Random Updates

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