to be busy and fun, just the way I like it!

So I woke up early, excited like a little kid, and the 1st surprise was a scavenger hunt. Without my knowledge, Brendan had gone to the store and bought some little snacks and things like chocolate milk and nice-smelling hand soap and Tim Tams. Then I had to search the house for them. I was offered 3 hot-cold lifelines (where Brendan would say cold, cool, warm, hot, etc. as I moved farther or closer to the object). I used 2, but only for speed's sake because I was hungry for breakfast : )

After breakfast we relaxed a little until English Mass. Brendan read the 1st reading and I sang in the choir and was asked to carry up the beautiful tropical flowers during the offering that would be placed in front of the altar.

It's interesting here, because instead of only presenting money during the offering, the Timorese give the fruit of the land as well as money - on holidays they offer fresh bananas, coconuts, and live chickens to God. As we offer money, they also offer their very livelihood, but in a way that is quite foreign to us. And it's amazing that they always give something - rarely do I see a Timorese person pass the offering plate without putting something in it, when internationals wouldn't hesitate to pass it on. Often they only give 5, 10, or 25 cents, but that's significant here - the equivalent of a couple of dollars to us. It's ironic that they give so freely here despite having so little, where as at home many people have no qualms about buying an expensive coffee everyday but to give $2 at church every Sunday would be unthinkable. Anyway, it's an interesting fact about Timor that has had an impact on the way I think. But anyway, back to my birthday : )

After Mass, the choir director asked me to stand up and the choir sang to me. I'm pretty sure I turned bright red, but it was a really nice gesture. Then Brendan and I caught up with our volunteer friends who all wished me a happy birthday and apologized that they were incredibly busy and wouldn't be able to join in any of the festivities. I was a little disappointed because I thought we might be able to do something all together, but they all left to start moving to new house and going back to their work in the villages outside of Dili.

Brendan said the two of us were going to go on a picnic after he ran a quick errand, which made me feel better, so he drove us to the beach and stopped. Then he explained he was actually taking me out for lunch (a big treat!) and he led me into a Burmese restaurant, The Beach Cafe, which we had never been to before.

We had only been there for about 2 minutes when all the volunteers who had said they were busy started coming in : ) Therese, Cass, Donna, and Ellie were able to make it! They gave me some very nice Timorese presents and a great birthday party! We were there for over 2 hours sharing and listening to all the crazy stories you get from being a volunteer in a developing country. Always fun/scary/interesting when you get volunteers together : )

After lunch, I found out that Donna, Ellie, Brendan, and I were going to the beach. We drove out to Tasi Tolu beach under the hill with the John Paul II statue overlook. We were going SNORKELING!!! I had heard good things about it from Brendan, but never snorkeled in the ocean before. I was excited to go, but also a little nervous. I think everyone has an unreasonable fear, and mine is death by shark. But logically it was fine - no one has heard of sharks close to Dili and Brendan had been to this spot before with some friends and had no trouble. Tasi Tolu is also a favorite spot for the scuba/snorkeling businesses here, so it has the reputation of being safe. So I prayed that God would have my guardian angel swim beside me just in case : )

We had to spit on our goggles (to keep them from fogging up) and get everything tight in all the right places, but once that was completed and we you're in the water everything else fades away. There's just you and the reef and fish below you.

As we swam farther from shore the land dropped away under us and the coral got nicer and the fish more colorful. In some areas I felt like I was in the movie Finding Nemo with all the brightly colored fish. The coral ranged from a brown to white color and was not as Finding-Nemo-like, but our friend Donna has snorkeled many times and she said it was some of the best coral that she has seen.

But the best part was the fish swimming in and around the coral. There were iridescent blues and purples and oranges and fish covered with multi-colored stripes for spots, each wild and beautiful. Especially exciting was seeing two large, bright purple starfish. It was like seeing fish in the Aquatics part of the Omaha Zoo, except that these fish were in the wild. Somehow that makes it a heck of a lot more exciting. Like the first time we saw a crocodile in the wild here - you have an adrenaline rush and a touch of fear and awe at the same time. It could be compared to the difference between book knowledge and knowledge from experience. We've been getting a lot of the latter here in Timor.

As it got later in the afternoon, the tide started to come in and the waves got bigger. We swam to the biggest waves and snorkeled through (or if they crested right before they got to you under them). Brendan started to teach me how to "duck dive" - when you dive about 3 meters down with your snorkel. The first time I tried, I got a mouthful of delicious salt water, but I'm slowly learning.

After an hour and half flew by, we headed to shore, dried off, and left. When we got home, Brendan generously allowed time for both of us to have a quick bucket shower and rest before the next activity.

Around 6:30, he told me we had a reservation at 7 pm and that I needed to wear nice to really nice clothes. He made it sound like we were going to another restaurant, but when I was ready he drove me out of town towards the school instead. I was surprised when we pulled up at the convent and were met by some of the Sisters, who showed us the way to prayer. Prayer was a great way to finish the day! Besides all the normal prayers, many of the Sisters prayed for me, for Brendan, and for you (our family and friends at home).

After prayer we received even more good news - 3 letters had arrived from America: one from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Bill, one was Brendan's slightly delayed birthday card, and the other contained many letters that friends had written at a "letter-writing party" (smart!). Thanks guys!

We didn't know, but while we were reading the letters the Sisters were working on dinner and a surprise. When we came to help them there was cake set out on the table with decorations and birthday wishes written in the different Timorese languages. They even had some pasta for us for dinner, in addition to the usual rice, vegetables, and a little meat.

Dinner was delicious. After dinner they sang to me and did the customary double-cheek kiss to congratulate me. I cut the cake and we all got a small piece : ) After cake we went over to the boarding house next door, where we had heard that there was another birthday girl.

When Brendan and I came in they clapped and started to sing Happy Birthday (Timorese style) over and over in different languages until all 80 girls had formed a line and given me the double-cheek kiss. They also put a tais on my shoulders and Zhyzhy, a student from English Club gave me a card with dried flowers. The Brendan and I responded by singing the cha-cha-cha version of Happy Birthday and the 10 year old and very shy Fani had to dance when we said cha-cha-cha. It was super-cute!

Finally, after some games with the Sisters and Brendan checking the English of some official documents for the university that were needed the next day, we went home happily exhausted!

But that's not the end! The next day I arrived ready to teach English Club as usual, but Brendan had plotted with them to have a beach party because they wanted to do something for my birthday also!

They had planned everything perfectly - they all made food for the picnic lunch and brought their swim clothes (there aren't "swimsuits" here, people just swim in their clothes) and cameras. After a really nice picnic lunch on the beach, we went swimming. Many of the girls didn't know how to swim so we started to teach them. The biggest problem was that the backfloat is especially scary while the waves are coming in, but once they could do that they learned quickly. our best swimmer went from having trouble floating to working on her front and backstroke. It's surprising, but true - most Timorese we've met don't have a clue how to swim.

Anyway, as is probably clear - my 23rd birthday was definitely one of my best birthdays EVER! If more of my family were here it would have been #1. Special thanks to my incredible husband Brendan, our volunteer friends, the Sisters at Comoro and Sister Sonia, and the English Club students! I love you guys - thanks for making my birthday special!

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

Birthday Week

2009-07-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

The week before my birthday was so packed with fun activities that I was exhausted by the time it got to my real birthday on Sunday : )

The highlights:

Monday for English Club we cut the English practice short and I taught them tae kwon do! Just the white belt exercises - all the basic punches, blocks, and kicks, and the beginner sparring moves. on Friday we had watched a Jackie Chan movie and they seemed interested so on Monday I taught them the beginner stuff : )

Tuesday we pulled off a surprise party for Aurita and Marcia's birthdays. All of our birthdays are in June so we wanted to celebrate together. But Brendan and I told them that we just wanted to have them over to our house for some lunch to practice English. But when were supposed to drive them to our house, we kept on going to Castaway, a nice restaurant on the beachfront. Sister Sonia met us there. Sister Aquelina was supposed to come also, but she was very sick.

So the five of us went into the restaurant and ordered pizza. Aurita had eaten pizza once, but Marcia had never had it (she hadn't even heart of the word "pizza"). So we got cheese, pepperoni, and a chicken one. They tried each type, but the pepperoni was everybody's favorite. So we talked and looked out over the ocean and at pizza until Sr. Sonia pulled out surprise birthday presents for each of us. The clinic girls each a necklace and I got a new pair of socks and $5 pulsa (phone credit) - perfect gifts for a volunteer because most of my socks are super-stretched from all the handwashing and $5 pulsa means lots of texting Sisters and friends and, if I'm lucky, 3 minutes talking to my family in America : )

Tuesday night, after more work, Brendan and I went to our Australian friend Therese's house for a movie night. We had pizza again (2 times in 1 day - Brendan was happy!) and spent most of time talking while the power was out. But eventually we did get to watch a movie before heading home. It was a nice break, and it's always great to be around Therese because she has many great stories from volunteering in the Solomon Islands, Uganda, and now working in East Timor.

Friday, Brendan and I were chaperones for a field trip. The 3rd year students who have an emphasis in science loaded up into the back of 2 big trucks and we drove the 2 hours to the village of Remixio (pronounced ray-miss-ee-oo). We were in the back with the students and they were singing and shouting the whole way, just like high school students at home. On the way they pointed out the Timorese coffee that the country is known for and we saw the house of their Prime Minister.

When we got to the high school in Remixio their student were very shy of the newcomers, but slowly they warmed up to us. We started off with plant identification and the Canossa Biology teacher formed groups from both schools. Brendan was in charge of Group 3 and me, Group 4. Basically we supervised their plant-finding in different areas up in the hills above the school, made sure that the two schools are working together, and that the students didn't go too far or get hurt. My group was lucky - we were given a hill that had a lot of the ferns they were looking for and beatiful views down each side. Eventually we came back and presented the plants and their classification by genus.

Around 1 pm we had a lunch break, and Sr. Domingas's friends invited us for fresh corn and oranges. After lunch the Canossa students presented to the St. Joseph's students how to use a microscope and test blood. I think it was good for the Canossa students to have to explain what they've learned and good for the St. Joseph's students to be taught by peers and well as teachers.

After the lessons there was recreation for about an hour with soccer, basketball, volleyball, and a baseball/cricket game they played with a tennis ball. Brendan and I played volleyball and basketball. Volleyball was fun and relaxed with people from both schools on each team. After that came school vs. school guys soccer and girls basketball. Canossa needed a 5th player so I played basketball, but it was painful. But there's always next time...

The trip home was even better than the trip there - the students were especially lively and shouting and singing and dancing and clapping in the back of the truck for 2 hours straight. How any of them had a voice the next day I have no idea! We were surrounded by mists as we came out of the mountains and by the time we got to Dili the moon was bright and the Southern Cross ( a beautiful constellation) was high in the sky, but nothing slowed these kids down. We taught them a chant from Remember the Titans adapted for Timor Leste and they loved it and sang it over and over off and on for the last hour : ) We were starting to regreat teaching them it (just a little) when we got back to school and made our way home.

Saturday our Tetum teacher in Rome, a Timorese Sr. Ana Florinda, came to our house for lunch. She had finished her training in Rome and now will be a Timorese missionary in Indonesia. But while she is working out the longterm visa she has a couple of weeks here to catch up with her family and fill them in on what life is like outside of Timor.

It was great to see her! She's the kind of person life can't get down - always smiling or laughing... She's the kind of person that you hear before you see them : ) We were blessed to have her as our teacher in Rome because she was the first Timorese person we ever met and she was wonderful. So meeting her helped us look forward even more so to the mission.

She shared recent stories from Rome and gave us the updates on the missionary Sisters we met during our formation (many of them have completed their formation and are traveling to the countries all over the world that will be their new home). In return, we told her about how things were going here. She was glad to hear that we were enjoying ourselves and working hard. Before she left, Brendan helped her check some English documents, we took photos together, and she gave me an early birthday present - a box of cookies (practical and delicious)! She is always kind and exceedingly generous. It lifted our spirits to be around her and we hope God will work it out so we can see her again in the future : )

After lunch there was time for a quick rest and then we were off to English Bible Study. It was great as always and afterward Yanni, one of the Bible Study girls, asked us to hangout with her at the beach. So the three of us went to a part of the beachfront she liked that was filled with families cooking up fresh fish and corn on the cob for people walking past. We stopped at her favorite place and ordered pop and grilled corn. They put chilis on the corn so it's hot & spicy. It was good, but I'm not gonna lie, it paled in comparison to Iowa sweetcorn. That's one of the critical summer things we're missing, but for one summer we'll probably survive.

After the corn and conversation we dropped her off at her house before continuing to another Filipino activity. In June there were two activities - a formal dinner/dance for their 111th Independence Day celebration and this Saturday night there was a raffle, dinner, and presentation from the sports fest. Sr. Sonia gave us free tickets to both events as a gift. Thanks Sr. Sonia!

So Sr. Sonia was there with 15 Timorese girls who live at the Balide convent, so we sat by them during the dinner. Dinner was really good, except it was difficult to get used to the Filipino pasta (they like it sweet, which is confusing to our tastebuds). After dinner they raffled off 50 prizes, starting with #50 and between every 5 or so one of the sports fest teams made a presentation. There was singing, dancing, martial arts, and even tininkling. I'm not sure of the spelling, but it's a dance you do with 4 long, bamboo poles and some people click the poles together in rhythm while others dance in the middle of the tic-tac-toe and try not to get caught by the poles. My class did it in grade school - it's one of my favorite memories from music class : )

So the tension increased with each round of prizes. Brendan and I had bought 3 tickets and were hoping to win the mountain bike or another good prize. We didn't have any lucky, but one of the best parts of the night was watching one of the Canossa girls win a DVD player. All the girls were screaming and jumping up and down and were really excited for her. The other highlight was watching the girls do a semi-traditional Timorese dance that one of the girls had choreographed. It was beautiful and set to great music! We could tell they were nervous, but they did a great job and got quite an ovation as they finished!

We didn't stay for the end because it was getting late and I knew Brendan had a busy day planned for my brithday Sunday and if I was tired it wouldn't be good. And it was busy and one of my best birthdays ever! But you'll have to wait for the next blog to find out what happened : )

Hope all is well with you and that summer is going great! Be sure to enjoy that sweetcorn in memory of us : )

Love,

Rachel and Brendan

My Birthday Present!

2009-07-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family!

Just a few days ago it was a very special day - my birthday! On Sunday, June 28th, I turned 23! In the past few years I've had some pretty awesome birthdays and this year was definitely top 3. But birthdays are no fun unless you share them, so Brendan and I are going to ask you to return all the expensive gifts that you bought for me ; ) and consider helping the people of East Timor instead!

There are 3 ways that you can help someone - by giving them the 3 T's. The 3 T's are your Time, your Talent, and your Treasure. I'm especially fond of giving Time and Talent in service, but as I get older I realize more and more that money is an important part of the equation. Not much can happen without kind-hearted, generous people providing financial support behind the scenes.

Brendan and I have spent more than six months really digging in and finding out what the biggest needs are. To be completely honest there are many, but for simplicity's sake we have narrowed it down to the top 2 needs we have seen with our own eyes in the places were we work.

Canossa University - the Institute of Professional Development Canossa

Students go to school for 3 years in the Computer Technician or Office Management programs. Brendan teaches English to all of the second year students here and works in the library, preparing the new computer catalog system for use.

The top needs here are:

1.) Scholarships for Students
With food and housing being the top priority, it's difficult for many students and their families to find the money for education. Some of Brendan's students go to school all day, go to work until night, and then study until 2 in the morning. They make big sacrifices, knowing that education is their key for the future. Currently the cost of a college semester is $90 - nothing compared to our college tuition, yet almost unreachable here.

2.) Library Improvements

The IPDC was started in 2004 and this summer the government will come to check the programs and school facilities. If everything is satisfactory the school will receive their accredidation. One thing that must be improved is the school library. For the accreditation the library must have at least 5,000 properly organized books. Brendan, Sister Etalvinia, and Gina have been working hard on the library for the past couple of months inputting extensive information about each book, and they will continue until the inspection in July or August.

Other important parts of this improvement are:

- Obtaining hundreds of more books, especially books about business and computers written in English or Indonesian

- Getting a printer so the students can work on and print their assignment at the computers in the library. It would be great because it is difficult for most students to get to computer here, and all the public ones are riddled with viruses. It's nothing like at home where almost every family has at least one personal computer.

This is great, very concrete project that we can watch continue to develop and show you the changes. It is also a project that has potential to greatly benefit the students in the longterm,
1. By providing a quiet workspace for them onsite so they don't need to spend vital time and money to use public computers and
2. By helping to earn accredidation for their programs. Brendan has already begun the work, as you saw in the most recent blog, but there is still much to do.

*You may be thinking that you have old books that you could send over, but only for our friends and family in Australia would this be realistic. From America, shipping costs would greatly outweight the value of the books. If you send money, we will be able to buy more books (and newer, updated books) much cheaper than you could.

SMA - Canossa Senior High School

The senior high school is where I teach the English Club, practice English with the teachers, and participate in many student activities. It is a great place, always bustling with activity and over 450 students. It has consistently been recognized as one of the best high schools in Dili since it was started after the conflict in 1999. Many of the students can be found winning scholarships, awards, and competitions.

Two practical needs are:

1.)Laboratory for Language (~ $2,300)

Sister Ervinia, the principal would love to transform an old science room into a Lab for Language - a place where students can come to supplement what they learn in the classroom. Living in a small country, they must learn the languages of the surrounding countries. So added to their class load are Indonesian, Portuguese, and English. Imagine having to learn three foreign languages in high school - most high schoolers can barely handle one! We have been blessed to be born in a country where we are taught an international language - these students are not so lucky.

As an English teacher here, I can tell you how helpful a room for language with books, posters, and headsets for listening to tapes and CDs would be. The students really want to learn , but it is difficult to find someone to practice with who will be able to help correct basic pronunciation, grammar, and prepositions. Whenever Brendan and I walk to and from school or around the city, we are always approached by young people hoping to practice their English. This room would be a great resource for motivated students which could give them more opportunities for the future, especially in regards to jobs and university scholarships.

(Some of our students)

2.) Computer Lab Updates

Their computer lab is full of old donated computers still slowly running Microsoft 2000. Updates are badly needed for the computers and programs, especially antivirus protection (you remember the story of our laptop - may it rest in peace).

Healthcare

The School Clinic

The clinic at the school where I volunteer 3 mornings a week, is one of my favorite places to be. But while I have worked there I have seen some big needs that I think could be alleviated by:

1.) Funds for Food

I used to think that there wasn't much hunger in Dili, but now I'm realizing that it's just under the surface. Families that are putting their kids through school and paying rent for a small house may not have enough money for food.

In 1st Aid courses they teach you to ask a person who is dizzy or has passed out if they have eaten anything that day. Here that question is much more pertinent. Many different students come in who are dizzy or have severe headaches from hunger.

Just yesterday, a small girl from the junior high school came in because she was lightheaded. Tears quietly ran down her face from hunger pains as we got her to rest in the bed. They suffer quietly - I can't imagine trying to stay focused in school if you were hungry all the time and had a headache or stomachache because of it.

Another day, a girl from primary school came in because she was sick. When Sister Aquelina prescribed her the medicine and told her to take it three times a day, she burst into tears because she didn't have any food to take it with. And for those of us who have tried to take medicine without food, it's not a pleasant experience because your stomach can feel more sick than before. Also, it doesn't help as much because certain medicines are not absorbed effectively unless taken with food.

What we would love to establish is a fund, maybe $40 a month (it goes a long way here), that would be used to buy fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables and rice that Sister Aquelina could give out at her discretion to the children of poorer families when they come to the clinic so they would have food to take with their medicine or to ease hunger-related conditions.

2.) Funds for Medicine

We've told you some stories about helping to buy more expensive medicine necessary for more extreme conditions. It would be great to keep that up so that Sister Aquelina would be able to prescribe medicine that she knows a person needs instead of giving paracetamol (like Advil/Tylenol) and multivitamins because they're cheap. A lot of times this is all students need for a fever or cough or cold, but when there is something chronic or more serious I think that there should be a small amount of money monthly to have that option.

Los Palos Mobile Clinic

There are many needs in Dili but we can't forget the rest of the country, where many things are even more in need of development. One of the medical needs that I have heard about is the Los Palos Mobile Health Clinic. Los Palos is a mid-sized city on the eastern coast of the island. The Canossian Sister recently ran a mobile health clinic for the rural areas around Los Palos, ensuring especially that children and women had access to better medical care. It isn't like Dili or Baucau, which both have a decent hospital; in the small coastal villages mobile healthcare might be the only care the people receive. It is more than for convenience, it could save lives.

The mobile health clinic has been discontinued the past few years for lack of funding. It cost $8,000 a year for all the transportation, medicine, and maintenance costs. But the Sisters are patient - they pray and trust that if God wants the mobile clinic up and running the funding will come.

Making Your Decision

These are the needs that we have seen. Brendan and I are here to support the Timorese in their faith, to enhance their Christian education system, and to provide health resources are not readily available. Alone we can do little, but when good people get together we can make a significant difference!

If you are considering giving some money to these projects, there are some others things you should know:

*#1 Any financial support is appreciated!!! We realize most people could only afford to offer $20 or $50 at most, but even those could be significant here. $50 might provide food and medicine for a month at the clinic, or help a university student pay for a semester of college. Be assured that your dollar can go a long way here: Brendan and I live comfortably on about $120 each for the month, although are housing is provided free by the Canossian Sisters. Still, I bet you wish your cost of living was that low!

*The currency in East Timor is the US $ so you don't have to worry about any international exchange rates (unless you are Australian and then I believe it would currently be in your favor).

*Every donation you send will be used and used well! If you haven't already - go back and read the June blog "Side Projects". With the donation money we received before we left we have kept careful track of what we have done with it so every penny is used for the benefit of the Timorese.

And the Sisters are the same! Recently the IPDC university received a grant for $35,000. It was used to get internet for their computer lab, hire more teachers, and create two business rooms for practical office lessons for both programs. Brendan and I happened to be at school when East Timor's Minister of Education dropped by to check on the status of the funds. We got to meet him and he told us how impressed he was by the Sisters "transparency" - they they had used all the money to make significant, visible changes.
We were told that sometimes the Minister of Education will check on a school which was given a grant only to find that no changes have been made and that the money has vanished. So he appreciated the Sister's hard work and honesty.

With the Sisters and us here, you don't have to worry about money being used improperly. You will know that your donation is being used well and we will update you on the progress of the projects with stories and pictures.

How To Donate

1.) Telegraphic Transfer (Western Union)

This is the most realistic and quick way to transfer the money, especially smaller donations. Brendan and my parents have agreed to act as contacts for us, so if you would like to make a donation you can give or send them your donations and they will collect them and transfer them to the Canossa Foundation-Dili. This is the best and easiest way because there is only a short delay and minor service fee. We are not going to put our parents' information on the internet, so if you happen to not have it already, e-mail us at rdowney727@gmail.com and we will get you the necessary information.

Once again, this is best way, especially for smaller donations because our contacts can pool them and send them at once so it is less hassle for you and for us here. Please make sure you also give your name and contact info or e-mail so we can write you a thank you and if you have a specific project you would like to support, include that also.

2.) Check

For Australia: Make the check out to "Canossa Foundation Dili" and send it to:

Canossa Foundation - Dili
P.O.Box 23 Dili, Timor Leste

For America: Checks are very unrealistic in this case because they can take over a month to get to East Timor. Also, from past experience of people here, American banks charge a $75 processing fee to get the money here.

3.) Tax - Deductible

If you are interested in making a larger donation and would like it to be tax-deductible you must donate to the Canossian Sisters within your country. Our Dili project proposals will be passed on to the Head Council of the Canossian Sisters who will ok them and send the money to Timor Leste.

The process will take a little time, so if you are interested in this, please e-mail us as soon as possible so we will know the projects you want to support and the amount of your donation so we can get more information to you and start the tax-deductible process.

So please pray and consider helping the people of East Timor whom we serve (for their benefit, your benefit, and for my birthday!). There are many beautiful people here who are in desperate need of better education, better healthcare, and even food and shelter. I don't think I can say this enough: ANYTHING you can do to help is appreciated! And every cent you send will be used, as Magdalene of Canossa said, to make Jesus known so that He will be loved.

