Baucau Adventures

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