Merry Christmas from Dili, East Timor!

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

Dili, East Timor –

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

Our house –

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

The only problems –

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

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

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


Neighborhood –

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

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

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

Our Community –

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

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

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

Our Work –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Child of the Poor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

All for Jesus,

Rachel and Brendan Egan