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

P.S. If you have any questions please e-mail us at rdowney727@gmail.com. Thanks!!!

A Milestone

2009-06-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just a quick little blog about a little milestone for us : ) We have passed 7,500 hits on our blog!!! Actually today there are 7,644 to be exact : ) I haven't worked it out how many a week that is, but I think it's pretty good : )

We're pretty impressed and happy that people are still reading the blog. We've been gone for about 9 months now and hope you are enjoying our stories from everywhere from Italy to East Timor.

So we wanted to thank you for checking because that little number at the bottom of the blog is nice for us to see and we know that you love and miss us, even when there's not time to say so. So don't skew the number by checking 5 times a day, but if a lot of you check in once a week we appreciate it!

In other news - I just had an incredible 23rd birthday filled with people and surprise activities planned by Brendan! I am a super-blessed girl. But I will write a blog about it and it will be up soon! Thanks again!

Love,

Rachel and Brendan

Side Projects

2009-06-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

*Hey everyone! Sorry there's no pictures in this one, but this and the next are probably the most important blogs we will write here, so we hope that you enjoy and read all of them!

I went on a walk with Donna, an Australian PALMS volunteer, the other day and we were talking about how we handle the times when we are homesick. In my opinion, one of the best ways to maintain focus during the hard times is to have side projects - things to benefit the school and community that we work on after we leave school. We have many side projects going right now and many of them are in the final stages! And all these projects are thanks to Gus and Cathy.

Just before we left the country last September some of Brendan's family friends asked us if they could contribute to our mission. They gave a significant amount of money to us with an incredible amount of trust - allowing us to use it as we saw needs and in whatever way we thought best. While we have been here we have tried to be completely worthy of that trust - using the money for significant needs of the Timorese (not on anything for ourselves) and keeping careful track of every penny. So today I'm going to tell you about our side projects so Gus and Cathy can be assured that their money is being used well.

Textbooks

In March, volunteers with the Christian Brothers gave us an English-Tetum textbook and Teacher's guide that they had developed so we could use or photocopy it as necessary. In March, we photocopied 15 books and gave them to the youth at Ahisaun. Ahisaun is a home for young men with physical disabilities. After Brendan finishes work on Fridays, he teaches an English lesson to the boys there. They go through the textbook and then practice what they've learned in conversation. The guys are great - all open and friendly and grateful for every little thing. They have appreciated the textbooks in a place where having a textbook is rare.

Last week, with the help of some of our students, we photocopied 70 more of the English textbooks, with an inscription in the front that says (in Tetum),"From your friends Gus and Cathy. Jesus loves you!" We plan to give one to each interested family in our area. They'll go fast - any help learning English is in high demand here. Some families have asked us for an English book without even knowing we were planning this. The textbooks will be a welcome surprise and supplement to all the people who we don't have time to help in person.

Bibles

Like I said, here anything in English is considered valuable and highly practical. So we gave Sister Sonia money and asked her to buy English Bibles while she was in Singapore. It's hard to find English Bibles here - much more popular and Bibles in Tetum and Indonesian. But we thought that English Bibles would give us an opportunity to multitask - helping along their English and, more importantly, helping them to grow in their faith.

Sister Sonia was able to get 28 English New Testaments and we have given out about half of them so far, all to peole who already have a decent level of English so it can actually be used. And it does work well. Just today I was working in the clinic and Marcia took the Bible we'd given her out of her purse. She was reading through Proverbs, trying to grasp the English, but we started talking and ended up translating my favorite Bible story - when Jesus walks on the water. Hopefully we'll continue talking about it soon. It's especially rewarding to practice English by talking about God and life and the deeper things. That's why we're here!

Library Improvements

As you know, in addition to being a Professor of English at the university, Brendan works a lot in the university library so it will quickly improve in time for the government accredidation. He helps with the computer program KOHA, which he, Sister Etalvinia, and Gina use to input all the books so soon they will have a computerized catalog system in line with the Dewey decimal system.

For the accredidation, the library is supposed to have more than 5,000 books (and it did not have that many yet). To help pass the accredidation, Brendan gave $300 to the university to buy more books - $250 for appropriate books for the Computer Technician and Office Management programs and $50 specifically to to used for books to expand the Faith and Christian Living sections. The last I heard, Sister Terezhina was planning to go to Indonesia to buy the books - there will be a lot more available there and they will be cheaper so the money will go much farther.

Medicine Project

My side project has been translating the medicines at the clinic into Tetum and Indonesian, so that all the medicines can be used if necessary. The clinic has almost exactly 100 different medications stored there. Many of their instructions were in English and as Sister Aquelina and the girls don't know English perfectly yet, the medicines just sat on the shelves and collected dust. So starting in March, I began going through all the medications - writing down all the important information.

It has been quite a process - it turned out that only 40 of the medications had the instructions with them or the necessary information on the containers. Many they use by memory - which won't help when a new nurse or volunteers come. So over the past couple months in my spare time I've been on the internet at school a lot looking up the information I needed. It was a slow and painful process until I found www.drugs.com, which lists the info for all the drugs marketed in the US. Then only the international (especially Indonesian) drugs gave me trouble.

A few weeks ago I finished my part - the English instructions are ready. I made a form using Excel that has the name of the medication and 3 sections for the basic instructions in Tetum, Indonesian, and then English. Each page is in a plastic sheet protector and everything is in a red binder. The information is divided into medical sections and within each section they are in alphabetical order. The donation money paid for the 100 photocopies, sheet protectors, and binder.

Now it is almost finished! Because medical translation is something that should be done by a professional, Sister Maria is currently translating for me in her free time (she is fluent in all 3 languages and very nice to help). Then I will ask Sister Sonia, who is a trained nurse, to check the English and Tetum and make sure that the translation is correct. When that is finished I will give it to Sister Aquelina at the clinic so she can know about all her available resources when she is prescribing.

Medicine

People from the community also come to the clinic. Recently, an elderly man came in with a severe cough. He said he had been to the hospital several times, but it had not helped (in general the hospital does the same thing as the clinic - giving out the cheap medications of paracetamol, multivitamins, and antibiotics). Sister Aquelina assessed him and said she knew of a medicine that should help, but it was very expensive ($30). He offered to pay for it over a long time, a little each week and by bringing in fresh oranges instead of money. Long story short we gave the money to Sister Aquelina, who bought and gave him the special medicine. He has since gotten better and he's always smiling when we see him on our walks to and from the school.

I've heard that the clinic is run on about $100 a month, which leaves no money for special expensive medicines. And many of the families who live close to Canossa and may come to the clinic are farm families. They don't have the money to pay for special medicines although they often need them (they don't come in unless they really need help). So when I see that there is a real need, Brendan and I talk and pray about it, and intervene with money to get medicine that could cure the condition instead of only dull the pain. In my opinion, quality of healthcare is one of the biggest things that separates East Timor from America and Australia. Less money = less options, worse medication, worse equipment, and fewer staff (especially highly qualified staff).

Physiotherapy/ Physical Therapy Therabands

Speaking of health-related things, a blessing we had was that Peggy, a personal and family friend and great physical therapist, donated 3 sets of PT therabands of different strengths. 1 set we gave to Assert, the only physical rehabilitation location outside the National Hospital. I have been volunteering there for a couple hours on Tuesday afternoons since March. Sister Aurora, my official boss, is on the council that founded Assert (which is desperately needed here). The clients are mostly children, so they love the brightly-colored therabands and the PTs were excited to have equipment that they recognize. The second set we will probably give to the rehabilitation area of the National Hospital and the third will probably go to the Canossa clinic. Thank you Peggy!

RAK

One of our most fun side projects lately has been RAK (Random Acts of Kindness). In this the English Club doubles as a secret mission force. Each has a code name which they use during RAK missions and they bring normal clothes to wear instead of their school uniforms.

$12 from Gus and Cathy provides enough to buy a 35 kg. rice bag for each mission. 1 rice bag can last most families 1-2 months. We take the rice bag and tape a note on it that says (in Tetum) For you and your family. Jesus loves you! Then we deliver it as secretly as possible, trying to make it an anonymous gift. We give it to families whose need is obvious from our personal contact, and seeing their houses, clothing, visible resources, etc., with a preference for the very poor, widows, and orphans.

We worked out the details for a few weeks and since then have completed 2 drop offs, both very successful and appreciated by the families. We will try to do one RAK mission per week, all at houses in the poor areas close to the school.

One of the most rewarding parts for me is having the English Club students involved. The 10 students are learning that giving is exciting and rewarding. But they are also learning to look around their community, notice needs, and try to meet them - not for personal recognition, but because they have been blessed and can. Because the Canossa schools are among the best schools in East Timor, many better-off families send their children here ("better off" being relative to people within Timor). These students will be the next generation of well-educated adults who can make a positive impact...and I think they these students will : )

To recap, Brendan and I want to thank Gus and Cathy (and Peggy) for their donations and their trust. Without their help, our ability to help would be much more limited. But right now we feel that our side projects are making a significant impact to improve education and healthcare in our area, as well as helping people to grow in their faith and in knowledge of Jesus and His unconditional love which is what life's all about! : )

Love,

Rachel and Brendan

P.S. I just taught English Club and told them I was coming to write you all. They said to say hi to you from them!

Our First Anniversary!

2009-06-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

On May 24th, Brendan and I had been married for 1 year! In that year we have been everywhere - Iowa, Australia for World Youth Day and our honeymoon, training with the Canossian Sisters in Italy, and now we are volunteering with them in East Timor. With all this excitement (in addition to the excitement of being married!) the time has flown. It's difficult for me to imagine how we are going to top this 1st year, but I know we'll find a way. Marriage is awesome!

So to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary we wanted to take the ferry to Ata'uro Island, a beatiful island off the shore of Dili, and spend the weekend there. But, as often happens here, the best laid plans never turn out exactly as you expect. We found out the Monday before that the ferry had been taken to Indonesia for 3 months to be repaired. The other boat for rent was outrageously expensive, so we knew we had to come up with a new plan.

Everything is busy here around this time of year, so it's difficult to even take a day off. The weekend of our real anniversary was packed so we decided to postpone our celebration one week (I'm sure that this will have to happen a lot throughout our lifetime). So we reserved a room at the nicest hotel in Timor and got Saturday.

And it turned out to be a glorious day! We got to sleep in just a little and had a nice and slow breakfast, before going to the Comoro Market for some shopping. Then we came home and washed clothes. After washing we had a quick lunch and packed our backpacks and left for the hotel. As we walked through the doors we were greeted by the friendly employees and the cool of the air conditioning. After some confusion at the front desk (they gave us a room that hadn't been cleaned yet so we had to change), we made it to our room and collapsed!

When I was a kid, I remember my uncle telling us that the way to judge a hotel room was based on how springy the beds were (he had caught me and my siblings jumping on and between the room's 2 double beds : ) Well, I didn't try it, but this bed would have been a 10 for bouncing. It was perfect and a little like a trampoline - firm, but delightfully springy.

Other features we had to take advantage of:

1.) REAL SHOWERS! The 2 things I miss most about home are: 1. Family and friends and 2. Real showers! It had been almost 9 months since I had a real shower (in Rome they had a bath tub). Let me tell you that although bucket showers can get you clean, they are not comparable to real, warm, high-powered showers. To have a real shower after so many months of cold bucket showers felt like it must feel to go from this life to heaven (like going from ok/good to AMAZING!).

2.) Did I mention that the hotel had air conditioning? Also a great thing to experience every now and again, especially here.

3.) TV. I never thought I'd say this, but it was really nice to get to watch a little bit. Throughout our time at the hotel we got to see part of an episode of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel, part of a Cops episode, and some basketball and soccer. It's a little luxury that we really appreciate now.

Lately we've been living really simply. Since the computer crashed we have no music or movies, and we've never had a TV. So at night we do a lot of exercising, reading, playing games, and talking. It's definitely been good for our marriage, as any extra time together is, and we are both happy about it, but it was also nice to relax and watch a little TV together too : )

Our time at the hotel was so relaxing - almost an unofficial marriage retreat. No work, just time together like it should be for a wedding anniversary. Our only committment for the day was Bible Study at 4 pm. Brendan is the leader and the group recently doubled in size so we wanted to be sure to go. It went really well - we're now up to 10 regular members, half Timorese and half internationals working/volunteering in Timor.

After Bible study we went back to the hotel and relaxed until we got hungry. Around 7 we got dressed up in our nice, new clothes and went to try a restaurant we hadn't been to - the Coconut Restaurant.

It was Saturday night and we expected there to be people around, but there was almost no one. Even at the restaurant we were the long customers, although it was very clean, nicely decorated, and the food amazing! Well, we got excellent service - there were four people at the the counter watching us constantly, ready to respond if we needed anything : )

The dinner was excellent with reminiscing conversation and great food, especially the mango chicken and rice presented as nicely as I've seen in any Asian restaurant at home. We left full, relaxed, and happy for the opportunity to have so much uninterrupted quality time.

The next morning we enjoyed the hotel's complimentary breakfast buffet - an interesting mix of Western and Asian-style foods catering to the business people who stay at the hotel. I had never had fried rice and noodles for breakfast, but it felt like a necessity since this was the first time I could : ) After breakfast and packing we checked out of the hotel and drove to Mass for Pentecost Sunday (when the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus' followers after He ascended into heaven).

Mass was especially relaxing this week because usually we're doing something up front - reading or singing in the choir, so we don't get to sit together. But this Sunday we sat together in the middle. Mass was great - there was a guest priest who is a chaplain with the Australian military and also, one of the Sisters we know, Sister Francisca, renewed her vows to love Jesus and live with and serve the poor in front of the whole congregation. It was as beautiful as watching a married couple renew their vows, but in this case our human eyes could see only one of the spouses : )

After Mass, we caught up with friends and went home, you guessed it, for more relaxing. We decided that because Saturday had been such a success we would continue it and make it a real weekend! Normally, Sundays are as busy as every other day - just not with work. Because they have school/work 6 days a week here, Sunday becomes the "Free Day," and we've gotten in the habit of filling it with things to do too. Everything is optionally - playing with the girls who live in the boarding house at school, prayer and games with the Sisters sometimes, helping an SMA student with her English course for kids sometimes. All are very worthy and fun things, but to have a real day of rest was great for us.

Later in the day Brendan played basketball and I went for a walk and when we got back there was a message from Sister Sonia inviting us to the Balide convent for dinner in honor of our 1st anniversary. We drove over (our car had been returned after a month in the shop and it's in much better shape now - it's so nice to have it back) and we talked and ate with the Sisters and some other guests. Eventually we headed home rejoicing in the blessing of our marriage and refreshed and ready for a new week : )

Blessings on you always! Hope your summer is starting off well!

Love, Rachel and Brendan

Independence Day!

2009-06-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

May 20th was East Timor's Independence Day! Because it officially became a country in 2002 (3 years after the independence vote and the violent aftermath) this year was only the 7th Independence Day celebration.

It's difficult for me to imagine what emotions the Timorese felt on this day. I mean, I appreciate my American liberty and have a deep respect for my country, and I remember the good in America and the blessing of freedom on the 4th of July. But I wasn't alive for our independence struggle so I have a more distant perspective from learning about it from history books.

But being here, with all the emotions and experiences of the independence struggle so fresh was really eye-opening to me. How often I forget that many countries earn their independence in a bloody struggle. Often many sacrifices are made, including many lives of friends, family, and neighbors.

On the day before their Independence Day, Brendan and I participated in a Mass with over 1,000 people, honoring the memory of those who died in the independence transition.

After Mass, led by the Saint Peter's High School band, most of the people marched to the Santa Cruz Cemetery to pray where one of the worst massacres took place.

In the Santa Cruz massacre, about one hundred college students and young people were killed during a peaceful protest. Ironically, they were protesting the murder of a student who had been peacefully protesting and they were walking to the cemetery in his memory. The Indonesian military set up an ambush and opened fire on the students. The incident was videotaped by an international journalist - the tape survived and was smuggled out of the country and aired on international news. It was one of the first clues that the rest of the world had of what was happening in Timor.

And the people remember. Almost everyone has been touched by a death or injury to someone they cared about and many of them were part of the events. Sister Terezhina, the principal of the University where Brendan teaches, shared that she had been a university student during the Santa Cruz massacre. She was at school when the shooting started and her and a friend rode a scooter to the cemetery to try to get some friends to safety. As with most horrible situations, they are contrasted by the brave and selfless actions of many people.

So the Timorese really have reason to celebrate and they celebrate well! There is no school and no work (except for the taxi drivers taking people to and from the Palacio do Governo and the food vendors located there).

For the holiday, everyone flooded the square in front of their main government building to watch the full day of activities, including a ceremony, parade, and concert, along with their President Jose Ramos Horta. Everyone who couldn't make it in person watched on the TV or listened on the radio.

To enjoy the holiday, Brendan and I started off the day with...laundry, because I was entirely out of clean clothes and Brendan was almost out too. I wanted to go to the Palacio by 9 am because that's when everything was supposed to start and we wanted to be sure to see the Canossa drum band. But instead we leisurely handwashed our clothes, because Brendan in his wisdom knew that 9 am here = 10 am or later.

He was right. We showed up at 10:30 and we had missed part of the ceremony, but were just on time for the parade. These aren't like parades at home - there's less hype, no politics, and most difficult to comprehend, parades here are not synonymous with candy-gorging sessions (for most of my young life I associated parades with candy, especially tootsie rolls).

But for their national parade here they had representatives of military units walk by with flags, uniforms, and guns. Then the police force.

After them came a group of men in traditional Timorese garb and carrying swords. And after them came the marching "drum bands" from different schools (with the Canossa drum band going first : )

Before they started marching we got pictures of the English Clubbers, who were more than half of the snare drum section. They had on snappy uniforms and looked a little nervous to be performing in front of their country's leaders. But they did great! We were shocked when, after only a few weeks of practice, they pulled off a 10 minute show with different songs and riffs dead center in front of their President, while the school cheerleaders did stunts and dances on the sides. After they had finished, Brendan and I caught up with them to congratulate them on a nice show. They were very hot, but very happy.

It was really interesting for me to watch the drum bands, because I was in marching band all throughout high school. The Timorese bands were better than I expected, but still so different.

There are almost no instruments besides drums. Only the military band had 4 trumpets in addition to drums, and those were rough on the ears. My Grandpa Bill was a band director and is still a great trumpet player and I thought of how he would have cringed at the sound coming from those trumpets. But it's understandable -
1. Instruments are expensive and there isn't extra money to spend on much here
2. If you do get a hold of an instrument you probably have to teach yourselves.

Brendan played trumpet and he noticed that the soldiers weren't even using the keys to change notes - only the shape of their mouth like a bugle. So having no money for instruments and no professional instruction limits what they can do, but like everything in Timor the people use what they have and make it work better than expected.

What the Canossa drum band did have was 3 sizes of drums, marching xylophones, and small keyboards (that look like children's toy keyboards) where a tube connected the keyboard to the player's mouth like a straw. The player then blew air to somehow amplify the sound as they hit the keys. All very interesting (I had never seen keyboards like that before).

After we said goodbye to the students and the crowds we relaxed! We caught up on some work, walked, and had a long afternoon nap. Another great day here in Timor Leste!

I got a $3 t-shirt the other day that really sums it up well. The shirt has the outline of a traditional Timorese house and a quotation underneath, "Timor Leste - beautiful land, lovely people." : )

Loving You Always,

Rachel and Brendan

Prayer

2009-06-01T00:13:00.000-07:00

One thing that's been very enriching lately was seeing neighborhood prayer meetings happening all over Dili. During the whole month of Mary there is continuous prayer going on, with each neighborhood taking 1 full day.

Our neighborhood, Delta 3, did prayer last week. Each neighborhood prepares an entrance over the road made with banana and palm trees. Then, around sunset, the neighborhood who is finishing their prayer shift marches to the next neighborhood, praying, singing, and doing traditional dancing along the way.

They carry statues of the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) dressed in traditional Timorese dress with tais draped over their shoulders. When the people and statues arrive at the next neighborhood, the prayer begins.

Our prayer began around 7 pm because an afternoon rain. When the previous neighborhood arrived we began. It was only us and ALL the Timorese of the neighborhood. One of the people who live close to use was in charge. They started with a prayer asking God to help them be like the Holy Family, saying that they are the model family for the world, for East Timor, and for Delta 3. Then there was a drama about the Holy Family in full costumes.

After the drama, all of us turned and walked to the area set up for the all-night prayer vigil, singing and praying along the way. The procession was led by young women playing drums and dancing in the traditional style. When the crowd of maybe 100 reached the venue it was set up nicely with space for kids to sit in the front and the adults got chairs behind the kids. More singing and praying and then we prayed a rosary together with young people acting out the Joyful Mysteries. It was obvious that a lot of work had gone into it - all the lines were memorized as they acted out the stories of Jesus' life in full costume, even the little boy who played Jesus when He was found in the temple.

After the rosary and more singing, we prayed in different Timorese languages. I was asked to pray in English, appropriately for the faith of the youth of East Timor. The prayer was beautiful! Praying together in different languages always makes me so happy to be part of the universal Church. It's a great feeling!

After the languages prayer was completed, Brendan and I went home because it was already late and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. But groups from our neighborhood continued to pray all night and all the following day until we passed on the opportunity to the Fatuhada neighborhood.

Another great thing happening this month is the nightly prayer organized by the youth. Each night they pray and sing at one house for about 45 minutes. The next night they will move on to the next house on the street. Last night we joined them at one of our neighbor's houses and Sunday everyone should be coming to our house for the prayer.

All this has come at a great time! To be around Timorese is to be renewed in your faith and refreshed enough to continue the work. During the pray I wondered if a month-long community prayer like this would be possible in my neighborhood at home, but I doubt it... In our society it's hard enough to even get a block party scheduled. I doubt that an all-nighter for prayer could work. There are a few things people are willing to stay up all night for, and from my experience prayer isn't one of the top ones for the general masses.

But, to be fair, Brendan and I do know many people who would stay up all night to pray for something important and that is such a treasure. We plan on returning to Des Moines when we finish our service and staying close with these family and friends forever : ) You don't run into people like that everyday, so when you do, you must recognize their value and fully appreciate them.

So thank you for being one of our family and friends who would pray all night if it was needed. We appreciate you and your rock-solid priorities, and we can't wait to see you again (in only 6 months)!

Love Always,

Rachel and Brendan

Timor Parties

2009-05-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

eganRecently we had a chance to go to our first big Timorese community party. The Delta 1 men’s b-ball team that Brendan plays for and the Delta 1 women’s b-ball team were throwing a big party to celebrate the team doing very well in recent tournaments.

These guys went all out: the festivities started on Friday morning and everything finished on Saturday morning around 5 am. Even before that I saw them cutting up one full, skinned cow on Thursday evening. So a lot of work went into this!

Friday morning we went to the basketball court where the Delta teams played exhibition games against Baucau.

Here you can see Brendan going up for a dunk and people watching in awe (they don’t do dunks here : )

At the same time, tarps were being wrapped around the perimeter of the court, and big tents and a couple of hundred chairs were being trucked in and set up. The court was buzzing with activity that continued after we left at noon to go to school.

The official party with speeches, food, and lots of dancing started at 5 pm. It being Timor we knew we should not come until 7, 8, or 9 pm – not to be fashionably late, but to be fashionably early! Somehow all the Timorese know when to really show up, but we are still learning when to show up 30 minutes late or 3 hours late (mostly by trial and error). So we chose an in between time and arrived around 7:30, just in time for one of the first speeches.

We felt a little out of place because we were the only foreigners there and because we were underdressed compared to everyone else’s party clothes. But we tried to sneak in and find a seat as best we could, while listening to the congratulatory speeches and thank yous.

After all the speeches came the food. We didn’t know how much food there would be, or how safe it would be to eat it, so we had eaten dinner earlier. We tried to hold off on the food, but Terezhina, one of the High School students who plays for the women’s team and was MC for the party, physically dragged us over to the buffet line. So we had a second delicious dinner and it went down with no problems.

Brendan chilling with some of the basketball guys.

After dinner, the coaches cut the cake (decorated and shaped like a basketball) and opened a bottle of champagne! Then the dancing began that would continue until 5 am. Here is the dancing doesn’t last until the morning it wasn’t a good party. It was very interesting and a little different from home.

