Timor Parties

eganRecently we had a chance to go to our first big Timorese community party. The Delta 1 men’s b-ball team that Brendan plays for and the Delta 1 women’s b-ball team were throwing a big party to celebrate the team doing very well in recent tournaments.

These guys went all out: the festivities started on Friday morning and everything finished on Saturday morning around 5 am. Even before that I saw them cutting up one full, skinned cow on Thursday evening. So a lot of work went into this!

Friday morning we went to the basketball court where the Delta teams played exhibition games against Baucau.


Here you can see Brendan going up for a dunk and people watching in awe (they don’t do dunks here : )

At the same time, tarps were being wrapped around the perimeter of the court, and big tents and a couple of hundred chairs were being trucked in and set up. The court was buzzing with activity that continued after we left at noon to go to school.

The official party with speeches, food, and lots of dancing started at 5 pm. It being Timor we knew we should not come until 7, 8, or 9 pm – not to be fashionably late, but to be fashionably early! Somehow all the Timorese know when to really show up, but we are still learning when to show up 30 minutes late or 3 hours late (mostly by trial and error). So we chose an in between time and arrived around 7:30, just in time for one of the first speeches.

We felt a little out of place because we were the only foreigners there and because we were underdressed compared to everyone else’s party clothes. But we tried to sneak in and find a seat as best we could, while listening to the congratulatory speeches and thank yous.



After all the speeches came the food. We didn’t know how much food there would be, or how safe it would be to eat it, so we had eaten dinner earlier. We tried to hold off on the food, but Terezhina, one of the High School students who plays for the women’s team and was MC for the party, physically dragged us over to the buffet line. So we had a second delicious dinner and it went down with no problems.



Brendan chilling with some of the basketball guys.

After dinner, the coaches cut the cake (decorated and shaped like a basketball) and opened a bottle of champagne! Then the dancing began that would continue until 5 am. Here is the dancing doesn’t last until the morning it wasn’t a good party. It was very interesting and a little different from home.

They had hired a couple of DJs, but these DJs really earned their money. They don’t just pick and play music, they sing and play keyboard for each song. They set a Timorese beat in the background and then they sing and play and improvise all with no written music. And like all Timorese we’ve met, they were great singers.

The dancing was fun – a great time for people-watching and we got to see some interesting cultural differences. One thing that’s different is that between songs everyone clears the floor and at the beginning of the next everyone gets back up, sometimes finds a new partner, and goes out to dance again. They’re lucky they’re so in shape because doing that from 9 pm – 5 in the morning has got to be exhausting! And it’s not like there’s a 5 minute break between songs – there’s maybe a 30-60 second turnaround for people to find a seat, sit down, and get right back up.


So after the first few dances we decided to try it. We did swing dancing first and everyone clapped for our first big move, but then we tried to learn the Timorese partner dance. It’s a closer dance with a 1 2 3 & 4 beat. It wasn’t pretty, but we started to figure it out by the end. Every now and again we would revert to swing dancing and we would immediately be followed by little Timorese girls who were trying to imitate us.

The other funny part of the night was being asked to dance by the chefe suku. The chefe suku is the equivalent of the mayor of our Delta neighborhood in Dili. He had 1 or 2 too many drinks and was dancing with the young women. Not wanting to offend, he asked Brendan 3 times if he could dance with me. Brendan just said ‘la bele’ (no can) each time : )

Around 11 we said quick goodbyes and snuck out to get some sleep before work Saturday morning. The stars were out and it was peaceful and beautiful. It was a great night after a great party!

And just today we had our own party on a much smaller scale – we had an English practice party for the people we work with. During the party we introduced them to another western food – sloppy joes!

We worked in the morning, walked home, and prepared lunch for the people we work with at the university and clinic. They’re all trying to learn English so we thought it would be a good chance to set aside time to practice. During work it’s always some version of Tetlish (Tetum and English mixed).

So we made sloppy joes and noodles and brought everything we needed to the clinic where we ate. We said a prayer in English before and after the meal. The meal itself was a bit hit! They had never had anything like it and all seemed to enjoy it (especially Sister Aquelina who wanted to keep the leftovers to eat as an afternoon snack : )

We talked mostly in English during lunch, cleaned up, and went to the senior high to watch a movie. Movies are a pretty special thing around here, so they seemed excited.

We watched Ever After, the ‘real’ story of Cinderella, with the English subtitles. It’s a good story and they talk slow enough that they were able to catch a lot of the dialogue. Movies really have been a useful addition for practicing English. The students are extra interested, they learn new vocabulary (they write down words they don’t know throughout the movie and we explain them during the next class), and they’re forced to practice listening at a more realistic pace.

After the movie was over it was raining so we all crammed into 1 taxi, who dropped us off close to our house. There are many special moments like this – hopefully making fun memories of new experiences for our fellow workers that will be part of our legacy when we go home.

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the end of school and beginning of summer! Blessings especially on the graduates, including Phil and Zach and friends from high school and Mary, Sarah, Luke, Abigail, and friends from 8th grade!

Love,
Rach and Brendan