March Madness

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