They had hired a couple of DJs, but these DJs really earned their money. They don’t just pick and play music, they sing and play keyboard for each song. They set a Timorese beat in the background and then they sing and play and improvise all with no written music. And like all Timorese we’ve met, they were great singers.

The dancing was fun – a great time for people-watching and we got to see some interesting cultural differences. One thing that’s different is that between songs everyone clears the floor and at the beginning of the next everyone gets back up, sometimes finds a new partner, and goes out to dance again. They’re lucky they’re so in shape because doing that from 9 pm – 5 in the morning has got to be exhausting! And it’s not like there’s a 5 minute break between songs – there’s maybe a 30-60 second turnaround for people to find a seat, sit down, and get right back up.

So after the first few dances we decided to try it. We did swing dancing first and everyone clapped for our first big move, but then we tried to learn the Timorese partner dance. It’s a closer dance with a 1 2 3 & 4 beat. It wasn’t pretty, but we started to figure it out by the end. Every now and again we would revert to swing dancing and we would immediately be followed by little Timorese girls who were trying to imitate us.

The other funny part of the night was being asked to dance by the chefe suku. The chefe suku is the equivalent of the mayor of our Delta neighborhood in Dili. He had 1 or 2 too many drinks and was dancing with the young women. Not wanting to offend, he asked Brendan 3 times if he could dance with me. Brendan just said ‘la bele’ (no can) each time : )

Around 11 we said quick goodbyes and snuck out to get some sleep before work Saturday morning. The stars were out and it was peaceful and beautiful. It was a great night after a great party!

And just today we had our own party on a much smaller scale – we had an English practice party for the people we work with. During the party we introduced them to another western food – sloppy joes!

We worked in the morning, walked home, and prepared lunch for the people we work with at the university and clinic. They’re all trying to learn English so we thought it would be a good chance to set aside time to practice. During work it’s always some version of Tetlish (Tetum and English mixed).

So we made sloppy joes and noodles and brought everything we needed to the clinic where we ate. We said a prayer in English before and after the meal. The meal itself was a bit hit! They had never had anything like it and all seemed to enjoy it (especially Sister Aquelina who wanted to keep the leftovers to eat as an afternoon snack : )

We talked mostly in English during lunch, cleaned up, and went to the senior high to watch a movie. Movies are a pretty special thing around here, so they seemed excited.

We watched Ever After, the ‘real’ story of Cinderella, with the English subtitles. It’s a good story and they talk slow enough that they were able to catch a lot of the dialogue. Movies really have been a useful addition for practicing English. The students are extra interested, they learn new vocabulary (they write down words they don’t know throughout the movie and we explain them during the next class), and they’re forced to practice listening at a more realistic pace.

After the movie was over it was raining so we all crammed into 1 taxi, who dropped us off close to our house. There are many special moments like this – hopefully making fun memories of new experiences for our fellow workers that will be part of our legacy when we go home.

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the end of school and beginning of summer! Blessings especially on the graduates, including Phil and Zach and friends from high school and Mary, Sarah, Luke, Abigail, and friends from 8th grade!

Love,
Rach and Brendan

Timor Harvest Time

2009-05-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

We ran across this group of people, while traveling in central timor, who were harvesting wheat the old fashioned way. The priest we were traveling with told us a little bit about the process. He said that all of the neighboring farmers will come over and assist, they they play music and dance around in a circle while stomping on the wheat. After stomping for a while, the grain separates from the wheat and falls to the bottom. It is then gathered for food!
Simple and effective.

Just Another Day

2009-05-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day with challenges to make it interesting. It's Tuesday today, which means it's a full medical day. I spend the morning helping at the Canossian clinic at school and in the afternoon I volunteer at the Assert Rehabilitation Center.

There were three really interesting situations today. First an older woman, "grandmother," came to the clinic today to get a fungal infection on her feet treated. She is from a farm family that lives near the school and Brendan and I see her often on our walks. After we treated a relative of hers at the clinic, yesterday she asked me if she could come too. I said of course and encouraged her to go the following morning. The clinic is for the 2,000 students at the school, the teachers and employees, and the community, but many do not know about the clinic if they have never been on the school grounds. On my daily walks I try to refer people who are visibly sick to the clinic so they can spread the word.

She was there this morning and, while Sister Aquelina assessed her and got her appropriate medicine, I looked in. She put her hands together like she was praying and nodded her head toward me in a 'thank you' gesture, but I shook my head and pointed up to God. She smiled, pointed up to God too, and nodded slowly. She is a beautiful woman who works very, very hard and lives a tough life. Today was the first time I had ever seen her with any type of shoes on (probably one reason her feet have suffered). But despite her tough life I always see her smiling as she works and she is very appreciative of the smallest things. And she knows the One who helps her make it through the day : )

(Since this day when I pass her on the walk to school when she sees me coming she will point up to God and smile and nod and I do the same. It's the unspoken communication that means the most).

Secondly, later that morning Sister Aquelina let me off early because there was a long lull in patients. So I went to talk with Sister Ervi at the High School. We talked about getting the students ready for the Canossian Global Youth Conference in Hong Kong in July. The three students Brendan and I helped with their applications were accepted (yay!), but now they must do a lot of research and write a position paper in English about social issues in the country they are assigned. A few weeks before the conference they will download their papers on the internet and the participants will read the papers to be able to discuss them at the conference. The students are excited, but very nervous. None of the three have ever flown in an airplane or have ever been out of East Timor! This trip will be quite an experience for them.

After we talked, I went back to the clinic to pick up my backpack, but as I got to the door Maliana (a student we sometimes play basketball with) limped out. I asked what happened, but she could barely talk she was in so much pain. What I eventually heard was that a wild dog had been coming towards her barking and she got nervous and jumped away, but when she jumped she got a deep cut from a piece of metal that was sticking out of the ground.

Her leg was already bandaged heavily when I got there and Sister Aquelina wanted her to go to the hospital to see if she needed stitches. Her friend waited with her by the road to try to find a quick way home and then to the Hospital Nacional. They hadn't moved in a couple of minutes so I asked if they needed money for a taxi. Maliana slowly nodded her head yes. Between Sister Aque and I we found enough money. Then I explained the situation to Victor, the gatekeeper, who flagged down a taxi quick and Maliana was off! We will find out soon how it all went.

The third exciting event today was at physical rehabilitation clinic, Assert, this afternoon. After helping Yenni, the Indonesian physical therapist, clean all the toys used for the therapy, she asked me to help her set a cast for a baby with club foot. Club foot is one of the top conditions treated at Assert. They work with the midwives throughout East Timor to get early diagnoses so that the children with club foot can be treated as early as possible. I learned just today from an Australian orthopedic surgeon that the surgery is very simple on young children - in most it requires only a local anesthetic and the tenotomy of the Achilles tendon can be finished in literally 1 minute! As in most cases though, later diagnosis decreased treatment options and their effectiveness.

At the Canossian Sisters' convent in Balide, the gatekeeper Fernando has severe club foot that was never corrected. His feet are turned completely inward - 90 degrees farther than they should be. This limits his movement outside of the convent. When I started volunteering at Assert I asked if anything could be done for him, but they said that because he is in his forties the only viable option was that they could fit him for a wheelchair so he could go farther into Dili.
It's difficult to hear that - that it's too late.

So lately I've had the opportunity to learn about club foot and all of the work that they are doing to improve early detection and minimize the disabilities caused by this condition. On this particular day I was able to help Yenni as she wrapped a 9-month old's legs and smoothe the plaster to make the cast. While she wrapped, I held the child's knees and feet at the appropriate angles (which was harder than it sounds because this baby was a shockingly big boy for a 9-month old and he could kick hard when he didn't like the angle you were putting his foot in). After the casts were on both legs and dried we all took a picture that will go on the wall so that the family of the child can see the progress and other families can be more comfortable with the process knowing it has worked for other children.

The technique that they use to treat Club Foot is the Ponsetti Technique, which was developed by a physical therapist in Iowa! When I first started volunteering I was shocked that they had heard of Iowa, and it is because of Ponsetti who developed this club foot treatment which is now the "gold standard for everyone from first world to third world" they told me.

In his method, they have a series of castings where they gradually change the angle of the foot until it is as it should be. There are six castings and for optimal effectiveness surgery should be done after week three. Then another three weeks of castings and, finally, "bars and boots". These special boots must be worn day and night for 3 months and then every night for 3-4 years. You can see what a problem this would cause for any person older than a baby. As they told us, 3-4 years of nights is a small price to pay for a normal foot for a lifetime, but it's still difficult for the Timorese to understand that even when the foot looks normal and healed that they must continue for this long to prevent a relapse.

Everything is in the beginnings here. In Australia or America, almost all babies are born in hospitals where they can be immediately diagnosed with club foot and it is almost never a problem. Here they are still trying to make the public aware that club foot is a treatable problem. We are so blessed in so many ways I never realized!

So that was the rollercoaster of one day in East Timor. Hope all is well with you!

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

Baucau Adventures

2009-05-13T00:37:00.000-07:00

We arrived at our fellow VOICA volunteers' house in Baucau around 11 am and after hugs and jokes they promptly fed us in true Polish fashion (generously offering us a lot of food). While we started catching up we ate Timorese rolls with no-need-to-refrigerate margarine, tomato slices, onions, salt, and pepper. Even with the subpar margarine there's something magical about them and none of us can get enough.

My parents are probably laughing as they read this because I've always shied away from tomatoes and I've never liked onions. When I was a kid and we went to McDonald's I'd always whine if they put the finely chopped onions on my hamburgers. They didn't have much taste, but they were crunchy so I knew they were there and they drove me crazy!

But slowly throughout high school and college and especially on this trip I've developed a small love affair with fresh tomatoes and even onions are great too. The Polish and their cooking skills can convince me that most anything is delicious. They even had me eating a tomato and cucumber salad on the last day...and liking it, although I'd always vowed to stay away from those weird salads that only adults ate. So I'm embarrassed by how long it took me, but now I know most every food can taste good.

In Baucau, both the food and the conversation was always great! A lot of the time Chris and Brendan will go off exploring (they climbed a small mountain by our house last time they saw each other), play 1-on-1, and have guy time which is harder to come by here. While they're gone, the rest of us catch up. Dagmara is amazing - she's Sali's older sister and has volunteered in Baucau three times now. She if fluent in Tetum, knows everything and everybody, and has many stories about volunteer life. We've all learned a lot from her. And Sali and I get along great. It's nice to have someone here I can talk about married life with. Chris & Sali and Brendan & I are the first married couples to serve with VOICA and all of us are recently married. It's ben an interesting beginning to married life, what with living in community for a big chunk of it, but we all agree it's worth it.

So there's a lot of talking when there's no action, but because all of us are pretty adventurous there's a lot of action too. Friday afternoon, Chris and Sali let us help out in their English class. We had an English game day and taught them 'What Time Is It Mr. Fox?' to practice time, numbers, and Mr/Miss/Mrs (they call everyone Mr. here). Later we taught them Heads Up, 7 Up, the grade school classic. The girls seemed to love these games - any fresh way to practice English is appreciated here. One of the girls came up after class and said she loved the games and when she went back to her village she wanted to teach the children : )

After the class, Brendan and Chris went to play basketball while Sali and I hung out and Dagmara finished her accounting work at the school. When everyone got back, we hiked up to the top of a hill that overlooked the city of Baucau and the sea in the distance. There was a giant white cross on the hill and we sat on the rocks next to it and watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy, but the view was still spectacular!

Here Brendan sits near the edge of the cliff, watching the sunset over Baucau.

The next morning we left early to go to the mountains near to the city of Ossu. They had organized a trip with Inga, her family, and her brother who was visiting from Germany. Inga came here as a volunteer and ended up marrying a Timorese man who is chief of his village. She works with the graduates of the Canossian school in Baucau, helping them find jobs and use their skills. So with Inga and her family we piled into two cars and made the 1 1/2 hour trip to Ossu.

Along the way we saw tunnels that the Japanese had used during WWII after they forced the Timorese to build them. We walked through dead-end tunnels that we were told were prisoner-holding places and later store rooms. The last opening had a shaft that at one time connected to a series of tunnels up the hill, but it was unstable now and it was obvious that there had been at least one cave-in. Brendan would have loved to explore more, but we had to keep going and the tunnels were not so nice because now they are community out-houses. But it was nice to learn more about Timor's history. If you're interested in South Pacific WWII trivia, you can check out the Australian movie Debt of Honor about the debt Australia owes to Timor for acting as a buffer between Australia and the Japanese during WWII and for protecting the Australian units who were stranded on the islands. Then it compares with the Australian soldiers' stories who are helping out here now. Very interesting.

We kept driving - trying to get to the mountains before the midday heat. We passed Ossu and moved on to dirt roads that were being repaired by the community. On our way to a small village, we passed men with wheelbarrows and women carrying heavy buckets of dirt on their heads.

Everyone grabbed a water bottle and, with a 16 year old boy as our guide, we started to trek to a cave near the summit. The ascent took about 45 minutes. When we were quiet, it was like listening to a nature CD except sometimes we could here monkeys chattering in the distance. On the way up, we crossed paths with the Australian ambassador and a group of his friends. They were super-nice and lent us 2 flashlights because we only had 2 for our big group and they said we would need them inside the cave (they were right!).

We made it to the mouth of the cave and had a quick rest break. As we entered the cave there was a sharp descent. It was damp and it was DARK. If there wasn't a flashlight shining in your area you just went slow and hoped not to fall over, on, or off anything. The guide led us back and forth through connected rooms until we couldn't have found the way back if we tried. I was shocked to find how easy it would be to lose yourself in a cave, and maybe never make it out. With no light, there would have been almost no chance. But with a reliable guide we saw a room full of bats, stalagtites and stalagmites in all stages of formation, and rooms full of crystal-like growths!

Brendan and I were excited to explore the cave.

Chris gets ready to crawl hands and knees through the tiny opening that led to the next room.

After maybe another 45 minutes we made it out into the sunlight. We had seen less than half of the cave and would have loved to see more, but not on this trip.

That cave trip is probably a good analogy comparing East Timor and America/Australia. One of my most memorable cave experiences in America was when we went as kids to Cave of the Winds - a cave attraction in Colorado. It was great! We saw stalagtites and stalagmites there too...but they were roped off so they wouldn't be touched and the process interrupted. We walked through the cave on a concrete path with handrail, seeing in the fixed spotlights the cave crystals. Our country has come to a point where there are safety regulations for everything and an emphasis on natural preservation. On the other hand, East Timor is a young and wild country. They do take care of their land as much as they can, but it will take many years until more extensive preservation and safety regulations have become a part of everyday thinking, but that is ok. Once higher priorities have been worked out then these can move up the ladder of importance. So safe, but less adventurous, or wild and not as safe seem to be the options good and less good on both sides.

While coming out of the cave, we shine our flashlights to help everyone find their footing.

So the cave had been a great time, but it was midday by then so we hiked back down, paid our guide, and returned the flashlights. On the way home, Brendan and I were able to ride in Inga's car and we talked with her about what it's like working in Baucau. She also told us many stories about the school and past VOICA volunteer's accomplishments. We hope to be people she can tell good stories about someday.

The highlights of Sunday were, of course, going to church and later going to the beach. There is no English Mass in Baucau, so we went to the 7 am Tetum Mass, which is always beautiful. With now instruments, these people compensate by singing like you wouldn't believe. They sing with such power! How Southern-gospel-like sounds emergy from their tiny frames I will never know.

After Mass, we got ready to go to the beach. We walked down the steep hill for one hour before we made it there. Along the way we saw some interesting things. The Timorese who live by the beach road were either getting ready for a party or it was national pig-slaughtering day, because we saw two pigs in the process of being slaughtered. One thing that we noticed was that the pigs here are a lot harrier than the pigs at home. They might be pink underneath, but they're covered with black hair so you can't tell. As we continued walking we talked about the disconnect we city-dwellers have between the meat we get at the grocery store and the real animals and slaughtering process. After watching a pig get stoned and speared to death I remembered where pork comes from.

But we made it to the beach and it was even more beautiful than when we had come on Christmas Day. The boys swam while us girls walked along the beach and discovered a hermit crab colony. Later we joined the boys, after they didn't get eaten by the crocodile that had been there on Christmas. After hearing more about sea crocodiles, we wanted to play it safe.

The day was glorious and we had fun splashing around, eating tuna sandwiches in the shade, and watching the clear blue water. At 1:00 we had to start walking back. We were lucky and after walking halfway up the hill a mikrolet drove by and we caught a ride to the top. Then Brendan and I made lunch for everybody before got a ride back to Dili with Fr. Martinhu. On the way back we talked about the life issues as well as learned some more about Timor culture. After a quick trip, he dropped us off at our house, we grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to bed wondering where the weekend had gone.

Hope you can find some time to relax too!

Always,
Rachel and Brendan

Baucau Bus Trip

2009-05-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

It had been a long week, but we were getting excited. Early in the week we found out that East Timor's Labor Day was on Friday, May 1st, so if we could take off Saturday we would have a 3 day weekend to try to go to Baucau and visit the Polish VOICA volunteers.

After some confusion where our ride fell through, we decided to attempt the public bus on Friday morning. It was an option we'd been dreading because we'd heard not-so-nice stories of the conditions, but we decided the extra day in Baucau would be worth it.

First of all, some background on the public transportation in East Timor. I think that the government here is pretty lucky with the situation because all their public transport is privately operated and maintained. The taxis, mikrolets (minibuses), and full-sized buses are run by a driver with the help of one or two friends who help passengers in or out, put baggage on the roof (sometimes even live animals), and collect fares. The average prices are 10 cents for a mikrolet ride, $2-3 for a taxi (malae price, Timorese pay less), and $4 for bus rides between cities. The drivers and workers can constantly be seen driving, cleaning, or repairing the means of their livelihood. And somehow it all works out - the taxis patrol everywhere, the mikrolets pick a route and paint the route number on the front and back where people can see it, and the buses are labeled by the starting and final destinations (example. Dili-Baucau). There is no set schedule, but because transportation provides a steady job there are many options and you never have to wait long before the mikrolet you need comes by. It's a pretty interesting system.

So Friday morning we each piled our stuff into a backpack and taxied to the bus station on the other side of town. We were very lucky because even though it was a holiday, there was one bus at the station. We got out of the taxi and a man ushered us onto the bus and gave us seats. We were sitting in the very back row with our backpacks on our laps while we surveyed the situation.

The bus was surprisingly clean, had pretty comfortable seats, there wasn't much space but there was enough, and they even had music for the trip. I wondered where the catch was. The answer came as we got ready to leave, the driver honked the horn and 15 more people crowded onto the bus to stand in the aisle and hang out of the door for the 3 hour ride. My big sister radar went through the roof as I watched young men my brother's age struggling to hang on through the open door. Usually there were 3 or 4 in each door, grabbing onto one thing inside to steady themselves.

Sometimes while everyone in the open doorway jockeyed for position, one person got pushed outside of the rest and hung on dangerously. When this happened usually the person, while the bus continued driving at top speeds along the seaside cliffs, would try to make it to the ladder on the back of the bus and climb up to the roof. I was so glad that no one got hurt on our trip, but we were told by one of Brendan's basketball buddies that many of the crosses along the road were because of deaths of the men on the roof and sides of the bus. It sounds like the police are beginning to pull the bus over when they see those riders, but there's only so much they can do.

So that was hard to watch, but there were pleasant distractions. Two guys that Brendan had met were sitting close to us so we got to talk with them. Secondly, there was an amazing range of Timorese music and Indonesian country and rock. And then we were surprized to hear an Avril Lavigne song and even the Numa Numa dance song. You never knew what was going to be next.

During the ride we got to do a lot of people watching which was interesting. There were men and women from villages in traditional dress, students in jeans and English t-shirts, and everything in between. One thing that we found impressive was how the guys treated the women and children. If a seat opened up one of the aisle-standing guys was happy enough to fill it, but when women or children entered the bus on the way to Baucau they stood up immediatedly and gave them the seat. I love that - it's a sign of respect for the women and a good example for the children. At home some people seem to think chivalry is when you see the other person as weaker (and that could be the mindset for some people), but when the person's motivation is treating someone with a special respect because you care about them, it's beautiful! So if it's done right, like it appeared to be on the bus, it's appreciated and super-cute to watch.

Eventually we made it to Baucau in just 2 and a half hours. We got dropped off in Old Town at our friends' house and started our free weekend!

Hope all is well with you guys! Congrats to the college kids finishing finals!

Love,
Rachel and Brendan

God Did It Again!

2009-05-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

A short time ago I was ready to come home... in the after effects of the stomach infection I was fatigued and felt the effects both mentally and physically. My motivation was waning from the lack of energy after sickness and from the sadness of missing all the end of the school year activities - Confirmation, graduations, and summer weddings of our friends and family.

I also noticed in myself a growing desire for something new, something exciting - an escape from this simple life, if only for a short time. But what to do? Could Brendan and I go to a movie? No, no movie theaters in Dili. No bowling alleys, no shopping malls, nothing open late.

But as I was walking to school it dawned on me - I bet I'm not the only person who feels this way. The Timorese also search for escapes. There are a few culturally accepted escapes, mostly for men. Almost all Timorese men smoke and many drink localmade palm and coconut wine. Also, in the smaller cities and villages they have daily cockfights. There are also football and basketball for the young men (and the educated women in Dili). Women's escapes seem to be mostly relational - doing things like walking with their children on the way to the market or talking with a neighbor. Their poverty precludes more damaging escapes like drugs, but it also limits their access to good recreational activities. But what they don't have access to in material things they make up for in relationships. Their life is the epitome of simple.

To be fair, many Timorese don't know what they're missing of our more elaborate escapes. From talking with other volunteers there are some countries that are very difficult to work in because the poor know they are poor, they know what the rich countries have, and they know their chances of living that lifestyle are right around zero. This knowledge, understandably, can make a person very bitter. But East Timor is not one of those countries, and I hope that it won't ever become one.

Timorese affectionately call their country Timor Lorosae, which means Sunrise Timor. They think of themselves as the sunrise people. After suffering severe human rights violations for the 25 years of Indonesian rule and having earned their independence by the burning of their homes and the blood of their people, they are beginning again with the fresh start and new hope that comes with the sunrise.

That is one of the qualities that make the Timorese so beautiful and great to work with. They are open and trusting. They love learning. They have big dreams for their children and their new country, and they're willing to work hard to make them happen.

After reflecting for awhile about how the Timorese react to their simple life I felt my need to escape lessen. I really couldn't be more pleased with the work we do and the people who we work with. I have no need to escape when I recognize all the blessings I continually receive.

After concluding all these thoughts, God sent some more blessings as encouragement to renew our motivation. Brendan and I had a surprise 3 day weekend which we used to go to Baucau and have adventures with our fellow volunteers Chris, Sali, and Dagmara. It was a great chance to catch up and encourage each other while doing some cool things. Then I got back to full health, which makes a big difference in motivation level.

And lastly, the next day we worked in the morning and were ready to walk home for lunch when Sister Lucia called us over and said that there were 3 boxes and a letter waiting for us. Oh, we were excited! We barely stopped ourselves from opening them before we got to our house. When we did finally get them open the contents covered the whole table!

The letter contained a card from my family for Easter and a late birthday card for Brendan from his family. One Easter package was from our friends at Crosspointe Church, and the other two were from the Downey clan and had been sent by Aunt Anne and Uncle Joe. Everything was perfect and it was obvious that a lot of thought had gone into it all. The best were the Easter cards and photos and news from home. What a tangible sign of love!!!

And then the last puzzle piece fell into place. That was why we we're here - to be a tangible sign of God's love to the Timorese! They deserve all we have to give and so much more! So as you encourage us with words and signs, we will turn around and encourage them with words and tangible signs to have hope and a strong faith in a God who loves them!

Hoping you experience a tangible sign of God's love today : )

Always, in Christ,

Rachel and Brendan

Pre-Easter Photos

2009-04-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been quite awhile. Lately the technology has been less than friendly and even today, we had hoped to put up the 1st Easter blog because a version of it was saved on the flashdrive, but because it's infected with viruses the document can't be opened. So I'm free handing this in the 15 minutes we have. Just trust me - the original was great : )

Here are some pictures from the week before Easter. The Friday before Holy Week we went at sunrise to the John Paul II center on top of one of the hills on the edge of Dili and right next to the sea. There we did the Stations of the Cross, walking up the hill and thinking about Jesus' passion and death and what He has done for us. We reached the top of the hill as the sun was rising over the ocean and all of Dili - it was gorgeous! Afterward the event climaxed with an outdoor Mass before everyone had to hurry off for work.

