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 who’s “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 you’re in a circle again, except now standing up. It’s 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 wouldn’t 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 I’d done – all those things are totally unfamiliar to them. They don’t have yards with grass in them, they don’t have sprinklers to water those yards or even irrigation systems for fields that we’ve seen in Dili, they don’t have washing machines, and there are no vending machines. So those dance moves aren’t 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 isn’t 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. It’s a little different, but they’ve done incredibly with what resources they have.
We’ve been asking other people who have been here for awhile and they’ve confirmed what we’ve been seeing: better education and healthcare are the keys to the development of this new nation. It’s especially needed in the rural areas, but even in Dili it will be very important to significantly improve both of those.
Now we’re taking a quick siesta time in our house and soon we’ll 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 it’s a little rough on the kids (and are glad that we only had five days a week), but hopefully it helps.
We hope you’re having a good day too!
Love,
Rachel and Brendan
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