Here's part of the group gathered to meditate on Jesus' passion.

After the day events, we were back at school to help with the annual retreat for the seniors in high school. It was incredible! There were about 100 students there and we had Mass, dinner together brought by the parents, took lots of pictures as they love to do.

Here I am with one of the SMA teachers who volunteered to help supervise the students and lead a small group during the all-night retreat.

Later there was a reflection and group sharing. We didn't understand everything because it was in fluent Tetum and when they go full-speed it's still a little difficult to understand, but we talked with Sr. Ervinia and some of our English students later and the reflection had been on suffering and finding healing in Jesus. Many of the students were crying, some of them opening up for the first time.

Many of them have grown up pretty fast with all the violence with their country's independence and in the 2006 conflict as well as their less-than-optimal current situations. Many students have left their families in the districts and come to Dili for an education. Here they live with extended relatives or family friends that even in the best situations can't love them like their parents and immediate family. Sr. Ervinia, the principal, said the sharing was eye-opening for her too because when the students aren't on their best behavior it's easy to forget where they're coming from and how they're living. She tries to balance expecting the best from them while understanding them. She is currently trying to find a counselor who could be there for the students.

After the sharing there were snacks and a movie. They watched Maria Goretti in Italian, while one of the Sisters translated into Tetum. During the movie we stole some of the English Club students to teach them the games so they could give an example to their classmates. It worked out great - they are quick learners and interested in all thing international.

Brendan and I were in charge of the games to keep the students awake around 2 am. We played Blob tag and did 3-legged race, both of which the students had never done.

Here some of the English Clubbers practice their 3-legged racing. It was funny at the beginning, but after the first time we gave them some hints and they streamlined their racing quickly. Later they taught their classmates, but dominated the competition.

All of my big sister training has come in handy here, because the students love games! Here the guys play a round of Blob tag, where one person is 'it' and when they tag someone they become attached and continue tagging people. They split once and continue until there are two giant blobs of people who are 'it'.

After games and some more events we were able to duck out a little early around 4:30 am, to get a little sleep. Our first all-nighter since college it was a great experience and good chance to hang out with the students during retreat!

And, oh my goodness, Palm Sunday was incredible! It was probably the closest that I'll ever get to experiencing that first Palm Sunday. We decided to go to the Tetum Mass to get a feel for the really Timorese celebrations. As we approached the church two things became clear: 1.) We were late. There were at least two thousand people crowded into the church and surrounding the church on all sides. 2.) We had missed the memo to BYOP (Bring your own palm). Everyone else had large green palms cut from their yards, many woven into intricate designs.

Mass began with a huge procession and palm-waving after the palms were blessed. Little girls dressed in traditional tais feto went before the procession, laying tais cloths down on the ground around the church. They were followed by a group of children and their leader playing drums. Then there was a group of men and boys in traditional garb and with swords dancing. It kind of reminded me of King David dancing before the Lord. They were really into it! They were dancing to the beat provided by the women that followed playing local drums. And finally the readers and servers came with Fr. Peter, who was carrying a palm made into the shape of a cross. Phenomenal!

Mass was about two hours long and we were standing outside the church the whole time, but luckily they have a good sound system because this happens all the time. They did a small drama of Palm Sunday until the Passion, as a preview of the week and to give everyone time to think about it. The homily was great and talked about Jesus' suffering for us then, but also in our present world with many issues. He even told the people about the evils of abortion and mentioned something that Brendan had told him earlier about abortion in America. He's well informed and has the guts to talk about all the hard stuff.

I wish I could tell you more because there is so much more, but I must go. We'll try to fill you in on more of Holy Week sometime soon! We love you and will try to keep in frequent contact despite technical difficulties.

With all our love, in Christ,
Rachel and Brendan

Minor Setbacks

2009-04-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

First of all, happy Easter everyone!!! Sorry that it has been awhile since we we wrote...we have good reasons.

I had two beautiful, long, descriptive blogs about the incredible Easter celebrations here in East Timor almost ready to be put up for you. That's when three things happened:

1.) I suddenly got sick. All of Wednesday I found myself exhausted and in a bad mood. I finally made it home and crashed. When Brendan got home he came over to give me a hug, but I was radiating heat! I took a quick bucket shower and tried to sleep it off.

My fever was up and down (but mostly up) the next day. It got up around 103.2 three times and I had body aches so we decided to go to the hospital. It's good that we did. They took a blood test to check for malaria (don't worry - it wasn't) and let us go home. When we went back later that night a different doctor looked at the results and diagnosed me with some kind of infection in the lower abdomen. So I got paracetamol and antibiotics and a prescription to rest it off.

Within a day I was doing better and my fever had gone down and stayed down. I'm telling you Ciprofloxin (an antibiotic) has been my new best friend over here. I've never been a pill popper because before it usually wasn't necessary, but here I'm learning to really appreciate antibiotics because they can take you from seemingly the edge of death to normal in one or two days.

While I was sick, Brendan was great and took on all my responsibilities as well as his as much as possible and made sure to check in with me while I was on bedrest. He's also made sure I'm taking it slow this week and I feel 100% now thanks to everyone's prayers and Brendan's care.

So since then everything's been going well and, as usual, sickness quickly fades from memory. Work continues and this week has been really good. It took a couple of days to catch up on cleaning and grocery shopping, but now we're almost caught up.

Problem 2.) The car broke down. We've been getting more and more skeptical about driving it. After having to push start it three times and the muffler falling off twice, we're giving it a few days to rest. It's good to walk everywhere, but it would be nice to have it in case.

3.) The computer crashed. We've had computer problems with my laptop periodically here, probably because whenever we use the flashdrive to put up blogs it gets infected with viruses, which then come back to our laptop. Even though we scan and try to clear the flashdrive, it's a constant process.

This time Brendan doesn't think that the computer will be coming back because the computer will randomly tick and it says that it can't read the hard drive because there is no hard drive. Probably not a good sign. The sad part is that those two beautiful, almost-finished Easter blogs were saved on the computer, as well as other important things (although we did back everything up a month ago).

So don't worry if the blogs are less frequent for awhile. We'll be trying to find the best way to prepare blogs and work with the pictures now that we can't do so at home. But we'll work it out : )

One lesson that we're learning from this is what to do when everything goes wrong at once - learning to practice patience and find more creative ways to do things. That's really the story of East Timor. They have faith and family, but health problems can strike you or your family when you least expect it. Cars have problems and there's no money to fix them so you walk or you drive an unsafe car or motorcycle. Technology is in the early stages here so virus infections and basic problems are bound to happen all the time. But knowing that we are still overly privileged when compared to our neighbors gives us a better attitude and understanding when we have minor setbacks like this. Maybe life doesn't have to be perfect for us.

To end on a high note, we also have had a lot of support. We received lots of letters from the Bishop family, the Davises, Grandma and Grandpa, and even a package from some great people who prefer to remain anonymous. The letters were amazing and the package came with perfect timing (there was a peg game that I played all the time when I had to stay in bed all day). God really does work all things for the good of those who love Him and whenever anything rough happens there's always support that comes in just when we need it. Thank you thank you thank you to everybody!

We love you! You're in our prayers, please keep us in yours : )

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

We've Got Mail

2009-04-13T23:50:00.000-07:00

We just our third package while we’ve been here from our family AND a letter! It’s definitely a cause for excitement : )

It’s amazing how much they can fit into a small boxing with some good organization. Here is all the stuff laid out on our table. Letters and pictures, a lot of food, enough bugspray to keep mosquitoes away for years, more Purell, and therabands from Peggy for physical therapy exercises!!!

The letters and cards were the best part (but everything was GREAT). Brendan got two birthday cards, both hilarious. One of them is shown here. When you look at it from different angles or move it around the hamster dances. And when you open it, the hamster dance song plays. We showed it to the boys next door who loved it (although they were a little confused by it).

Thank you for everything else too! There was a Christmas card from the Warrens, Brendan’s relatives, and pictures of my family. I wish you all knew how much we miss you! And my Grandparents wrote two letters in the package and one real letter that got here in just three weeks! Real letters…everyone appreciates them, but I have never appreciated them so much as I do now. Keep them coming if you’re up for it!

Other really cool things and what we’re doing with them:

- Peggy sent three sets of therabands of different colors and we’ve already donated one set to Assert, a rehabilitation center that works with Timorese with extreme disabilities. One set will go to the school clinic where I work regularly and we’ll see what other opportunity presents itself for the third set. But in the meantime, we used one set to run a 3-legged race for the SMA third year students when we were teaching them games (we told you, you have to get creative here).

- A block of wood for carving. Brendan started doing some carving last summer and he’d like to start carving a chess set if he can find some free time. Thanks Grandpa Bill!

- We made cheesecake! My family sent a no-bake cheesecake since we can’t do any baking on gas burners.

We lasted about four days after getting the package before we made it, but even that was a struggle : ) And it was incredible!

Here’s the mess as we begin making the cheesecake. Also notice that I’m holding a beautiful ummm put-under-pots-so-they-don’t-burn-the-table thing (the name escapes me). My sister Sarah made it and it has been a great addition to our kitchen! Right before the package came we had an incident that made us realize how necessary these things are – so Sarah sending one was like an answered prayer : )

Brendan preparing the filling for the cheesecake!

And here he is, showing off the final product, garnished by some peanut butter M&Ms!

But everything is better if it’s shared, so Brendan took cheesecake to these ladies: Sister Etelvina and Georgina. Together the three of them are a team transforming the university library for the upcoming accreditation. They recently all were formally trained on using the Dewey decimal system and KOHA, a computer catalog program.

But anyway, it was Georgina’s first time ever eating cheesecake and Sister Etelvina’s second. They thought it was heavenly! Letting the Timorese experience some of our “home” food has been especially entertaining. We had the girls from the clinic over for lunch once and made spaghetti with meat sauce and they ate everything! We think next time we’re going to have people try sloppy joes and see what they think. Hopefully we’ll get pictures of that one ; )

Ok, that’s probably more details than you ever wanted, but you can see that getting a package is a big deal. It’s a physical sign that says: We know you’re far away, but we love you and we’re praying for you and thinking about you. Hopefully you can see this blog as a similar message back to you. We do love you and we pray that God blesses you always!

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan

Mini Miracles

2009-04-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

This week we have been witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s power. We sometimes can feel the Spirit’s quiet inner stirrings, but this past week the Holy Spirit came with purpose and power!

It started with a little thing… the location of English Mass was being changed for Holy Week because of the overlap with the Tetum services. For some reason it kept coming to Brendan’s mind that someone needed to give directions and give them well or many people would miss the Holy Week masses. So he prayed, “God, if you work it out, I will give directions to the people.” So for two days he worked out the best way to explain directions and continued to pray secretly, although he told no one of these thoughts.

Sunday arrived and a series of surprising events happened: for the first time some Timorese were helping organize parking (usually it’s a bit of a madhouse and all the internationals park everywhere and it’s difficult to get in and out). So we were guided onto the grass in a different area than where we usually park and then we went in the closest door, far from the door where we normally come in.

As we crossed the middle aisle, Fr. Peter was there and he came straight up to Brendan and out of nowhere asked if he would be willing to read the announcements…including the Mass times for Holy Week and the new location. Brendan was stunned, but hid his reaction quickly and agreed to do the announcements at the end of Mass.

Everything went well and after Communion Brendan walked up to give the announcement. It was great! There were many things to say, but he didn’t look at the paper. He had everyone’s attention and explained the directions perfectly! And this is harder than it sounds - Dili is a city with few street identifications (most aren’t named or numbered) and it’s easy to miss places when you’re driving there. Only on the drive home did Brendan tell me what had been going on during the past couple of days.

This is one example of God quietly, but effectively, working for the good of those He loves. Maybe for the good of just one person he coordinated everything, using Brendan to help that person get to Mass and experience Him and His grace.

But the next miracle was on a much more important topic and has floored me. On Saturday we had a Bible study lunch at our house to say goodbye to Iwuozo, the coordinator, before he went home to Nigeria. So we had lunch first and we got to try African food for the first time. Mary made some rice balls and two types of fish with different sauces. But during lunch the conversation turned to some politics and religion and Iwuozo was saying he didn’t think abortion was a big deal. Mary, who has a daughter who lives in America, tried to explain the facts that Iwuouzo doesn’t know because Nigeria hasn’t legalized abortion yet, although there is pressure on them to do so.

The subject was dropped when we went into our Bible study, where we finished up Genesis with the story of Joseph. That Bible study was especially moving and we had some very personal sharing. At the end we all prayed over Iwuozo, for a good trip back with his unit and that God will continue to use him in Nigeria. After prayer we all promised to see him off at the airport on Tuesday.

Within the next twenty-four hours after Bible study, the Holy Spirit pulled off a lot, but we didn’t find out until Tuesday. All I knew was that Saturday I prayed about the lunch discussion and was deeply disturbed, because Iwuozo is rock solid and Biblically backed up on every other issue. On Saturday night I went to sleep sad and thoughtful. On Sunday morning I woke up earlier than usually and felt a command to write him a letter because he honestly didn’t know what goes on, like far too many people. So for an hour I poured out my heart on the paper - of the facts of the sheer number of unborn children who are killed in America each year by abortion (more than 1,200,000 – more than the entire population of East Timor), of the women that are wounded emotionally and physically, and of my experience volunteering at Birthrite, a crisis pregnancy clinic in Ames.

On Tuesday, the day he was leaving, I knew I had to give him the letter, so we went to his house. He said that he had something important to tell us. When we made it to his house, he took us aside and said that something had happened to him on Saturday night. When he made it home and went to sleep he had a dream.

In the dream he was standing beside a giant body of water, an ocean, but it was dark water and filled with bodies floating face down, covering the entire surface. There were many giant pipes that were pouring into this ocean, flushing, constantly flushing, babies into this water. And all at once a young woman was standing there with him. She said to him, “Iwuozo, you must save these babies!” He ran to the water and tried to pick up the babies and hold them in his arms, but they were all dead. And it came to him that these were the bodies of the babies that had been destroyed by abortion – enough babies to fill an ocean. He woke up horrified.

After he related his dream to us, he said that God had revealed to him the importance of the abortion issue and just how big it is. I started tearing up just from seeing evidence that the Holy Spirit still works in miraculous ways and because Iwuozo didn’t even know about my letter yet. I pulled it out and explained that on Sunday I had felt the Spirit urging me to write him a letter about this very issue. He took the letter and said that when he got back to Nigeria he was going to talk to his friend to get the story of what happened on the Nigerian radio. Please pray for this mini miracle to have a far-reaching impact and save women and babies from the pain of abortion.

But there is even more. Also after Bible study, Mary had been praying and felt that she should get together information about abortion for Iwuozo to read on the plane and pray about the issue more. We found out later that she showed up at the airport and gave him this information also. So within twenty-four hours the Holy Spirit worked in three of our lives to hopefully have a lasting positive impact not just on Iwuozo, but on many more people.

So believe that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world! He truly is “the helper” that Jesus promised He would send to us after He was gone. Some dreams still have meanings and miracles happen everyday if we really open ourselves to God and we have our spiritual eyes open to see the results.

But this experience has really had gotten to me. Before I knew that the Holy Spirit is still around and I’ve seen some crazy cool things at charismatic meetings, but how quickly I forget the power and reality of the Holy Spirit. This was a great example for me that the Holy Spirit will keep us solid in our ideals and with God if we are open. But I think the key is that we are really open. Iwuozo has dedicated himself 100% to God. In East Timor his priority has been #1 God and supporting people in their faith, with work being a necessary 2nd that is to be done and done well. That is why I believe that he was given a dream to let him know right away the Truth in this area. I can only hope that Brendan and I will be that close and open to God that if we get off track, He would intervene immediately, even with a dream.

Praise God that He works in our lives in a real and intimate way to keep us close to Him! I pray that today we will all be open to the Holy Spirit and with eyes open to see God-caused “coincidences.”

God bless,
Rachel and Brendan

Random Updates

2009-04-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

With lots of little things going on it’s easy to forget what has happened. Luckily pictures can help us remember. Here are some of the things that have happened recently that were caught on camera.

Here you can see Brendan judging at the university’s version of American Idol : ) It was a singing contest for the students. Five students confident in their singing abilities sang the same song, “When Earthangels Care,” and were judged by Brendan and two of the Sisters. After each singer each judge had to give feedback.

The song is about caring and helping one another and it is the theme song of an organization led by Fr. John from Australia. He is a priest and pilot and he has raised money for the people of East Timor by flying around Australia. Part of these funds are used to send over volunteers including our former housemates, Bernadette and Therese. Anyway, the song is really good and it was a good choice for the contest.

Brendan is still playing basketball often. Here’s a picture he took of the court when the first players were getting to the court to warm up. It’s a really nice court, funded by AusAID and an Irish Aid group. It’s definitely a big community gathering place. Basketball goes from dusk until late into the night almost every night and there are always players, spectators, and little kids playing on the two swings and one teeter totter : )

I cleaned the inside of the house while Brendan spent a whole afternoon chopping down a giant growth in our small front yard. When he started it was as tall as him, but he got it down to less than a foot high. Now we can see our neighbors and talk with them as they go by!

Here our neighbors Linda, Julia, and their friend show off their loja (shop) next to our house. Linda and Julia and all of their extended family all live in the house behind the shop. This is where we get all of our fresh fruits and vegetables for the week.

It doesn’t happen too often, but one night the electricity went out so we went outside to cool off for a few minutes. The night sky was beautiful, but the crazy part was that the moon was so bright it was like daylight. I’m not sure why that happens, but it’s pretty cool when it does.

There are a lot of geckos around here, which we like because they eat a lot of the bugs. Usually they stay out of sight or they sit on the top of the walls out of reach. But one day we came back from school and there was a gecko curled up in the corner. Brendan tried to get close to it and the gecko got scared and its tail popped off!!! It stayed curled up in the corner while we watched its tail twitch and flip back and forth for a few minutes (probably similar to what happens when a chicken runs around after its head is chopped off). Brendan even got a video. So here you can see the gecko with the reddened stump that used to be connected to its tail.

Here Brendan and I pose for a picture with Tomash, a Polish man, who is cycling his way around the world. We met him because while cycling through Australia he found Chris and Sali’s blog and contacted them to see if he could visit them while going through East Timor. The weekend we went to Baucau he arrived in Dili and we crossed paths while Brendan and I were headed home and he was on his way to meet Chris, Sali, and Dogmara.

He is a very friendly man and I think pretty fearless. He has cycled all over the world for the past couple of years with only the gear you see in the photo above and he stops and camps by the road at the end of the day unless he is invited to someone’s home.

After a few weeks of cycling he had finished his loop around East Timor and he returned to Dili with many exciting stories. We ran into him again last week as we were headed out the door to Mass, so he came with us and came back for dinner after. He was very grateful for dinner because on the south side of East Timor it is mostly small villages and there are no restaurants or places that sell much food besides crackers or cookies. But he took it in stride and said that East Timor is still one of the top places he has been to, along with Peru, for the beauty of the scenery and the kindness of the people. I was exhausted so I went to bed, but Brendan and Tomash stayed up late swapping stories of their travels and looking at pictures. The next day Brendan helped him find some new sandals and then he was gone – cycling off to Indonesia.

One of the weekday Masses at the church we go to near our house. It’s a good example of Timorese architecture for their larger buildings. Everything is built to help deal with the heat. Significant buildings all have high ceilings and many windows. There are also fans mounted on the walls to help with the big crowds at church on Sundays and other special days.

One thing that might be interesting to everybody at home is the “pews” and kneelers. People here don’t really have posture problems because everything is built to be functional and not for comfort. Most chairs that we’ve seen are straight-backed chairs made out of wood. The same goes for church with the seats and the boards you kneel on. When you sit you are leaning against little more than a well sanded board and unless you sit correctly it’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny how the situation in East Timor often forces you to do what’s good for your health (eating less and more healthy, walking a lot, having good posture, etc.). Hopefully we can develop healthy habits to keep up when we get home.

Lastly, here are the members of the English Bible study (and Brendan who was taking the picture). It really is a good time and something I look forward to every week. From left to right you have Donna, a dental assistant and PALMS volunteer from Australia who is here for two years. Next is Chinedu Iwuozo, a UN Peacekeeper from Nigeria who started the Bible study and is an amazing Catholic Christian and evangelist. Then Valery (pronounced val-air-ee), from Cameroon.

Next is Mary, an Nigerian grandmother who works for the UN also. She also has an especially beautiful and intimate walk with Jesus. I love her reflections! And then there is Maria, a wonderful and brave Timorese girl who speaks English so well that she can handle not only the discussions in English, but all the Biblical language. She is very solid in her faith and through her we hope to give more Timorese the confidence to come to the English Bible study (many of them study the Bible, but in Tetum and Indonesian).

So those are some tidbits from March. Hope you enjoyed them and we hope that everything is going well for you. We love you guys and you are always in our prayers!

Always,
Rach and Brendan

Phil's Birthday!

2009-03-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Phil is turning 18 on March 26th! 18 is an exciting time, not because you can legally smoke, but because its the time of the transition between high school and college. Phil will graduate in May and will be moving on to Iowa State University.

And we know he will thrive there because not only is he intelligent, but he is also great with people, really funny, musically talented, and very athletic.

And did I mention hes a snappy dresser? Where he got his fashion sense I dont know I was the kid who insisted on wearing purple converse, pale green knee high socks, a white t- shirt, and black and white polka-dotted overall shorts to my 8th birthday party. Well just say its obvious that Phil is at the other end of the spectrum.

We know hes going to dominate ISU intramurals because hes good at all sports. As far as school sports goes he has played football, run cross country, and he is the goalie for the soccer team. But he also excels in tennis, ultimate Frisbee, and basketball. Once he tries it, I think we will have to add broomball to the list of sports he excels at. I think within 4 years he will have many of the treasured Intramural Championship t-shirts.

Hes also a little bit of a heartbreaker and the girls are always after him. One of my favorite stories about Phil in recent years is about how Phil caused an accident with his good looks. So Phil and my brother James and some of their friends were going for a run and it was burning hot so Phil had taken his t-shirt off. Their group was jogging quickly up a hill while a high school girl was driving in the same direction. She couldnt help but shoot a quick glance at Phil, which might have been ok.except for the line of cars stopped at the red light in front of her. She slammed on the brakes, but skidded with a crunch into a minivans fender while the boys kept running. Poor girl, how do you explain that to your parents?

While these are some of Phils characteristics, Im most proud of him because he is a genuinely good guy. Hes a hard worker, helpful and friendly, and respectful of others. Hes chosen good friends who like to have a ton of the right kind of fun. I know his life will be exciting and that God will use him to do many good things.

So happy 18th birthday Phil! Wishing you all the best during this exciting time!

Love always,
Rach and Brendan

March Madness

2009-03-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in March we took a trip to Baucau because Brendan’s basketball team was playing in a tournament there. Brendan plays basketball regularly at a court near our house and some of the guys he plays with asked him to join their team. The trip also gave us a chance to visit Chris, Sali, and Dogmara, the other VOICA volunteers, who we hadn’t seen since Christmas.

So we were trying to figure out if we could make it up to Baucau. We knew our car isn’t reliable enough and the team only had one car for the drive the next day. So it was up in the air if we would be able to go because if there wasn’t room for both of us, Brendan wouldn’t go because he didn’t want to leave me in Dili alone.

We decided that we would rent motorcycles and drive them to Baucau ourselves, because we’d been thinking about renting them for a couple of weeks and this was the perfect opportunity.

Here’s Brendan waiting patiently for the rental man to come.

While we waited some of the technicians let us have a look at the bikes available and we picked out these two.

I got the pink Vario on the left, a motor scooter, since it’s easier to handle and I had never been on a motorcycle or scooter up until that morning. Brendan had the motorcycle on the right because he already knew what he was doing.

The rental process was shockingly easy. They got copies of our driver’s licenses and payment, they gave us helmets, and we were ready. Brendan briefed me on how to work my motor scooter, I practiced for five minutes in the parking lot, we said a quick prayer, and we headed out.

Going through Dili was the scariest part, but God blessed us with surprisingly light traffic to navigate through. Brendan led and we hugged the left side of the road (they drive on the left side of the road here) and went slow until we were out of town.

But once we were out of town it was glorious! The road between Dili and Baucau is pretty good and there isn’t much traffic, just a few motorcycles and buses. So for a lot of the way it was just Brendan and I, a cool breeze, and incredibly beautiful scenery.

To get out of Dili, the road takes you up to the top of a small mountain and down the other side. On the way down you’re looking out over a valley of vivid green and the road as it closes in on the shoreline. We climbed and descended hills next to the shore for the next hour.

I can’t explain how exciting this experience was. The view from our motorbikes was amazing! The colors of the hills and ocean were colors I felt I’d never seen before – it was like the colors had been digitally enhanced, but NO this was real life! In awe of this stretch I broke into song. I know many songs by heart, but the only songs that seemed appropriate were worship songs to God. And I sang/shouted into the face shield of my helmet I saw Brendan driving up in front of me…I love that man! There are sometimes in life when it’s all laid out in front of you – everything you’ve been blessed with. This was one of those times…

I saw this beautiful country where God led us to do service and help people grow in relationship with Him and I saw my loving husband. Right now we’re doing something I never thought possible and enjoying a great young marriage and growing together while having amazing experiences we’ll hopefully be able to tell our grandkids about. I tried to take a mental video of the view from my motor scooter so I could recall it when life inevitably has a few dips. It was one of those moments where you think: Life doesn’t get any better than this!

We stopped after an hour to take a five minute break on the side of the road and Brendan caught this picture.

And here’s Brendan, the master motorcyclist. Like a scout he led the way, making sure to double honk going around the mountain curves. With him up front I felt totally comfortable.

Things were going great, but when we were an hour and a half outside of Dili we came across an accident. There were a lot of people crowded around, and we decided to stop and make sure everything was ok just in case. It’s lucky that we did.

There were about twenty Timorese in a big truck that had stopped and someone had called the police so they all left, but after all the people cleared we realized that the injured motorcyclist had been moved under a tree by the side of the road and left. We recognized him as a nice guy who had honked and waved as he passed us on the road earlier.

He had a big open gash in his right leg along with scrapes. We gave him some water and tried to find out what happened. We were going to rip up one of our extra t-shirts to make a bandage for his leg, but luckily some other malae (foreigners) came along going to the same b-ball tournament as Brendan, and they had a first aid kit. The man wasn’t bleeding too badly from the gash, so they let me wrap it and pretty much cover his right leg in Neosporin. Our new friends offered to take him to a clinic in Baucau. Just as they were ready to leave the man said he thought his wrist was broken. They sped away and got him to the clinic as fast as they could.

Having done everything we could, we got back on our bikes and rode on. It was a little sobering to realize that you really never know when something like that could happen to you or someone you know. For the next hour I was kicking myself that I should have done more – I could have used some tape to close the gash since it wasn’t bleeding badly and I could have splinted his wrist to avoid further damage. But next time I will be more ready. Real life is a little different from first aid classes, and to be prepared to help effectively under pressure is something I want to learn.

We continued on to Baucau and made it there safely, a few hours before Brendan’s first game that was supposed to be at 3:00. We drove up outside the volunteer house in Baucau and called to see if anyone was home. Then we dropped off our stuff and they fed us lunch. We rested for awhile before we walked up to the school where the Don Bosco Basketball Tournament was being held.

On the way we admired the wicked sunburns we had gotten from our spontaneous journey. Not until we were an hour out of Dili did we realize we had forgotten our sunscreen and we paid for it for a few days. We were red for awhile, and then looked Timorese from our t-shirt sleeve line down, and finally the peeling began. But now our arms are almost back to normal and I’ve been wearing sunscreen everyday since that experience. Sometimes it’s still hard to remember that we’re in the tropics and the rules of the game are different here, but we’re learning.

We made it to the tournament around 3:00 for the game, but, it being Timor, Brendan’s game didn’t start until around 4:00. But it gave them ample time to warm up and get used to their awesome, white and gold, Tracy McGrady uniforms that had come in that morning.

Here is Brendan before the game talking with one of his teammates. In fact this is the only Timorese guy we have seen that is just as tall as Brendan, and luckily enough they are both on the same team!

Here Brendan (the only really tall, white one on the court) sinks a shot during warm ups.

When they were finally ready to begin, they got set for the tip off. Brendan started the game and you can see him on the bottom right, paired off for the tip off. And right as the game began, the camera battery died (as it usually does when it would be nice to have some pictures : )

They’re first game didn’t go as well as hoped, but Brendan played very well and scored most of the points for their team in the first half. In the second half he chose to sit for awhile so that the other players could get in. So the game didn’t go so hot, but all of us spectators agreed that Brendan had done a great job.

The other team was very good and happened to be coached by one of the malae who had stopped at the scene of the accident. Brendan was able to talk with him after the game and found out the injured man had made it to the clinic and was doing ok.

After the game we relaxed, ate really good homemade pizza, and were able to catch up with Chris, Sali, and Dogmara. A lot had happened since Christmas so there were a lot of stories to hear and pictures to see. But after awhile the tiredness from the ride and the pain of the sunburn got to us and we went to sleep.

We woke up early to go to Sunday Mass with everyone else and then come back for breakfast. We had been invited to join C, S, & D for a trip to the beach at Los Palos with the Sisters and boarding school students, but Brendan would have had to miss his basketball game so we opted to hang out around the house until his game. So they left and had a good trip to the beach, while we had a relaxing Sunday at their house, periodically applying aloe vera to our sunburn.

We made some Supermi for lunch too. Supermi is Brendan’s new favorite food. It’s the equivalent to Ramen noodles here, but they have incredible spice packets with them that make them incredible. So instead of being chicken-, beef-, or shrimp-flavored, they are flavored with chilies, a brown powder, and a brown sauce like spicy soy sauce. (Our Baucau friend Chris also loves them too ? )When we don’t use everything, we save the spice packets and use them to spice up rice. Most importantly, Brendan has discovered and patented the best way to cook them and has taught some of our friends.

After lunch and some more relaxing we went up to the court so Brendan could get ready for his game. There was a light rain that went on all afternoon, but they kept playing. When the game finally got started, it went really well. Brendan’s team played against the team from Los Palos.

This game went much better. Brendan’s coach actually coached instead of playing the whole game and it made an obvious difference. All the players got in, including the players who weren’t as tall, and they picked a new strategy which helped them dominate the game. And Brendan did great again : )

After the game we went back to the volunteer house, but Chris, Sali, and Dogmara weren’t home yet so we bought some things for dinner and started making it to surprise them. They got home late because rain had made the journey back difficult and much slower, but it sounded like they had a good time at the beach. So we all ate and they showed us pictures and we were able to talk some more before turning in.

The plan was to get up and be on the road by 6:30am so we could be back in Dili by late morning, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. We had almost made it out of Baucau when we stopped to figure out why my scooter felt wobbly going around curves. It turned out we had a flat tire!

The morning was a little stressful, but we met many very nice people: people at the nearby service station who excitedly patched the three holes in the tube so we could get the motor scooter to Star Motor on the other side of town, people who texted us the phone number for rental place, and the people at the rental place who were very understanding.

Brendan, Dogmara, and Salvador, one of the men who help the Canossian Sisters in Baucau, worked some magic and the tire was fixed by the early afternoon. We ate a quick lunch and left to make it home before dark. The trip home was uneventful except for a light rainstorm and we eventually made it home around dinner time. We dropped off the motor bikes at Tiger Fuel and the owner, who we had talked to on the phone, was so nice about us being late and didn’t ask us pay for the extra day. We took a taxi home, dried off, and to end our March Madness weekend we splurged and went out to get a pizza. Finally home, full, and dry we collapsed into bed after an unforgettable weekend.

Hope all is well with you guys!

Love always,
Rachel and Brendan

Home Sweet Home

2009-03-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

So we were just realizing that all of you might want to know more of the specifics of our daily life what things are like at home, etc. So in case you would like to know, here you are.

Well start with our house. We live in a simple, one story building in Delta 3, a nice area on the outskirts of Dili. When I say simple, its very simple in American terms, but here its on the really nice side. On our walk to the school some of the houses are made of wood and tin and tarps, so having a house with a similar structure to home is a blessing. One of the houses we see everyday only had one full wall and a roof until recently the family bedroom and bathroom were open for anyone passing by on the street to see.

We also went over to visit one of our friends from Bible study who was sick and his house is so different from ours. He rents two small rooms connected by a doorway (but with no door). There is no furniture and the floor is concrete. Inside he has one gas burner on the floor, his shoes, and in his bedroom he has a mattress on the floor, small dresser, and a crucifix on the wall. It definitely gave me a different perspective I can either compare our house to our familys homes in America or I can compare it to other houses he

Our house has a green gate and a few feet of driveway for the small car. You enter through a small, red-tiled room, and make it through to our living room. We have some wicker furniture and a few plastic chairs that the Sisters brought us over last week and, more importantly, a prayer corner.

And then, you have made it through to the kitchen. We have a table for four with a fan on it that we have running constantly while were eating. We have a dorm-size refrigerator that is quite a blessing for keeping leftovers edible and for keeping the little red ants out of our food (they cant handle the cold of the fridge).

We also have a sink with two sides, one for washing and one for drying, but the water only runs in the mornings and its not safe to drink even if we had access to it all day. But luckily we have a water dispenser and fairly easy access to clean drinking water. In other parts of East Timor clean water is much more difficult to get a hold of.

To the right of the sink we have two gas burners that we do all of our cooking on. Thank goodness for the transition time in Rome. I had never even seen a gas burner that you have to perpetually light with matches until this past September. If we would have been flown from America to East Timor with no transition I think we might have starved to death. The shock of going from a normal oven and the all-powerful microwave to two gas burners might have been too difficult.
I still remember fumbling with the matches for the first time, not wanting our new community members to see how completely new this type of cooking was to me. Its amazing how fast you learn though now it feels natural to go into the kitchen and warm up a meal quick. And Im finally not afraid that somehow Ill blow the house upmuch : )

Another transition thats occurred for us is going from using a washer and dryer for everything at home, to Rome where we had a washer, but air-dried our clothes outside, to here, where all of our washing is by hand. Now about once a week we break out our big red bucket and wash our clothes.

Its been a process learning how to do it the best way. The first few times our clothes still came out smelling like they did when they went in, and we werent sure what to do. But what weve found works the best is to soak the clothes with water and the powder soap overnight and then we have a system where we wash the clothes and then take them through two rinse buckets and let them sit in a softener bucket for a short time before we hang them up. It takes us about 45 minutes to do a weeks worth of clothes, but at least now you can tell that theyve been washed!

Finally, we have three fans in the house that we use to desperately try to keep cool : ) Weve also made some friends here and sometimes they give us rides in their air-conditioned cars. Weve even begun plotting to every now and again spend a few hours relaxing in one of the nice hotels in Dili that have a strong breeze or air-conditioning. Hopefully well be able to sit there and lesson plan and just love being a little cooler for a short time. Air conditioning probably doesnt sound too nice too you all right now when weve heard Minnesota and Iowa have been having -30o F weather, but imagine its the hot, sticky Midwest summer and then add 10 o or 20o to that, and youll understand.

Oh yeah, and the most unthinkable of all, we dont have a TV!?! But I cant say I mind too much. I think especially being here and seeing and experiencing all these new things, a person needs A LOT of time to process everything, pray about them, and get something out of the experiences. If we had a TV here I think that time for thought and prayer would be cut in half, because when there is a TV its difficult not to watch it. Most of us love to be doing something all the time, even if some ways to spend time are more valuable than others. So theres no TV here, no games systems, but we have fun : )

So why do we tell you these things which might sound a little painful? Well, this blog is a good way for us to process our thoughts and experiences, a good way to keep in touch with everyone interested at home, and its a way to bring you along on the trip of a lifetime. We have been blessed with this chance that most people wont ever get. As we find ourselves being transformed by living in a new reality maybe you can gain a little bit of a new perspective as well.

We and our families are blessed to live in America and Australia, two of the richest countries in the world. Now living in East Timor its easier not to take that lifestyle for granted, where as at home I honestly had never known anything significantly different. When you have a washer and dryer and microwave and airconditioning or heat its difficult to imagine life otherwise unless youve experienced it. When we compare ourselves with others its normally to our friends and neighbors, and we forget the rest of the world where billions of people live without the modern conveniences were accustomed to.

So appreciate the conveniences in America and Australia and what a gift they are, but make sure youre still able to realize what is important. In my young life I have been blessed to begin to understand the secret of whats important and what leads to happiness a close relationship with God, family, and service to others. And here in East Timor its even easier to remember that daily when all the other distractions are gone. Heres wishing you a distractionless day where you can really appreciate the blessings in your life!

Love always,

Rach and Brendan

Brendan's Birthday

2009-03-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

On February 16, the most fantastic man in the whole world turned 23! For such a momentous occasion there was obviously much celebrating. Here are just a few things that happened for Brendan’s birthday:

Like any major holiday there is always pre-partying on the eve of the big day. So the night before Brendan’s birthday we were invited to join most of the Sisters and novices at Becora for a birthday dinner. Here Brendan hears the Happy Birthday song for the first of at least 100 times in the next 24 hours.

Here the women who are one step away from their final vows as Canossian Sisters sing to Brendan. They are so full of joy and servants’ hearts…and they have incredible voices.

Also pictured here is the birthday feast! For special occasions they make some non-Timorese dishes – some pasta, pizza, and french fries are added to the normal rice, veggies, and some meat. It was so good to have a taste of home!

And after a good night’s rest, it was the big day! Brendan’s birthday started off with a special breakfast with Gosia and Claudia, who were staying with us at the time.

After breakfast Brendan had to complete a surprise scavenger hunt to find his birthday presents! For his 23 years, 22 snack items and 1 basketball were hidden around our house. It didn’t take long before he found everything, which was good because we had to head off to school.

On the way to school everyone was dancing in the streets and this man had a foot-operated carousel for the kids as part of Brendan’s birthday festivities! : )

In case you’re curious, this man’s job is to bike around town all day and give cheap rides to the kids as they spin around this mini carousel to music. Although we wish this guy had a nicer, better paying job, it’s adorable to watch and the kids love it!

After we had finished lessons with the university teachers, we swung by the convent at the school where I had coordinated with the Sisters for a surprise lunch. So they had pop for the occasion and made Brendan a card. The funniest part was that the Sisters are very busy on Mondays and everyone comes in for lunch at different times when they have finished their duties at school. And each one as she came in would sing Happy Birthday with gusto, as if she was the first person to think of it. So over the course of the meal, Brendan had about fifteen solo renditions of Happy Birthday in his honor : )

After a brief visit to home, we came back for English Club. I had made a fake lesson plan and told Brendan about it, but had planned to surprise him by having the whole class sing Happy Birthday and then go over basketball vocabulary and play basketball to practice it at the court outside because Brendan loves to play basketball!

Sadly, for reasons still unknown to us, only a few students came that day. The 3rd year students may have had a big project due the next day or something, but on that particular day there were less students than we’ve had at any classes since we began. So it wasn’t as good as it could have been, but with the students that were there we had a little party and did the basketball stuff.

After English Club we went home to rest for awhile and then went out for dinner. Brendan had learned about an all-you-can-eat restaurant called the Food Star from one of our friends, Birthin, and wanted to check it out. So for dinner we had unlimitied rice, noodles, vegetables, and most importantly…fried chicken. It was a great ending to the birthday of a wonderful man : )

K, that’s all for now. We’ll write again soon!

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan

Our Schedule

2009-03-08T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the major things that we are involved with weekly here and some examples of our daily experiences:

English Lessons for the University Teachers: Monday 10:00 am, Tuesday 8:00 am, and Wednesday 1:00 pm

One of the main things we are here to help with is teaching English and the students and teachers are anxious to learn or perfect their English, especially with native speakers. Brendan and I both meet with university professors for sessions many times a week. He teaches the guys and I teach the girls. Its interesting because each person is at a different level (from really struggling to almost fluent) so we have to tailor our lessons to where they are at. But hopefully with the one-on-one attention we will be able to see significant improvement soon.

And its fun! This is our chance to really get to know the other teachers. So not only do we get to help them improve their English, but we also get to hear the stories that many of them are dying to share. These conversation lessons are always interesting and great for building relationships and quickly improving a persons English.

English Club: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 2:00-3:30

This is our baby and its still going really well. We help the high school students to improve their English using lots of conversation practice, games, music, movies, and soon we will have our first field trip!

Volunteering at the Clinic: Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the clinic

The clinic is a great place to work with great people. Sister Aquelina is a nurse who runs it and two Timorese girls, Aurita and Marcia, help out a lot. So far Ive been able to help mostly with wound care cleaning and wrapping sometimes substantial wounds. The worst injury Ive been able to help with is a flesh-eating infection on the foot of a girl who comes in daily to get it cleaned and wrapped by me and Aurita. Luckily it is improving.

As a more longterm way of helping Im working on translating all of the medicines with English labels and instructions into Tetum so that they will know what they have at the clinic. Sister Aquelina and the girls all speak a little English, but not much, and they dont know the specifics of what the English medicines are used for or the doses. So thats my big project right now. Im hoping to be finished in a few weeks. It will take awhile because many of the medicines no longer have the instructions with them so I will have to look up the information on the internet. But hopefully it will help, the girls seem excited : )

Geography: Wednesday 8:00-12:00

Brendan has picked up two more classes teaching Geography to the second year senior high school students on Wednesday mornings. Right now he is teaching them how to use an Atlas and about time zones, both things that are difficult for them, but hes doing a great job.

English 5: Thursday 8:30 12:00

This is the university class that we teach. It is the highest level of English at the university. There should be twenty-seven students, but if they fail English 1-4 they have to stay in the class below. So we only have seven students, but its pretty much a perfect class size.

We pretty much get to pick whatever we want to teach to further refine their English. Right now we are focusing on business communication in English by having units on CVs (their name for resumes in this part of the world), interviewing skills, and business presentations all in English. Hopefully studying English in terms of these more practical things will help them learn, especially since soon they will graduate and enter the working world (or continue their education).

Choir Practice: Friday 5:30

We practice Fridays at the Filipino Embassy. Its a lot of fun actually. Im surprised by how motivated we are to go back each time. Probably because were getting to make friends with both internationals and Timorese, and sing in awesome four part harmony.

Im a soprano and Brendans a bass. I sit with two Timorese girls who are shy, but very good singers, and Brendan sits by the piano with Victor, a big UN Peacekeeper from Nigeria with very deep voice. On Friday at practice they were beat boxing together as we sang an African song.

Hospital: Saturday 8:00

Besides working at the clinic, Brendan and I have also started helping Sister Aquelina on Saturday mornings. First we will visit sick people in the community and bring them Jesus in the Eucharist and then head to the hospital to help however we can. Last Saturday we spent the whole morning visiting with different patients and people in the community. We had just been given a big box of chocolates so we took them to the hospital and shared the love. The only problem was that they were fancy chocolates and some people really liked them and others really liked the gesture, but when we saw them try it later it was clear they didnt like the taste at all.

Bible Study: Saturday 4:00

We mentioned this before, but we meet on Saturday afternoons at the church. They dont have any special facilities or anything, we just take a few plastic chairs outside the entrance and sit in a circle and read and pray and discuss. Quality. Right now were reading through the Old Testament in Bible study. Iwuozo, a deepely faithful man from Nigeria, coordinates things, and we all take turns leading each week.

Mass: Sunday 10:30

We always go to Mass on Sunday and now we sing in the choir. We are also making it to as many 6:30 am daily Masses as we can during the weekits a beautiful thing!

After Mass every Sunday we meet with some fellow volunteers and talk. Sometimes we go find a restaurant to get a pop and chat or we go to each others houses. Its been really fun and relaxing and a great way to find out more about whats going on in Dili.

Games with the Girls and Sisters: Sunday 4:00

On Sundays we go back to the Canossian school and play games with some of the Sisters and the eighty girls who are from outside of Dili and stay in a building next to the school. Mostly they like playing basketball. Its great fun!

Conclusion:

With all of this going on we only have Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and Friday morning free to do grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning our house, and lesson planning for the week. But it all seems to work out. So now you know why we are so busy that we rarely make it to the internet, but it is for a good cause : )

Love and Miss You All!
Rachel and BrendanP.S. Happy birthday to Brendans sister, Rebecca Egan! She turns 21 today! Like all of the Egans, she is an international traveler and adventurer. Right now she is studying abroad in South Africa. Happy birthday Rebecca!!!

Recent Happenings

2009-03-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the major events of the past few weeks:We got our second package!!! One month and two days after it left Iowa, priority mail, it arrived in Dili. And it was three times as big as the one that got here earlier that went through Portugal. But the best part was that it had LETTERS! There was one from my family, a Christmas card from Aunt Marjorie, and drawings and pictures from my cousins Katelyn, Julia, and Tyler. Stuff is nice, but if we just got a box full of cards and letters from home it would be just as special (if not more).

But besides the encouraging notes and pictures, we got some really cool stuff. A battery-powered candle for when the electricity goes out, more bugspray, vitamin refills, Purell, another bag of peanut butter M&Ms (yes!) and some other food, and many other practical items. It was a really nice surprise and a great reminder of home.

Oh yes, and then there was the Superbowl! Definitely the most unique Superbowl party Ive ever attended. Brendan was searching for any place in Dili that would be showing the Superbowl, but there isnt much of an American presence here so it was difficult. But he found one place the Dili Beach Hotel. So we made sure we were free, and at 8 am on Monday morning we watched the Superbowl at the same time you did all the way across the world, but probably not with the same atmosphere

They showed the game on the TVs in the restaurant. So we sat on the couch, overlooking the beach with a nice breeze coming through, just the two of us watching the awesome game. We bought drinks so they wouldnt get mad at us for sitting there for hours, but they werent too busy as it was and were nice about it. So it was a little different than usual, but it was relaxing and a great game and it was wonderful to have a chance to see it!

And on a more frustrating note, we dont have any pictures, but during the past few weeks we have gotten a flat tiretwice. The first time we were visiting a friend after church on Sundays and we when came out of her house the front left tire was very, very flat. Brendan went to get the spare, but the spare didnt look so good either.

So we took a taxi to one of the street shops where they put air in tires and patch flats. They tried to fill up the spare, but it turned out that the spare tire was flat too! So we left the car by the house and took a taxi home. And Sister Sonia has connections, so as soon as we explained the situation to her it was patched and back on within a day. And she gave Brendan a new spare tire for his birthday : )

That new spare tire came in handy because this past Sunday we drove up to the school to play games with the girls at 4:00 like we usual do, but as soon as we got to school it was clear that the same front left tire had gone flat again. After playing games we went home, and the next day at school Brendan and Bosco changed the tire. A little crazy, but it always seems to work out.
This is a really cool picture that Brendan took the other night that I just had to throw in. Besides doing the church Bible study, the two of us have been working our away through the New Testament together a few chapters a night and its been a lot of fun. Anyway, this particular night the electricity had gone off so we had candles for light instead and we were reading the book of Acts while inside our mosquito net. See what I mean when I tell you life is a beautiful adventure here?

Another experience without a picture: Lately weve been helping three students apply to go to the Canossian Global Youth Conference that is held bi-annually in Hong Kong. These senior high school students were picked because of their English proficiency, but it still very difficult to write a formal application in English. So we have been working with them daily, correcting and doing drafts, but hopefully this Thursday we will be able to send everything in. Not only will we be helping with their application, but we will be supervising their position papers that they have to write and practicing conversation with them a lot between now and July. Like many people, even after studying a language for a long time, it is easier to understand then it is to speak at a high level.

We dont know if this is possible yet, but we are hoping that we might be able to go with them as chaperones if we pay our own way. We will have helped them for four months and it would be great to see them there. Right now they seem much more nervous than excited none of them have been on a plane before and none of them have ever been out of East Timor before. For them to go to Hong Kong and meet other students from all over the world would be something they remember forever! In a country where opportunities like this only come to few, we really want to help them make the most of it. Well keep you updated on their acceptance and their preparation.

Weve also had many visitors lately that weve invited to our house some volunteers and some Timorese couples we know. Two of our visitors were Christina and Iver. Christina had volunteered here for a year in 2004, and as a gift for their 30th wedding anniversary, Iver brought her back here. She was so happy and told us many stories! She also said that her and Iver are planning to hold a VOICA Conference for past volunteers at their home in Vermont in a few years and that well have to come.

Christina is a police officer and a mother of four and Iver wrote for the New York Times for years. Its obvious that theyve been all over the world for both work and volunteering. Christina said that as soon as their youngest child went off to college, she told Iver that they were leaving to go do something! So since then, she volunteered with VOICA in 2004 and her and four other volunteers started the IPDC university at the Canossian school. The five volunteers and the Sisters were the teachers, the administrators, and the coaches when they started up sports teams! It was obvious that volunteering here with VOICA had been one of the best experiences of her life and she was so happy to be back! Part of the reason that she was coming back was to write a proposal for a grant for the university and she needed more details from Sister Teresina.

It was amazing to meet both of them. Christina has a ton of energy and connections that shes putting to good use for the people of East Timor. And I believe all the crazy stories she told! And she has quite a heart for others - even after her year was finished, she didnt go home. She went to work in Jordan, helping train their police. Iver was very relaxed, but you could tell he felt the same way about things as Christina. He was a good conversationalist and asked a lot of questions you could tell he was a journalist. And we amazed at his sacrifice when he was ok with his wife going volunteering by herself for one year in East Timor (to us as a newly married couple that seems a little crazy). From our few days with them, they seemed like a wonderful couple with a lot of passion for people and many crazy experiences

We also had two of the volunteers from Nurobo, West Timor, stay two nights with us while they were renewing their Indonesian visas. On the left is Gosia, from Poland, and next is Claudia, from Italy. We were hoping to get to know them more, but they were exhausted and rested most of the day when they werent at the Indonesian Embassy. But since they were here for Brendans birthday they were able to join in a few of the festivities!

Getting to talk with them, was really interesting. They live in Nurobo with Dr. Lucy. Nurobo sounds like it is a very small town. We heard that the Sisters came there when there were many refugees who had fled there from the conflict between now East Timor and Indonesia. But since then the Sisters have set up a school there and a special center for women to learn job skills. So Claudia and Gosia help teach at the school and they also have a really interesting program for street boys. They call it The Canossian Guys and if you youtube it theres a cool video with pictures of the people in the program. We watched it in Rome to see what Timor is like.

But anyway, in their area there are groups of boys that live on the streets and they desperately needed something to do and they love music. So they have started bands with the guys. Claudia said that there were sixty guys at the beginning of the program. Now they come to rehearsals with her or do other productive things. It sounds like her and Gosia meet with different groups daily in addition to their other responsibilities at school. No wonder they were exhausted! So it was great to meet them and were actually looking forward to when we need to go to West Timor to renew our visas so we can get to talk with them more and see how their programs are doing.

And more recent news, its the beginning of Lent here. On Saturday I went with Sister Aquelina to take Jesus in the Eucharist to people again and at the second house we were given some cards about a parade that afternoon. So after we had finished and we were walking back to the Balide convent, I went to meet Brendan and tell him about the parade. On the card it said the time was 1:00 2:00 pm so I thought that the parade would begin at 1:00 and end at 2:00. How wrong I was

Brendan has understood this better than me, but I always want to show up at the time something says so we make sure we arent late. Mr. Holland, my high school band director, always told us that, early = on time, on time = late, and late = evil, wicked, and unforgivable. Its pretty true in our culture though. But here, its almost like there is a half hour to an hour expected delay for every event.

So we ate a quick lunch and headed down to the beach front where it was supposed to start and no one was there. So we walked along the beach and talked. It was a beautiful day and there was a cool wind coming off the water it was perfect, like being in a movie or something. But around 2:00 we walked back and we had started to see some movement. There were flat bed trucks that were decorated and with space for people to stand on the back and play music and dance. So we sat on the side of the road and waited for people to show up, hoping that we could see before we left for the 4:00 Bible study.

Fast forward to 3:30 its looking like its going to be an awesome parade. No one has the money to buy candy to throw, but they do have native dancers, martial arts groups, firefighters, and Timorese music blaring. And the whole thing was going to finish at the Governu Palazzo with a giant concert until 3 in the morning! But sadly, we had to leave before we saw any of the real parade. We had waited almost three hours and Brendan was leading the Bible study this week so we couldnt be late.

So I learned a hard lesson that day. Weve been learning it for the past few months, but that was the most dramatic example. Its very interesting living in a culture where people run time, not time running people. Most events start late here, and if things come up people may come very late or not at all. Obviously this makes for a country that is less efficient, but Im sure for them its less stressful to have a more understanding culture. For us, still trying to transition from living in America to here, its still a little stressful trying to learn to play by new rules. But hopefully soon I will have adjusted.

Finally, today is Ash Wednesday. And, because East Timor is awesome, it is a national holiday here!!! We were so surprised on Monday to find out that there would be no school on Wednesday and the clinic (and most businesses) will be shut. Its a day for church, family, and relaxing as we all start preparing our hearts for Easter.

So today we will rest a lot, Brendans going to keep teaching me how to drive a manual, and well work on a few things until we sing in the choir at 6:45 Mass. Yay for Ash Wednesday being a national holiday here and yay God! K, hope you are all well. Thanks for the love, prayers, and continually checking the blog : )

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan

10 Reasons to Visit Us in East Timor

2009-02-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

We know how much everyone likes to go on summer vacations and right about now you’re probably starting to plan your destination. Right now you’re probably thinking that something tropical would be great – anywhere that isn’t FREEZING! Well my friends, we have just the place for you! Here we will present 10 pieces of overwhelming evidence that will convince you that East Timor is the perfect vacation destination.

10. Breathtaking landscapes –

You have the ocean and mountains within a few hours of each other. In the same day you can go hiking in the cool mountains and drive down to the beach for a relaxing picnic. You’ve seen our pictures – East Timor has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth!

Brendan took this picture while we were driving to Baucau – look at how blue the water is!!!

9. Appreciate everything a little more –

I’ve also thought that living life with an attitude of being able to be easily amused is the way to go, but here it happens without effort. Things are a little hotter here, it’s a little harder to find familiar food, and not everything is ready for you at the touch of a button. But when you do get to that spot in the shade on the beach with a cold Sprite in your hands, it means more to you than it ever would at home. Life here is a little less comfortable, a little more hardcore, and you appreciate everything a little more.

8. Experience the thrill of climbing coconut trees –

Like an extreme sport itself, coconut tree-climbing is a physical challenge only for the most daring. Shallow notches have been cut in the tree to make climbing easier (although the locals can do it without the notches). So using the notches as hand and footholds you can make your way to the top to claim your prize. But the trick is to get the coconut you have to carry a machete with you on your climb to knock it down. But this advanced level of coconut climbing is not recommended until you’ve completed a few machete-free climbs first.

Here Brendan shows the locals how to climb a coconut tree.

7. Party with the Sisters –

These ladies know how to party! Having spent New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and many other celebrations with them we can say that from personal experience. And how they live it up for God has attracted so many young women that they recently celebrated forming a new province because there were too many Sisters to handle! And it was a party – a church service with beautiful singing and hundreds of local people and then a party with the Prime Minister and more of the local people. There was feasting and singing and traditional and modern Timorese dance presentations and the grand finale with the Sisters dancing like crazy in the middle of the floor. Hanging out with them is joy for us!

Being here, they have helped us remember what a party life is, and in particular, being a Catholic Christian. Literally every week there is a party for something – remembering the life of special saint, like Saint Bakhita, some great achievement at the school or among the Canossian Sisters, St. Valentine’s Day, and special events in the church year…these are just some examples from the past two weeks. It’s amazing!

6. FREE Swimming Excitement –

I’ve met a few people whose dream was to go to South Africa and swim with the Great White sharks. Well, for those people, there are thrills here that are just as dangerous and for free.

So for those adventurous few we recommend swimming with Timor’s mascot, the crocodile. Where the rivers meet the sea the crocodiles like to hang out and catch the brightly-colored fish. But they aren’t opposed to having other visitors swim with them : )

More seriously though, crocodiles aren’t a big problem except around Los Palos on the far eastern edge of the island, although we were graced with one’s presence in Baucau. But there are lots of other marine life that attracts visitors to the island.

The scuba diving and snorkeling rival anything you would see in Florida. And currently, dolphins and whales are migrating past the island and can be seen on the ferry from Dili to Ata’uro Island, about an hour’s boat ride away. Our friend Donna, another volunteer, told us about her trip to Ata’uro with the boat ride past an amazing reef 100 meters from the shore and how she hiked up one of the hills and saw whales surfacing on their way past East Timor. If you like scuba diving, snorkeling, or just playing in the water, East Timor is the place for you.

5. Be a Celebrity –

Even in Dili, a city filled with UN peacekeeping officers and foreigners working with NGOs, children still appear shocked to see a white person. Everyone here has deep brown skin, black hair, and a very slight build. Anything out of the ordinary is definitely noticed.

“Malae” is the affectionate term that will get called to you by cute children and grandmas sitting at vegetable stands. People point and smile as you walk or drive by. For most of us here this will probably be the most public recognition we will get in our lives. It’s a little disconcerting at first, but you learn to take your brief stint with fame like a Hollywood movie star – waving and smiling back and amusing them further by trying to speak Tetum with then.

4. Meaningful Interactions –

Something that all people are looking for in life is meaningful interactions and meaningful work. When you decide to come to East Timor for any length of time we will definitely pull you in to help with some of the English classes, playing games with the 2,000 students at the Canossian school, and meeting the people in our neighborhood who have practically taken us into their families. Before coming here I wasn’t convinced how important teaching English overseas was, but I’ve been finding out that it can make a big difference and it’s one of the main things young people want.

The people are dying to speak English and we have tens of people asking for personal lessons and practice times outside of the students at school who are very enthusiastic to learn English for the most part. A few days ago, I was talking with Agust, one of the boys who lives in a home for kids with disabilities in our neighborhood. The house also has a small computer lab for helping the boys learn the Microsoft Office programs. He told me that the computers and English classes were “a gift from a loving God for a boy like him” because English and computer skills are both keys to getting a job here. English and computers are their chance for a relatively normal life.

So the work here is meaningful and can really make a difference. So if you need a break from your job and want some more meaningful interactions with people, fly on over : )

3. Life on the Edge –

Not only is the terrain beautiful, it is a little rough. During Christmas Break we took a trip to Suai and back to help deliver a shipment of stuff to the Canossian Sisters there. The trip was eight hours of fun!

On the way back we were thinking about how at home we pay $15 or $20 to get into an amusement park and then have one or two minutes of high-speed, gut wrenching dips, swirls, and spins. And it’s awesome!

But here we can do the same, again, for FREE! On that trip to and from Suai, we paid nothing and we got eight hours of only slightly slower up and down, side to side gut wrenching dips. Think about it : )

2. The People –

Today we had some fellow volunteers over to our house for lunch after Mass and we were all talking about our experiences here. Everyone has come to the same conclusion: the Timorese are an incredibly generous people. They don’t feel like they have much to give, but they will give you everything they have.

Last Saturday we went with Sister Aquelina to visit a couple of homes to give Eucharist to the people. One man we visited had had a stroke. The man was a good example of the generosity of the Timorese. He was happy to see us. He and his family had Australian soldiers staying in their home in recent years. He was kind and so apologetic that he had no food or anything to offer us. He told us many things that if he had he would give to us, but we assured him just letting us be here was gift enough. All of the other volunteers had similar stories and many, because they have been here longer. But the impression was the same for all – the Timorese are a very friendly, hardworking, overly generous people.

1. Their Faith -

Lately I’ve been reading the Imitation of Christ, by Fr. Thomas a Kempis – a Catholic priest who lived in the 1300s. That was long time ago, but it’s amazing how relevant it still is for today, like many sources of great spiritual wisdom (like the Bible and the writings of the early church fathers too).

Fr. Thomas a Kempis speaks a lot about humility and staying on the right track with God and spiritual growth. One line that really struck me and that I underlined was, “Associate yourself with the humble and simple, with the devout and virtuous.” And the first thing I thought of was how blessed Brendan and I are to be here with the Timorese. They truly are all of the above. They always surprise me, because even though they have had so few opportunities compared to what we have been blessed with in America, they still have the important things in life right: God, family, and care for your neighbor. It’s so easy for us to let those things slip when we are more distracted and comfortable.

Another thing that Fr. Thomas a Kempis wrote about how adversity, if you let it, can help you to grow in your faith. He said that because Jesus faced adversity to the point of death, we should not only accept it, but expect it. Adversity shows us who we are, the good and the bad. But from what I have seen and heard from them about how difficult life is, they have faced horrible tragedies that I can’t imagine facing and yet they have remained strong in faith, hope, and love.

A chapel at a house of the Salesian Brothers where they run an agricultural development project on the outskirts of Suai.

So, I know we’ve probably convinced you to come to East Timor and visit us. Just let us know when you’re coming and we’ll make room for you : ) And if you can’t make it that’s ok too. Just keep the people of East Timor and us in your prayers!

Much love,

Rachel and Brendan

Magnificent Mom

2009-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

Magnificent Mom! That makes her sound kind of like a superhero doesnt it? Well, in a lot of ways she is like a superhero. Intrigued? Read on

Here is my Mom, right before we left on this big adventure. She is wrapped in a prayer shawl and watching all of us kids goof around with the new scarves Jian had given us.

But back to Mom being like a superhero. Superheroes have day jobs, but whenever they have extra time they are doing hundreds of big and little things to make peoples lives better stopping accidents that could hurt people, stopping bad guys, etc. And they rarely get credit and they dont ask for it. They simply know that even if its difficult, its worth making just one persons life better.

No, my Mom doesnt wear spandex that I know of, but take that prayer shawl you see her wearing in the picture. My Mom is a busy lady, but in her spare time she makes prayer shawls (like a really big wrap-around scarf) for people that are having a difficult time.

She knits them in cool colors and the whole time that she is working on it, she prays for the person who will receive it. She knit a dark purple one for me when I was headed back to ISU one year. I have had it since and in many dark or stressful times I would crawl into bed, wrap myself up in that prayer shawl, and I could be at peace. And they arent just for her children, but for more distant friends and relatives who are sick or having troubles.

thought this picture was a great description of my Mom. Here she pins a boutonnière on Johnny before our wedding. She is always doing stuff like that little practical things that could be left for someone else to do, but she jumps in and does them and does them well. Who will remember the little things like that after all the action of the day? Well, I did, and now you will : )

One of the things that my Mom did that made a very big impression on me was when I was in high school, sometimes I was super busy with school and other activities and I would let the room I shared with Laura get messy. Sometimes I would eventually clean it up, but other afternoons I would come home and it would be clean. Mom never said anything, but I knew it was her. I started to realize that it takes the strongest people to do secret good things like that and to not ask for recognition.

And even more important was one other thing she did. Every morning she sits in the same chair by the window and does her devotional and prayer time. She either reads the Bible or other spiritual books. I also know that she prays for our family and others while she walks on the treadmill at the YMCA in the mornings. This is all just to make a point this is one more area that my Mom is genuine and consistent in. She has never tried to get our attention, Hey kids look! Im reading the Bible, and you should be doing this everyday too! While, as a family, we do talk about the importance of reading and knowing the Bible well, its the example that gives those words meaning. That Mom is so in love with Jesus can make us curious hopefully curious enough to dig in and find the Truth and make our faith our own. To me what has the biggest impact on people is this: the witness of a person genuinely in love with Jesus and who cares for people not so they can get recognition or get something back, but just because Jesus is in them. That witness always impresses people. My Mom is one of those beautiful examples.

I know she would deny this, but I feel that she is a perfect role model for a wife and mother. She is a woman who has the heart of Mary, Jesus Mom humble and pure. She has a Masters degree, but for the past twenty-three years she has devoted herself to taking care of seven crazy kids and my wonderful Dad. I have so many stories of her being a very creative, fun, and wise Mom. Well just say that I will be asking for her a lot of advice when we start having kids!

So my Magnificent Mom is like a superhero. She is quietly transforming the world we live in one life at a time, making it a better place. She is saving the world and warming souls with her prayer shawls, her pinning boutonnières, her cooking and cleaning all these things that culminate in her wonderful example. Her witness has touched each of us kids and with Dad as her co-superhero, they have given us confidence to go out and save the world too. This is one of the greatest gifts a Mom can give.

Mom, Im so proud to be your daughter, and I hope I grow up to be like you! I love you and happy birthday!!!

Love always,
Rachel and Brendan

English Club

2009-02-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

Now that were fully recovered weve begun teaching an English Club primarily for the seniors in high school. This will be an especially good group to be working with because we can help them with their English just as they are applying for scholarships for universities. We have heard of many opportunities for students who can speak English well many developed, English-speaking countries have generously offered a few full scholarships to Timorese students. Weve already been able to help one of the students with a scholarship application and she has been recalled for a written test and an interview. Please pray for her and the other students for many students, academic scholarships are their only means of going to university.

On Wednesday we had our first English Club. We were nervous as to how many students would come because they already had a full day of school and must be very hungry (there is no school lunch here students get out at 1:30 pm instead and go home to eat), but forty-one students came!!! Obviously its the first day and many wont come everyday, but it was so encouraging. Most of them are coming to practice speaking. They know some English, but no one practices because everyone normally speaks Tetum or Indonesian.

We started with a prayer, and did introductions, showing them a few pictures of us and our families. They really liked the pictures. Then we explained the details of English Club before playing a game. They love games in English because its a fun way to practice. We played the ice breaker Youve got mail. They loved it and were laughing so loudly we had to shush them many times as we tricked them into practicing listening and speaking.

Then, since it was the first day we gave them introduction questions to answer in small groups to practice speaking while we did one-on-one interviews to find out everyones names, what they wanted most to get out of English Club, and we secretly gauged their level of English so we know what level we should teach at. You can tell it was really exciting : ) We teach one of the university classes too, but this is different because we can just make this fun no homework, tests, etc.

Things were looking forward to:

- Movies!

We will be trying to show a movie every other Friday for the kids. This Friday we showed Finding Nemo and there were forty kids there again! We put on the English subtitles and had a flier prepared in English and Tetum about the plot and characters. These movies will be a good chance to intensely practice listening and speed reading and then well discuss after the movie for comprehension and helping them understand new words. It seems to be going well, but well be looking for ways to improve it as we go.

- Games! Coming up with lots of games to work into the class!

- Field trips!

Whenever we can we will try to organize field trips to go to different NGOs (Non Government Organizations), government buildings, and embassies and get a tour in English and have a discussion. It will be good for the kids to practice, but also will let them know about opportunities in Dili and we hope might help them make some contacts at NGOs that might turn into jobs at some point.

Hope all is well back home!
Rachel and Brendan

Thoughts From the Day

2009-02-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

Today was another beautiful Sunday. Maybe not beautiful in the sense of the weather this particular day, but another day surrounded by good people and meaningful interactions. And thats what really gets to you.

Here are some of the things that inspired me today:

~ 10:30 English Mass I love this Mass and its one of the things I look forward to most during the week! Today I was inspired by the energy and attitude of reverence of the director of the choir, the sincerity of our friend Mary as she was reading the scriptures, and a quote that was on the hand out:

They alone are alive, those who live for others; the rest are more dead than alive.

~ The Communion Song was also inspirational. I had never heard it before coming here, but its a song with good music and simple, but encouraging words. And theres a key change at the chorus and you really feel your spirit almost physically lifting up. Beautiful.

Here are the words:

Hide me now under Your wings
Cover me with Your mighty hand.

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father, You are King over the flood
I will be still and know You are God.

Find rest my soul in Christ alone
Know His power in quietness and trust.

And thats it, but it gets me every time we sing it.

~ How rewarding it is to be able to help others (and how great it is to be healthy again so we can help). Today we were able to give car rides to our neighbors, visit with a busy friend, and get some medicine to another friend whos sick. This is one reason why were here and we feel so blessed to be in East Timor.

~ Visiting the Sistersagain. We are so fortunate that God led us to volunteering with VOICA. We went to visit the Sisters today at Balide and once again we were overwhelmed by their generosity and self-giving spirits. Not only do they provide for our housing, utility, and monthly food needs, but they are always checking on us to make sure that we are ok and healthy. It has been wonderful and we hope that God will lead many others, maybe even some of our friends, to volunteer with the same organization.

~ Brendan surprising me today when he turned on some music and danced with me in the kitchen while we were making supper : ) Hes the best, and I am so lucky to be married to him!

~ The message at the prayer meeting tonight. Its a simple gathering, but full of life. The speakers message today was actually a question: Are you a Christian? We talked through many New Testament verses discussing living an authentic, and not hypocritical, life as a Christian. Its an important question to ask ourselves regularly.

To be a Christian literally means to be Christ-like. When you look at Jesus life in the gospels its not something that can be lived up to easily. To live authentically as a Christian is tough you have to be always changing and growing and humbly giving up your trouble areas to God so He can heal them. To be Christlike you need a lot of grace from God and a personal decision to constantly focus on God and whats really important.

It also means we have to work on giving up the things that are for short term pleasure and long term disappointment. Things are parallel to us eating a whole back of peanut butter M&Ms in a few hours at the time it feels amazing and exciting, but not long afterwards you always wonder What was I thinking!?! Anyway, were slowing learning and growing and hopefully well get to the point where were not scarfing bags of pb M&Ms as often : )

So, its difficult, but worth it. Choosing Jesus is the best thing you can ever do! Brendan and I often say that Jesus was the best thing that ever happened to us - life is just more exciting with Him! And thats what we want for all of you: an exciting, deeply fulfilling life!

All in all, another great day of experiences in Timor Leste! Wish you were here : )

Love,
Rachel and Brendan

The Future of East Timor

2009-02-04T00:58:00.000-08:00

This morning we were invited to go to the official graduation of last years university students. There were sixty of them that came back to the school for their degrees. They were all dressed in their school uniforms and official IPDC jackets.

At the front of the room was a long white table where Sr. Sonia, as director of the Canossa Foundation, sat with Sr. Teresina, their principal, and the heads of departments. There was a prayer to begin, followed by a song sung by about thirty of the current university students, and then speeches by each of the directors and Sr. Teresina. And finally the students were presented with their certificates. They walked up proud and shook hands with Sr. Teresina.

After the formal ceremony there were snacks for the teachers and a dance for the kids and everyone was running around taking pictures and talking in groups. Hopefully this is the time of their lives when everything is ahead of them. They are the future of East Timor.

Lots of the students, even ones we had never met before, came up to ask to take a photo with us. After some normal group photos, we surprised the students by asking if they wanted to do one where we would hold up someone in front. They had no idea what we meant for awhile until Brendan and I picked up Vasco, a talkative kid in our English I class, and showed them. Once they got the hang of it the guys picked up Vasco again and we took a picture : )

After everyone was tired of taking pictures, we asked them to teach us some Timorese games. One girl, Bela, got everyone organized with a flurry of Tetum and we were sitting in a circle with a crumbled up pink napkin and ready to play. It turned out to be their version of Duck, Duck, Grey Duck, but instead of saying grey duck to pick someone to chase you the person whos it drops the napkin behind one of the other people. The person chosen has to pick up the napkin and then run and try to catch the person.

Next they showed us a game where youre in a circle again, except now standing up. Its a game that formalizes what happens at dances anyway. One person goes in the middle of the circle and claps and sings a song that in English is the equivalent of Follow, follow, fol-low me (3x), follow YOU! During the song the person dances however they want and everyone has to imitate them until someone new jumps in whenever the song gets to follow you. So a few people danced and then they threw me into the middle (Brendan was a slacker and wouldnt play because he wanted to take pictures).

It was a little traumatizing all around, but classic. I lost them on the sprinkler. They tried it, but you could see it in their eyes: Is this girl crazy? What is this? They tried the washing machine and pop machine too, but I think only out of respect for us. Only afterward did I think about what Id done all those things are totally unfamiliar to them. They dont have yards with grass in them, they dont have sprinklers to water those yards or even irrigation systems for fields that weve seen in Dili, they dont have washing machines, and there are no vending machines. So those dance moves arent something they can connect any personal experiences to. Well, we live we learn : )

After more social butterflying we were dragged into an empty classroom by a few students to learn some Timorese dances. They reviewed the Timorese line dance for us, and taught us the steps of the Timorese slow dance. In return we made them try a dance where you click feet with another person and do some spins.

Student highlight:

We met a student today named Leonardo, who graduated from the computer tech program. Now he is running a computer course out of his home for the people in his area, but soon he will be heading to Indonesia because he got a scholarship to go to university there also. A lot of the students that we talked to are trying to continue their education and working while they see if they can.

The university here is almost a vocational program. There are two programs Office Management and Computer Technician. This isnt like Iowa State where there are a bajillion different majors and lots of resources. The university here is a two-story building with about eight classrooms, some computers (now with internet!), some offices, a cooking classroom, and a business room. And this is some of the best of the best in East Timor. Its a little different, but theyve done incredibly with what resources they have.

Weve been asking other people who have been here for awhile and theyve confirmed what weve been seeing: better education and healthcare are the keys to the development of this new nation. Its especially needed in the rural areas, but even in Dili it will be very important to significantly improve both of those.

Now were taking a quick siesta time in our house and soon well head back up to the school to meet with the students for a lunch. Then at 4:00 we have Bible study at church and afterward Brendan will go play basketball with some of the students. And then REST on this lazy Saturday : )

Interesting fact: In East Timor students go to school all day, Monday through Saturday 6 days a week! We have heard it is the same in Indonesia. We think its a little rough on the kids (and are glad that we only had five days a week), but hopefully it helps.

We hope youre having a good day too!

Love,
Rachel and Brendan

Highs and Lows

2009-02-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone there’s been a lot happening lately as we get back into the swing of things. So sorry that we can’t write you everything, you’ll just have to talk to us when we get home. But we can give you a quick taste of some of the good and not as good.

High 1 We’re getting better!

We’re finally able to get up and do stuff and have some energy leftover! Dengue wasn’t too bad, but it’s been two and a half weeks now and the fatigue hangs on like you wouldn’t believe. So after a long prescribed rest we are feeling ready to go again and pick up where we left off. Which is good, because after two weeks of being stuck in our house, some of our students and even our neighbors thought that we had left the country with our Australian housemates. Last night when our neighbor Jose found out we were still here he was SO HAPPY – it was exactly the encouragement we needed to get back into volunteering.

High 2 We’re getting involved!

Brendan and I have officially joined the Bible study and choir at the local church, as well as another Christian prayer group led by our Bible study leader. Those experiences have been incredible.

Bible study meets at the church on Saturdays at 4. For the past few weeks we’ve been delving into the Bible at the very beginning and making connections all over the Bible and applying it to our daily lives. Our coordinator is Iwouzo, one of the UN Peacekeepers from Nigeria.

This man is a perfect example of “they will know they are Christians by their love.” Anytime he is not working he is giving people rides, visiting sick officers and volunteers, or doing things at the church. He’s a give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back before you even ask kind of guy. He can always be found at early morning daily Mass and with a rosary around his neck. We have been blessed to get to know him, and I can only hope that we will be more like him someday.

Also, at Sunday English Mass we sit behind a substantial international choir and last week they put out the invitation for new members. We love to sing and we know some people in the choir from Bible study, so we thought we would try it. We went to our first practice last night and it was really fun.

Practices are in the wonderfully air conditioned front room of the Filipino Embassy. There is a stark contrast between the big, white, super-secure U.S. Embassy and the Filipino Embassy. For the choir practice we walked right in, no security checks, no nothing. Later on in the practice the Filipino ambassador came in and gave hugs all around : )

Anyway, we practiced the new songs for February for a few hours. The choir is a good mix of internationals and a growing number of Timorese. The new director is Rene, a man from Nigeria, who directs with an energy that I have never seen and who has a range that I have never heard. He knows and can sing all four parts to help each section (sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses). With his waving and stomping and snapping he can get us to sing with power, rejoicing in the Lord, and I feel like I’m in an African choir.

The rest of us in the choir are a good mix: many Filipinos, Timorese who come to the English Mass, some from different parts of Africa, and Brendan and I representing America ; ) There were seventeen of us at practice last night. There was lots of joking back and forth between the members and the atmosphere was very welcoming. At the end of practice some of the members approached us and we were even invited to a Filipino gathering tonight where there will be a little concert. All in all it was a wonderful experience and we can’t wait to see everyone on Sunday!

We’ve also been meeting our neighbors in our neighborhood, “Delta 3”, many of whom want to have us over or want to take us with their family on a trip around Dili. They are super friendly and try hard to be able to communicate with us. Some of them speak English very well and we enjoy getting farther in conversation with them.

God seems to have been gracing us with at least one really good conversation a day. Lately we’ve had good ones with the four Zambian UN Police that live a few houses away from us. One of them, Freddy, speaks often at the prayer group. They all invited us into their house…and to come to their houses in Zambia!

We also were able to talk with Alberto, a Timorese teacher at school who has been incredibly helpful when we need translations. The other day he told us his life story; it just kind of tumbled out. He has had it rough, but is so resilient. When the Indonesians came in 1975, his family moved into the mountains to try to stay safe. After two years up there his Mom and the baby she was pregnant with died for an unknown reason. The next year his father died. Throughout the years he has helped his family, but many of his brothers and sisters have also died. But he was able to get an education and now teaches at one of the best schools in Dili (Canossa : ) and works very hard. He is a wonderful man who has really taken life’s lemons and made lemonade.

And another day we spoke with Jose, our neighbor. He is an East Timorese with a passion for helping the young people and for the English language. He is handicapped and has to use two sticks to walk, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from his positive attitude and his faith. Yesterday he was discussing his plans to have an English class for our whole neighborhood. He will teach and we will support and especially help with refinement of conversational English and stuff like that.

He is a hero and exactly what the East Timorese need. We will only be here for a time, but he is a servant leader from among their people. This guy works hard all day, and then he wants to volunteer to teach English to a whole neighborhood just out the goodness of his heart because he knows that English is one of the keys for the future of East Timor.

Anyway, to sum it up, we’re getting involved and meeting people. And these people are unforgettable. Hopefully we can all learn from their example.

High 3 We got our first package!

Thank you to everyone that put some little gifts in one of our Christmas packages. My family and some of the Davises put some practical stuff together in two boxes. Both left as priority mail January 8th, one via Portugal and one via Australia. The one from Portugal arrived yesterday (the 29th), so now we know that it takes priority packages three weeks to get from the U.S. to here via Portugal and hopefully the Australia one will arrive soon.

Inside were bug spray, super glue, soup, a puzzle, Purell, and…goodness itself…PEANUT BUTTER M&MS!!! All of the practical items were appreciated a ton, but none have disappeared as fast as the full bag of pb M&Ms. Between Brendan and I the bag lasted five hours…only because the three middle hours of that we were in the choir practice. Wow! My stomach was kicking me later that night because I haven’t had much junk food here, but it was so nice at the time… So we’ve learned our lesson now and in case the Australia package has more peanut butter M&Ms we’ll savor them : )

So thank you thank you thank you to everyone involved. Not only are all the contents things that will be important for us to have here (we were almost out of bugspray and Purell), but the meaning behind the gifts is much more important to us. We miss you all A LOT and any word or sign from home is wonderful! You saw how excited we get for peanut butter M&Ms…and you know we love you much more than those.

Low 1 First earthquake

It was actually pretty shocking and exciting at the time, but we had to come up with at least one low to even it out : ) To be fair it was a little scary, kind of like the first time we saw a crocodile in the wild – you know it’s real and could do some damage. We were at the school and the earthquake shook the building, but only for a few seconds. It had stopped, but we left the building just in case there would be any aftershocks.

We’ve talked to some locals about it to see what they thought. To some of them it was a little scary, to some really exciting (mostly teenagers), but they all thought it wasn’t too big of a deal. There are little earthquakes felt regularly in Dili. So we’ll be cautious, but it’s reassuring to hear that it’s not too bad.

High 4 Discovering Dili

Dili is starting to feel more like a home. We are learning more of the parts within the city, more than just the Comoro area where we live and the school is. As we’ve been meeting people we’ve been invited different places and now we checked out a few of the beach front restaurants with friends and went on a date for our eighth monthsary of being married, we know the areas with the convents around the city, the main churches and the cathedral, the best grocery stores, and the area around the national hospital. The maze of streets (most without streets signs) is starting to be less of a maze. It’s an exciting place and an exciting time.

High 5 Our first house!

Although having our first real house together has come about by unfortunate circumstances (with the Australian sisters going home for health reasons), we are still grateful. Ever since we’ve been married we’ve been living with other people, and it’s exciting to work together and then be able to come home and spend time with each other just doing normal things: cooking, cleaning, reading the Bible, going on walks, playing cards…all the essentials : )

I was thinking about it and this is such a blessing from God! Never again in our lives (probably) will be able to spend so much time together. This first year of marriage is a great time to be able to build the foundation for our marriage in Christ and with a lot of practice of good communication and shared experiences as we learn more about how to work together effectively and run a home. Can’t get much better than that!

High 6 New close cheap internet!

Lastly, the university has been very progressive and put in a few computers with internet at the school, mostly for students and teachers who are researching for class things in their spare time. To cover the cost of the installation students and teachers pay $1 an hour. But this is great for us, because we’ve been having to drive far into the city to use the internet where it’s reliable, but $2 an hour. Now at the school we will be able to use it more often, since we’re there everyday, and it’s cheaper. So that means more blog updates (aren’t you lucky ; )!

High 7 Meeting the Prime Minister of East Timor!

Right before we got sick the Canossian Sisters had a massive party to celebrate there being so many vocations that they are forming their own province. They had a Mass with hundreds of local people and then many of them went to the Becora convent for a “festa” with food, music, speeches, and dancing.

After the beautiful Mass, Brendan and I walked to the convent and went in one of the doors. We were lucky because it was the door for special guests and we signed the guestbook and went in past the security. The security should have been our first hint. Inside we were talking with different people when someone pointed out the current Prime Minister and former President, Xanana Gusmao, across the room. He was a famous freedom fighter during the Indonesian occupation and much loved by the people.

Here we are with Xanana Gusmao. The only problem was there were four cameras going at the same time and he and Sister Lucia didn’t get the memo to look at our camera : )

We were introduced to him and he talked with us for a few minutes. He was surprisingly accessible – a good mix of formal and informal with internationals. He told us about when he was the President of East Timor and was able to come to Washington D.C. and meet with President Bush three times which he really enjoyed. It’s a crazy world – where we can meet the President and Prime Minister. I think when we go home and do introductions my new interesting fact will be that I’ve met the Prime Minister of the newest country in the world! Good conversation starter : )

You should have seen him with the people! He gave a formal speech, but the rest of the time he joked around. There was a choir to sing for the occasion and he jumped in the back and lip synched and made everyone laughed. Later there was a cake for two Sisters celebrating 25 years of being consecrated to Jesus and the Sisters cut it together and the Prime Minister opened a bottle of champagne…but when we opened it he held it up in the air and it sprayed all over, including on one of the Sisters! Oh the stories we be able to tell our grandkids…

We hope things are going well at home. Can’t wait to talk to you soon!

Always,
Rachel and Brendan

And Then There Were Two......

2009-01-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry that it’s been so long since we wrote. It’s a long story…

What Happened:
We’ve all gotten sick. Over the past two weeks Therese, Bernedette, I, and Brendan each fell sick with dengue fever. At first Therese and Bernedette were sick for a few days, then me too. Brendan was taking care of all of us and juggling school classes until he got sick too.
Our housemates had it pretty bad, especially because they didn’t rest as much as they should and tried to go back to school on the third day. When they came home they were exhausted and it went downhill until they were in the hospital and decided to fly to Darwin to get better medical attention. And now we are two…

What is Dengue Fever?
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease. You can’t get a vaccination for it because there are four distinctly different types, with hemorrhagic dengue fever being the most severe. Luckily, don’t worry, Brendan and I both got one of the less damaging types. Yay God!
Symptoms are a high fever, chills, bad back pain (it’s called “break-bone” fever), a rash that for some people itches like you wouldn’t believe!, headache, etc. Besides the rash it’s difficult to tell the difference between it and the flu, except that it lasts for a full week and fatigue and after effects can continue past that.

Why We Are Staying:
While we were in the midst of the sickness right after Therese and Bernedette left for Australia, we weren’t sure if we were going to be on a plane to America shortly also. It was a frustrating time, wondering why we had gotten sick just as we are finally getting settled and ready to get back into the work full force after their Christmas Break.

We were going into the hospital regularly to get blood tests done so they could track our progress. The big things to watch with dengue are the white blood cell count and platelet count. So we were trying to talk with any doctor who could speak English well so we could ask questions about our options, but it was difficult because most of the doctors there are Cuban and speak Spanish, a little Tetum, and a little English. We’ve been told that there is some kind of agreement between Cuba and East Timor and a significant part of the medical staff here is Cuban.

But we had been praying that a doctor we would meet would give us a definitive answer either way, that we should stay or that we needed to go. Dogmara, one of our Polish friends, had a friend who got us the name of a doctor from Portugal. When we went to visit him, he spoke perfect English and told us a little more about dengue. He said that he had many international patients with dengue fever last year and that none of them left, even parents with an eight-month old girl with dengue. He said that there is only one subtype of dengue each year, so the likelihood of us getting dengue again is low.

Also, the wet season will be getting over soon (in early March) and at that point the mosquito population will decrease dramatically and the likelihood of getting mosquito-borne diseases will go down even more. Thank goodness – mosquitoes are evil! So if we are leaving the country this November, we’ll get out just as the wet season starts again, and hopefully stay mosquito-borne sickness free!

Prayer Requests:
Even though our little battle with dengue fever is over, we still need your prayers. We are still very exhausted and to get back to 100% will take awhile in this hot hot hot climate. Please pray for wisdom of when to go back to working at the school and clinic. We’re anxious to get back to work, but we know that if we go back before our bodies are ready we’ll just get sick again.
Please pray for our friends who are also sick. For Bernedette and Therese, that they will fully recover and that God will lead them either back here or on to something else new and exciting for Him. For Chris and Sali, our housemates in Rome, who got sick in Baucau recently.
Thanks everybody! We’ll try to catch up on e-mails soon and put up these blogs too – we haven’t been able to do much of anything while we’ve been sick. And thank you as always for checking the blog every week or two, it encourages us to know that you haven’t forgotten about us : )

Love always,
Rachel and Brendan

First Day Back at School

2009-01-23T21:10:00.000-08:00

We’d spent a few days getting ready, lesson planning, etc. and we were ready to start school gungho again! So we arrived at school Monday morning ready to teach the teachers…but only one of them showed up. Sister Pascuela was there ready to learn… except that she also wanted to help prepare for Sister Teresina’s surprise birthday party (Sr. Teresina is the university principal). So instead of teaching as we had prepared, we hung out waiting for the surprise party, happy that we have our lesson planned for next week.

But because we’re still figuring out the schedule and the fact that things around here never go quite as planned, the day was still a little crazy. Circumstances caused problems with pulling off the surprise birthday party. Sister Teresina left the school because there had been a mouse (a real mouse, not a computer mouse) in her printer and she needed the printer fixed ASAP. So we waited until she got back and then all crowded into the room. When she appeared we all sang Happy Birthday to her in English.

There were lots of people – other Sisters, teachers and students from the university, and us. Sister Teresina cut the cake and started the food line and stayed for awhile, but then she got a few cell phone calls and left. So the rest of us continued hanging out and eating food. It was a funny situation because she missed about half of her surprise party, but she’s a busy woman. And besides staying busy running the university, she told us later that she’s really uncomfortable with attention being on her. It was surprising because she’s one of the best English speakers we know here and seems very comfortable with people from all over. She’s also very smart and hardworking. So to see a shy side of our boss at the university was kind of funny.
That afternoon she even gave us her birthday presents. The Sisters had given her a box of “hairy fruit,” one of her favorite fruits that I think look like alien spores. I’d never seen anything like them! They are green and red and yellow with curled spikes all over them. You dig your thumb through the skin and it falls apart easily. Inside is a whitish oval with a hard seed in the middle. So you eat the whitish oval part. It tastes pretty good, but it’s still weird. Anyway, we went to talk to her and she gave us the box and refused to take them back. We tried probably 10 times… All I can think is that the Sisters understand more than most people I’ve ever met that the greatest thing is giving, not receiving. That could explain their joy. Or they could have been trying to get rid of the alien spores ; )

Also during the day, the senior high school was having their Christmas party and with that a dance…if you could call it a dance. It was cute because there were many students crowded around the dance floor (an open corner of the school building), but everyone was too shy to go out. Berta, our friend who is the student body president, tried valiantly to get people to go out, but they would leave quickly.

Brendan and I were watching and decided to liven it up : ) I jumped out there with Berta and she taught me an East Timorese dance that’s kind of like a line dance with different moves. Then the song ended. A little later there was a slow dance and Brendan and I hit the floor with probably six or seven other couples. But everyone else was doing a close slow dance, so we showed off with some swing dancing and twirls and spins. We got claps and cheers because it was like nothing they’d seen before. And in a last effort I taught six girls the dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe and we stormed the floor doing the dance and spins to a Timorese song. It was great!
We’re not sure what happened to the dance after that because Sister Ervinia (our boss at the senior high school) called us over for the teachers’ Christmas lunch. The Sisters had prepared rice and chilis and chicken. It was nice because we only had cold rice for lunch in our lunch boxes to eat otherwise. We got to meet some more of the high school teachers and got some compliments on our dancing from a teacher who had spied us out on the dance floor. And after the talk they pulled out a “pudding” which is basically Spanish flan. It was delicious! And Sister Ervi said that she’d teach us how to make it if we wanted. Hopefully that will happen, mostly if we make time for it. Then when we come home all of you can benefit from our new skills : )

Before we headed home we made an announcement about the English Club that we’ll be starting after they finish their exams next week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons right after school we’ll be teaching an English Club which will be like the English classes except more fun because we’re working on finding family movies to show in English and working out field trips to take them on to practice English. It should be great and provide a good opportunity to develop closer relationships than in the university classes.

The cool part about this is that we’re not just teaching English, which is very helpful for the young people. We get to work God into everything – starting classes with different prayers, sharing good songs with them, using Bible verses for dictation material. It’s everything that people need – Christ + human promotion of education and basic needs.

It’s nice to feel like we’re starting to get the hang of things so we can make a difference. There are always highs and lows, but we seem to be on the upswing most of the time. We’ve been for one month officially yesterday (January 7th). Wow, it’s gone fast! It’s challenging, but it’s good work with good people so what’s not to like?

So back to the day, we finally headed home. We hadn’t taught at all, but it was a successful day of connecting with people. K, talk to you soon!

Love always,
Rachel and Brendan

Suai

2009-01-11T22:25:00.001-08:00

After we drove home from Baucau we had half a day to shower, wash clothes, and try to recover before going on another, bigger trip. We were already a little tired from traveling to Baucau and back, but while there’s no school we knew we had to take advantage of the opportunity to travel.
So the next morning we headed off with Sister Sonia, our driver Augustino, the driver’s son, and the four of us in the back of a pick-up truck with a load of pillows for the convent and center in Suai.

Brendan got some great pictures on the way of the mountains we were going through.

And some pictures of the road that was sometimes treacherous…

Or non-existent. Similar to our van ride from Kupang to Dili, we had to cross a river on this trip. The wet season rains had flooded the road out, but our driver was from Suai and made the trip all the time, so we went through anyway. But the water was high and fast and we got stuck right at the end.

All the town’s local boys came to our rescue and volunteered to help push the van to shore. There were probably twenty of them, but they couldn’t quite do it. Next the men on shore hooked up a tow rope and tried to haul us out by hand, but no luck.

Finally they called in the reinforcements and some heavy machinery came driving straight up the river. They hooked us up and within a minute we were out and on the move again, waving to everyone who had tried to help us with our predicament. They yelled and waved back – I have a feeling this excitement is one of their favorite parts of the wet season.

And we arrived at the Canossian Sisters Suai convent that is finally being rebuilt after being burned down in 1999. The convent is right next to the infamous church where the Indonesians massacred over two hundred people who were staying in the church for safety. Many were killed and then the church was burned with the remaining people inside. Many women and children, students were killed.

Now the church has been rebuilt and on Sunday and Monday we went to Mass there. You can see that for the new church they have left out half of the wall on two of the sides. That may be because they don’t want a repeat of the burning tragedy.

This little monument covered with plaques and stones for the victims of the massacre in 1999, by their surviving family and friends. The two names and dates that stood out to me were two names on a plaque of a mother and a baby who had only been born a few months before.

But there were bright moments too and the people are so resilient. They work hard and find fun things to do. A few guys were playing basketball and Brendan joined them. You can see that he was a head above the rest. They looked like they loved playing with him and were impressed by his skills. If they ever got it past him (not often), they were really happy.

Brendan, Therese, and I went up in the steeple of the cathedral and got some pictures of the surrounding area. Here you can see an East Timorese-style monument built by U.S.Aid and New Zealand in honor of the people who died here.

And Brendan and me! Brendan was amazing on this trip. I got sick the night we got to Suai and had a fever and stomach problems for quite awhile. He stayed in with me and forced me to rest and try to get better. He was wonderful and I couldn’t ask for a better husband.

It was my first time getting sick here and it wasn’t fun, but not too bad. After getting sick, the next morning I got up for Mass and at Eucharist I asked Jesus, the healer of my soul, to heal my body if He wanted to. After that my stomach got better until a day later it felt normal. Yay God! Since then I’ve just been resting and getting the fever to come down, and now, with the help of God and Brendan, and I’m almost back to full strength just in time for school to start!

Another beach trip to finish off our time in Suai. We went with Sr. Elsa and some of her nephews and a niece. Brendan and Therese worked on teaching the kids to swim. There were no crocodiles this time, but Brendan did get really close to a giant sea turtle! It’s a crazy world over here.

Brendan the explorer on the trip home, overlooking Maubisse.

After another eight hour trip we caught our first sight of our home, Dili. It was very exciting to come home after ten days of traveling all over the island. Now we’re here, celebrating the New Year, and resting up before school starts again on the 5th. We hope things are good at home. Talk to you soon!
Much love,
Rachel and Brendan
P.S. Happy New Year!!!

Baucau Trip

2009-01-11T22:11:00.001-08:00

We just got back from Baucau and there is a lot to write about! Baucau is the second biggest city in East Timor (behind Dili, where we live) and we went there to visit our friends Sali, Chris, and Dogmara. Baucau is also like a giant village, but even more so than Dili. It’s a beautiful town and going there gave us a chance to learn a little more about the Timorese people.
Brendan, Bernadette, Therese, and I stayed in the volunteer house with everyone. It was a blessing to get to see them again because they are our closest family here since we were with most of them for three months in Rome.

Journey From Dili to Baucau

After trying to catch a mikrolet to Baucau for a couple of hours, we gave up because each one that pulled up was packed. Many people who work and study in Dili are from Baucau and everyone was going home for Christmas. Luckily a few of the Sisters were in town and needed to go back to Baucau, so we all crowded in for the three hour trip, three people in the back of the pick up truck with boxes of Christmas stuff.

While we were waiting to picked up by the Sisters, Brendan had a go at palm tree-climbing. He was pretty good, but the coconuts weren’t ripe yet so he didn’t bring us down any : )
During the trip I was inside the truck with the Sisters because everyone else wanted to be in the back, but it was good because I got more commentary on stuff that we passed and learned some from the Sisters and Dogmara.

Most of the trip was along the coastline and we were all in awe of the beauty of the ocean. I think that’s one of the greatest resources that the East Timorese have: the raw beauty of their land. We’ll show you pictures, but it’s different when you’re here. In a brochure we saw the best word it used to describe East Timor was “unspoilt.” At first I wasn’t sure it was a word, but they were right either way – the land has not been spoiled or changed very much and the hardcore people who come to visit here will see things that they can’t see many other places in the world I think.

Here in the distance you can see Cristo Rey – the statue of Jesus Christ, the King. He watches over the swimmers at Cristo Rey Beach, the strip of white sand you can see in the distance. It is the second biggest statue of Jesus in the world – right after the statue in Brazil. We’ll get better pictures when we have a chance to hike up there.

Besides the great ocean views, we saw refugee camps along the way. Many people who fled Dili during the fighting have stayed outside the city and set up little communities higher up in the mountains. It’s just shocking that it’s been almost three years since then and they are still there. We also see similar refugee camps around the city of Dili, where many families still reside. To those of us who are new, it’s easy to wonder why they haven’t gone home now that the situation is better, but as you are around the city more you can still see evidence of the conflict – burned out homes and businesses. These people might have lost everything during 2006 (or in the 1999 conflict with Indonesia before) and had no money or way to begin again. It’s all a lot to think about, but I’m sure we’ll keep finding out more about the situation while we’re here.

After we had passed some of the refugee camps and some villages – all with very friendly people and kids yelling “Hello Mister” to us – we went back into the uninhabited hills. We saw the mountains where marble had once been mined with big stones all over the hills and evidence of the process. On a more somber note, we saw the forests on the hills that many of the local people think our haunted. After the vote for independence in 1999, the Indonesian militia pulled out, wreaking havoc as they went. Many Timorese were massacred up in these hills.

On a happier note, we saw the new school that the Canossian Sisters are building in Manatutu, a big village between Dili and Baucau. It won’t be like the Comoro school where we are teaching, but it will be like the schools they have set up in Baucau and Nurobo, West Timor.

There they have a 10-month program for young women to help them learn things that they will need to know either to be a mother or get a job. They have classes on cooking, sewing, hotel and restaurant management, English, computers, and other practical classes. The girls come in from many of the outer villages and board at the school. I’ve heard that it’s been very effective and from the looks of it, I believe it (Dogmara gave us a tour of the school in Baucau).

Pretty nice old school sewing machines, with the manual foot pedal and everything, but we were amazed by the clothing we saw hanging up. It looked store ready!
They also have involved the girls in some business initiatives. At the school they produce and sell soap locally, but even more importantly they’ve developed a vitamin powder for children. The vitamin powder has been picked up by an NGO who have bought tons of it to give out across the island, especially in the rural villages. Just a few people making a big difference!

Everywhere we’ve been we’ve been so impressed by the work of the Canossian Sisters and am so proud to be volunteering with them! They have been in East Timor for 130 years and the people have a deep respect for them. When we introduced ourselves to people in our neighborhood and told them we were volunteering with the Canossians they said they appreciated the Canossians because of their work with the poor and all the young people whose lives they touched through medical work and especially education.

And for those of you who are a little afraid for our safety, with the Sisters we’re about as safe as we can be. The people in our neighborhood see us with the Sisters often, and we’re always in close contact with them or visiting with them at the school or in the convents. It’s quite a blessing.

Exploring Baucau

We made it to Baucau, had a joyful reunion, and eventually got some sleep. The next afternoon we all went for a hike around town (it is like a hike because it’s in the mountains and super hilly).
While we were hiking around, out of nowhere we here a voice, “Mr. Egan, Mr. Egan!!!” It was one of Brendan’s English students from the Canossian university in Dili. He was home in Baucau for Christmas and came running over to say hi. At that moment he had been hanging out with some friends who were artists. So we asked if we could see their work in the one room art exhibition that they had set up and he showed us around. Their work was beautiful – there were carvings and painting and drawings. He showed off his friends’ work proudly. He said he also used to carve, but since he’s at university he hasn’t been able to do it.

Here is Brendan with a local artist and his semester 1 English student (on the right).

Here is one of the paintings in their exhibition. It shows a traditional East Timorese house next to a waterfall.

As we left the art studio we saw some of the other teenage artists across the street working on their nativity.

To explain more, nativities are the only Christmas decorations that we’ve seen in East Timor, but they go “all out” creating them. Families and groups of teens all over the city seem to have a competition on who can make the best nativity. They are made from wood, have roofs of dried grasses, and many have paintings of the Holy Family in them. In Dili, many of them had Christmas lights all over. So Christmas lights weren’t used on individual houses, just on the nativities which were the highlight of each neighborhood.

It’s amazing how focused their Christmas is on the real meaning of Christmas: Jesus’ birthday for goodness sake!!! It was a little bit shocking and soooo refreshing to have no commercialism, no Santa, just Jesus… But we’ll tell you more about how they celebrate Christmas later, but as for the lead up to Christmas, the nativities seemed to be the biggest thing.
In Baucau we saw many nativities as people frantically finished them before Christmas Eve. Here are a few examples.

They even had two-story ones. Here’s a Swiss Family Robinson-style nativity.

Creating nativities from scratch was obviously time-consuming, but beautiful family affair that helped people get ready for Christmas.

We finished the hike by walking up the hills and up some steep stairs to a local grotto/cave where we prayed together before heading back down to work on supper : )
K, talk to you soon!
Love,
Rachel and Brendan

Christmas at Bilide Convent

2009-01-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

Before we left for Baucau to have Christmas there with Chris and Sali (our compatriots from Rome) and Sali’s sister Dogmara, we were asked to take part in the Christmas with the Sisters and girls living at the Balide convent of the Canossian Sisters.

We started off the fun by playing basketball with a bunch of the girls. Here Brendan shows off his sweet moves and the girls are in awe of how well he plays and his height (he is almost double a Timorese teenage girl’s size).

On the sidelines we had a game of our own, called try to get the shy girls to be in a picture : ) The girl in the middle is part of a refugee family that still camps out next to the convent after the violence of 2006. They have been integrated into the convent community and came to the basketball game and Christmas party!
Before dinner all the girls and Sisters met in the chapel for evening prayer and we watched the whole movie The Nativity, which we had never seen. It was very good!

Bernadette checking out the Christmas feast! There was white rice and yellow rice and vegetables and because it’s a special occasion…lots of dishes with meat! So we tried a little bit of everything and it was delicious.

Sister Aquelina, who I work with at the clinic, rocking out! She had no idea how to play the donated drum set, but after I helped set it up, she kept coming back to it. They had me play too since I played a bit in high school and I think the girls were impressed, but it was Sister Aquelina who impressed me because she hit things at random and laughed her head off and it sounded good : )

Shall we dance? To represent, I taught them the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance and a little swing dancing with Brendan, and the Australian girls and I taught them the Chicken Dance. In return they taught us some traditional Timorese dances that had some intricate stepping in circles and group coordination. It was great!

Then came the Secret Santa gift exchange. Each of us had brought a small gift and then we drew a name out of a hat. Then as a group we all sang: “I love my bonita yes I do, I love my bonita yes I do, I love my bonita yes I do, I love my bonita, but I won’t tell you who!”
One person started and they gave their present to the person whose name they had gotten, then that person accepted the present and gave their present away. It took quite awhile and we got very good at singing the song, but eventually all the presents were exchanged. Each of us received a tai, the traditional East Timorese cloth. Different patterns represent different parts of the country, so you can tell what area a tai comes from.

Here we show off our tais with Sister Maria on the left and Sister Sonia (our caretaker) on the right. Sister Sonia is from the Philippines and is very respected here. Her English is perfect and she’s been the perfect teacher and hostess since our arrival in East Timor.

Besides the Secret Santa presents the Sisters gave each girl a bag with some games and gifts in it. It was a very special moment and the girls loved it!

The Sisters and us livin’ it up for Jesus’ birthday!
We hope that you did the same! Love you all!
Love,
Rachel and Brendan

Birthdays!

2009-01-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Not only was it Jesus’ birthday recently, but Christmas time is jampacked with other birthdays too. On December 26th, Brendan’s dad, Pat, and my sister Laura were both born (slightly different years of course). And just after New Year’s on January 10th, my brother Tom was born.

Pat

Seniority comes first in this list. So first up is my dad! Happy 53rd Birthday!!

Here is my dad, the man who has been an inspiration for me to be an explorer and to see the world. Ever since hearing about his travels from his native Australia to the distant lands of Europe and America when he was young, I have wanted to go and do the same kind of thing.

My dad has been a dedicated family man who has raised two great kids. I remember the weekend drives our family would go on. Growing up we would always go to different places in and around Minnesota, the old historical farms, pumpkin patches or state parks, where we would go exploring on walks. I remember the great family vacations that he and mom would plan out. They took us to all sorts of places to expand our horizons, places like New York (to visit family and see where my mom grew up), Texas (to see where my parents met), and South Dakota (to see the black hills and Mount Rushmore) to name some of the really memorable destinations.
This is a picture of my dad and me at the wedding in May. As you can see we’re very similar, both good looking, stylish, intelligent gentlemen. Following his example I have learned that the best way to live my life is to be honest and hardworking. He has taught me the virtue of true patience and that not everything in life is worth getting stressed over.

This picture is one of my all time favorites; it’s a showcase of two generations of Egan weddings. The man on the right side is Mark; a native New Zealander, who lives in Iowa. He served as my Dad’s best man at his wedding. The dashing gent on the left is Kurt, my best man. As one of the best friends I will ever have. I couldn’t have asked for a better best man, and I’m sure my dad would say the same about Mark.

So, in conclusion, happy birthday to the best Dad in the world. Thank you for all you've done over the years. I'll be lucky if I turn out like you someday.

Laura

And here is Laura, my beautiful and beautiful-souled sister. The Timorese would say that she is furak and laran diak (physically beautiful and beautiful inside : ) She will be twenty years old!

Laura and I have shared a room for most of our lives. As we’ve grown up, we’ve developed the habit of talking late into the night, usually collapsing into fits of giggling because we are “slap happy” from long days of music and sports practice and lots of studying.

Laura is someone who I can talk to about anything and we can turn conversation deep quickly and talk about God and life and what we’re learning through our experiences. That’s something that I really appreciate, because life isn’t meant to be lived just on the surface.

Laura is my younger sister, but I have learned many things from her. One of the things that I am most grateful for is her example of humility. Laura succeeds at all things, through talent and a lot of hard work, but she is quick to turn the attention away from herself and to others. Whatever vocation she is called to I know that she will thrive in it because she has learned the secret of selfless love (which many people don’t learn until they are much older or sometimes ever).

In her lifestyle and conversation she is always putting her focus on others. She is very friendly, a great listener, and super-pleasant to be around. She involves herself in activities that really make a difference in people’s lives.
Besides her humility, I love Laura’s positive attitude! No matter what happens she can find a bright side in it. And she’s great at making fun things happen. She helps keep the kids in our family together having fun by starting games and cards and talks with the kids. And finally, she’s hilarious! She’s one of the people that can be quiet a lot of the time and then come out with a zinger and make everyone laugh : ) We’ll just say that Laura > Chuck Norris, and leave it at that.

Laura modeling a Mongolian scarf our friend Jian gave us from China. This pose is part of a dance that she does. When we used to go bowling (when we got free passes from school) and she got a strike, she would always do a little ballerina twirl and ends up in this pose. It’s one of her signatures now : ) It’s so cool that others even try to copy it (cough, cough…Tom : )

Laura swing dancing like crazy with Maria! Laura and I learned to swing dance when we got how-to-dance movies from the library. The we would watch them over and over and practice, taking turns doing the girls and guys parts : )

Laura was my maid of honor at my wedding and she is one of my favorite people in the whole world, as are all of my siblings. But Laura, thank you for your example and all the great memories! Happy 20th birthday!!!

Tom

My brother Tom is turning 21 years old! Here Tom shows how mature he is, smiling with Mom by the Gold Nugget Restaurant at Buckskin Joe’s in Colorado. This is Tom’s classic smile. After a smart alec comment he’ll smile like this and you can’t do anything but laugh : )

Tom has the gift of a great sense of humor. When we have dinner as a family he often takes conversation for random twists and turns that are entertaining and unforgettable. He’s also very fun to be around and can be exceedingly generous. He often surprises me with his random acts of kindness toward other people.

Besides these talents, Tom is very musically gifted. Right now he is in the Music Education at Benedictine College and is loving it. Singing and tuba-playing our Tom’s fortes. He even volunteered to sing at our wedding. Here he is practicing with our friend, Katy, and my Godmother, Barb (not that Tom needs practice : )

This picture was taken in New Orleans, Louisiana, when we went down to with a group of college kids from St. Thomas Aquinas (ISU) to help gut houses after Hurricane Katrina. I have many favorite memories with Tom, but this week was one of the best. Any time you spend all day with people swinging sledge hammers and getting dirtier than you could have imagined, you bond in a special way : )

Throughout the week Tom gradually opened up more about deeper thoughts and feelings until one night after he’d had a Turkish coffee he said something during reflection and it actually made me cry. Watching Tom grow in his faith and be able to open up about deeper things has been one of the pleasures God is constantly blessing me with.

Tom, keep up the great work! And happy 21st birthday! I’m so proud to be your sister and I expect great things from you!

Happy unbirthday to everyone else and we’ll talk to you soon!

Always,

Rachel and Brendan

Our Christmas Celebration

2009-01-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we woke up early and got to work. We had to prepare the house for a fifteen-person Christmas party! There was a great sense of community during the day – if there was something that needed done, someone would find it and do it right away. It was one of the first days here where it started to feel like all of the volunteers were a family. And it was just in time for Christmas, so it helped ease the homesickness as much as it could.

There was so much cooking to do! Much like at home, the Polish spend all day in the kitchen before a holiday because there are many traditional foods. So in between deep cleaning the party area and outside their house we pitched in a lot.

It was the first Christmas either of us has had such a big part of the Christmas cooking. As I learn more and more about cooking (especially through this mission crash course), I realize how time-consuming it is and what a skill it is. So Mom, especially on holidays, thank you for all the cooking you do so selflessly. Wow, it’s a lot of work, but it all pays off in the end! When I get home I will definitely help you more with my newly developed skills.

Along with cooking in the kitchen there was a fire pit to be dug and Brendan and Therese volunteered immediately! They used a shovel to dig a decent sized hole and found grasses, wood, and coconut pieces to start a fire with. Then they cooked fresh fish in tin foil and it came out perfect! The whole time there were kids along the fence and even in the trees trying to see what was going on.

Brendan and Therese starting a fire.

And besides the cooking and cleaning, there was decorating to do. We were pretty proud of how it turned out. My job was cutting out paper stars so we could put them on the ceiling. When Brendan and Therese were done with the fish they came in to help with the stars – Therese made a big 3-D one we hung in the middle of the room and Brendan helped put the stars on the ceiling : )

The final product! No big lights or flashy decorations, but we were pretty proud. And when there was food on the tables, candles strategically placed along the walls, and people filling the chairs, it was everything we’d hoped for.

Around 6:30 people starting showing up and we drank strawberry Fanta and walked around to meet everybody. There were people from all over the world and all ages volunteering with different organizations. So the meeting and greeting was pretty interesting. The common thread for everyone was that they knew either Dogmara or Cass, the twenty-two year old Australian girl who was working with the Catholic churches in the area doing street ministry.

When everyone had come in, we started it off with the Christmas story. First Bernadette read it in English and then Chris in Polish. And we all prayed together for Christmas and for the people of East Timor. It was a little funny, because I think we shocked some of the other volunteers, some of whom were with the UN and non-religious NGOs. I hope we helped them remember what Christmas really is (Jesus’ birthday)!

Before we ate we did something very special that Brendan and I had never heard of. Poland is a very Catholic country and has many beautiful and deep traditions dealing with Christmas. In Poland, before the meal, each person gets a thin piece of bread that resembles Communion host. Then you go around to each person and if there’s anything to say sorry for they make up and then everyone makes wishes for the other person’s Christmas and coming year. After both people have made their wishes, they each rip a piece off the other person’s bread and eat it. It was one of my favorite things about Christmas Eve.

Brendan caught Sali and I trading good wishes for our year in East Timor.
By then everybody was hungry so we dug into the meal. The foods that were different for us were the traditional Polish foods. There have to be at least twelve dishes in the Christmas meal – for the twelve apostles. And it’s tradition that you don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve, just fish. Besides fish, some of the other things we had were borscht (beet soup), crockets (folded pastries with vegetables and noodles inside), and kopitka (pastries with potato inside). All these foods took a long time to make, but were delicious

So we all ate and shared stories about our experiences in East Timor. There was a lot of laughing and fun, and, before we knew it, it was time to head down the street to Christmas Eve Mass. Mass started at 9pm and we were already unofficially late because it was 8:30 and the church was already overflowing with people (literally – there were hundreds of people inside, people standing on sides, and hundreds of people standing and sitting outside the church). Luckily Dogmara had explained the situation to us, so we had brought our own plastic chairs from the house.

We made it just in time to see the nativity play by some of the youth. There were Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, the shepherds, adorable angels in pink tutus with wands that swayed their wands with the songs, and the three wisemen dressed at Timorese kings. Everything was the same as at home, but with the Timorese twist that always keeps things interesting.

The Mass was special so it went for more than two hours with lots of beautiful singing and readings from Scripture. Unfortunately, I was so tired from running around all day that I had to fight off falling asleep! After Mass, Brendan and I were exhausted and fell asleep immediately.

Christmas!

We woke early and refreshed and surprised each other with gifts – Then we got ready quick to go to Mass again. In East Timor, what we heard and saw was that the people all go to Christmas Eve Mass, stay up after and have big family get togethers, and then about half of them come back again for Mass at 7:30 in the morning. So we went back and got there early enough to get real seats (the other volunteers were not as ambitious and forgot their chairs, so they ended up standing for two hours again).

Mass was beautiful…again. It was nice to have a second chance to enjoy it while we were more awake. Christmas Mass is all about Jesus and there is so much joy! And at the end of Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they did something very special. It was similar to what we do on Good Friday (the day that Jesus died), when we all go up and put a hand on the cross or kiss the cross to say thank you to Jesus. Here in East Timor, everyone at Mass lined up to kiss baby Jesus! We all came up to the front and kissed a little statue of baby Jesus.

We feel so honored to be here. It’s difficult to think of ourselves as missionaries, because here we are the ones being inspired and encouraged by the faith of the people themselves. Hopefully we can encourage them in their faith in some small way by our witness of being here and by having the same love that they have for Jesus.

But that was only the beginning of the day. We ate leftovers for breakfast and then worked on wrapping pens and pencils in tissue paper for Christmas presents for the kids at the Baucau hospital. Cass and a friend came over to help with the process, and her and I were able to talk.

Cass is 22 also, but is already an occupational therapist (in Australia you only need a Bachelor’s Degree for it). As soon as she finished she started volunteering with VOICA and went to East Timor. After she finished her time she was asked to stay by the local parishes to continue her outreach with the street kids in Baucau and the surrounding villages. She is hardcore and I have a great respect for her.

Once the presents were ready we walked to the Baucau Hospital. It was a very interesting experience from having volunteered in three different American hospitals and comparing them to this hospital.

The first big difference was that there was almost no staff at the hospital. We saw maybe two staff the whole time we were there. It was Christmas, so many of them were probably at home, but the ratio of staff to patients seemed very different from the U.S.

The facilities were also very different. There were three or four different buildings with long walkways connecting them. We walked down the hallways and saw rooms labeled for malaria cases, respiratory problems, intensive care, etc. Each room had four to six beds in a small space, but there would be twenty or twenty-five people in the room.

This is probably the biggest cultural difference between our hospitals and their hospitals. The families of the patients come to live with them at the hospital, to make sure that they are fed and cared for! They become the volunteer hospital staff. Dogmara was telling us about children who lived with their mom in the hospital for two years while she was sick. They’d eat there, leave for school, and come back to take care of their mom.

Initially, it was difficult for me to see how dirty the facilities were and thinking about the nightmare of trying to control the spread of disease with people always coming in and out and living there. But those are just the academic worries.

On the other side, I’m sure that the comfort of having your family around and caring for you may balance the disadvantage of controlling contagions. I’m not sick often, but when I am, even a few days of bedrest is enough to leave you feeling isolated and sometimes depressed. It really challenges what you think about human dignity – do I have innate, God-given worth or am I only worth something if I’m productive? Hopefully everyone knows they have a ton of God-given worth, but when you’re sick, it’s easy to have doubts. Having your family stay with you probably eases those worries because even if you can’t “do” much, you’re still an important part of a community. Who knows, if they had better medical resources, their family-style hospital stays might be more effective than ours for healing long term illness.

But honestly, spending Christmas giving presents to the kids at the hospital floored me. I was still a little homesick, but I can’t imagine a better way to spend Christmas than doing that with Brendan.

We entered the rooms, said our “Boas Festa Natal” to everyone, and passed out school supplies, chocolate, and lollipops to the kids, especially the kids that were patients. The first hallway we went down there were many infants (who probably would just try to eat the pens and pencils), but we were able to give presents to the tired-looking moms. It was difficult in the malaria room because many of the children were very young and looked like they were in a lot of pain. Another painful part was hearing that the Last Rites were being done for a child in the intensive care unit.

The best part of the trip was the surprised looks on the faces that we got when we came in. None of the patients were expecting us or that they would get anything for Christmas. Many of them were very shy when we showered them with little gifts, but you could tell they were very happy. But we didn’t get to surprise everyone. Soon word spread among the kids that there was candy to be had and we got to throw lollipops to the four and five-year-olds crowded in the hallway : )

But the part that touched me the most and almost brought me to tears, was meeting a dad who had been in the hospital for four months with his two little daughters. The three of them were sitting on a bench and I sat down to say hi and try to talk. Through the conversation he explained that their family had been in the hospital because his youngest daughter, who was sitting on his lap smiling, had her lower right leg blown off in an explosion. He said it was a bomb in the ground, so I’m thinking like some type of land mine. And I was speechless…

But these kind of Christmas experiences make me think of Christmas in a deeper way than before. Thank goodness that Jesus came to give hope to the suffering. He is everything we need. Please pray for that little girl and her family, and for all the people who spend their Christmas in the hospital.

Our time at the hospital was all too short, but you could tell that the people and especially the kids appreciated our visit. We walked back across town still processing what we had seen.

But there wasn’t much time to process because we were still going to try to make it to the beach for Christmas! We had heard that the Baucau beach was especially beautiful, so we wanted to see it before heading back the next day. So we packed a picnic lunch and Therese, Dogmara, Chris, Brendan, and I started the hour long hike to the beach.

On the way we saw lots of kids just hanging out with their families and friends for Christmas. Most of them just shouted “Malae, malae” (foreigner, foreigner) at us and waved and smiled, but these kids had a slight variation. When they saw us coming they shouted “Foto? Foto?” and Brendan was glad to oblige

We finally made it to the beach and the view was worth every bit of the walk. The sand was soft, and the water warm and inviting.

We were playing around in the water when the cry when up from the local kids “Lafaek, lafaek!” A crocodile! We were out of the water in a flash, deciding it was a perfect time for our picnic. We were a little skeptical until we saw the nose of a crocodile rise out of the water. We hung out on the beach with the locals, watching the crocodile get slowly nearer. Every ten minutes or so it would poke its nose out of the water and be in a new spot a few meters closer.

Every time the nose poked out of the water it sent a shiver through us and a healthy dose of fear as you can see. Ok, this picture was posed, but it was a little scary to see a crocodile in the wild for the first time.

We saw this sign after we got in. It says be careful when you swim here and has the picture of the crocodile.

The Timorese have an interesting relationship with crocodiles and respect them a lot because of a legend. There was a boy who was walking along and saw a baby crocodile who was dying because he could not make it to the ocean. So the boy took pity on the crocodile and carried him to the ocean, where he recovered. Later the boy was near the beach when he saw his friend the crocodile, who had grown up. The crocodile offered to take the boy on his back wherever he wanted to go to repay him for saving his life.

Over time they became great friends and when the crocodile was dying from old age he said that he would always carry the boy and his descendents on his back. When the crocodile died the island of Timor rose out of the sea (Timor is shaped like a crocodile) and boy’s descendents (the Timorese) have lived there ever since.

The Timorese call the crocodile, avo, or grandfather, and when crossing a river some will call out, “Don’t eat me avo, I am your grandchild!” It’s said that when you come across a crocodile if you think good thoughts, he won’t eat you. It’s not an experiment that we’re going to try though, we promise. So…I’d bet five dollars that none of you had a Christmas experience like this : )

After a couple of hours at the beach we were lucky enough to get a ride home with some friends we had met at the Christmas party the night before. We got home just in time to change and head out to the Baucau convent where we had been invited for Christmas dinner.

We made it to the convent where there was a small, Asian-Christmas feast of rice, noodles, and even some meat. The meat was especially nice, because it’s expensive here, so we don’t get too much of it. Here we are ready to dig in!

After dinner Brendan and I started off a singing fest. We wowed them with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (with the kids’ part) and then sang O Holy Night with Therese and Bernedette.

We also played a game where you pass around a holly branch as fast as you can while the music is on and when the music stops, whoever has the branch has to stand up and tell the story of their favorite Christmas.

Group picture before we headed home to pack for the trip home the next morning and get some sleep. This was probably the craziest Christmas we’ve ever had : )
We hope your Christmas was great too!

Love always,

Rachel and Brendan

Keeping Busy!

2008-12-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

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

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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!

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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