I’ve been here for over 2 weeks with my host family in Gleno. Firstly, I will say I feel very lucky to be here. Domingo and his family are super. The home has a light hearted feel to it. Domingo has a wife, three older daughters, one older son and two younger sons. It took me at least a week to figure out who actually lived in the house as, in Timor, it seems an open-door policy for neighbors and kids to hang out and even stay overnight. Its taken some getting used to.
The first weeks here have also been pretty intense with Peace Corps Tetun language and CED (Community Economic Development) training every day including Saturday mornings. My Tetun is not great, but I suppose that’s only after 2 weeks of lessons. We will be training up until mid December when we will actually be sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and be assigned our permanent posts.
The culture I have experienced is amazing, bizarre and wonderful all at the same time! I hope my future blog posts are able to convey a slice of that. The below pics tell some of my recent experiences.
Below we have my host Brother, Manu, with some of his friends. I love this photo. Its taken in a central space where the Timor Independence celebrations will be. The kids I have met in Timor are some of (if not the) happiest I have ever met 😀. They ALL have “nicknames” 😂. I suppose we all did at school, but these guys take it to a new level! Some other random shots on our porch below. I don’t know where these kids came from 😁, they just arrived from somewhere!
Below is a photo as we walked to church. The kissing of hands is a tradition which Timorese have. Normally older people and foreigners (we are known as Malae) may have their hands kissed. Its meant to bring good luck (If I understand correctly). I have had it happen to me a few times, even in the market as I have been walking around (Lau hallimar). I think its a nice that people have traditions like that. Hope I can bring some luck to someone!!🤞
I have inserted myself into the family by doing a few chores around the house. Like sweeping, plate washing and I have done a couple of evenings turning over dirt and cleaning the back garden ready for corn planting. That was tough going (I got a couple of blisters on my hands). The tools they have a pretty simple. Also have my own weekly clothes washing (Fasse Ropa) which is actually a real enjoyment with my music playing and just letting my thoughts roam…… A photo of the garden I helped work (a small portion..) is below. I also show Delle instructing me how to take dry clothes off the washing line “Timor Style” when you don’t have somewhere to put them. Ingenious 😁. Also I seem to now be the family kids barber with the clippers I brought (to cut my own hair). Poor Raphael got to be the Guinee Pig 😲.
Animals are a big part of Timor life. Most people own chickens, cows, goats and pigs. Also dogs are not really pets here and sort of on the same level as the rest of the animals. We have a whole bunch of smaller pigs which are free to roam. They often barge into the house, but are normally “shoood” out. I got a photo of the cutest one below on the porch a couple of days ago. I also show another photo of our dog below and some other random wildlife in Gleno.
This weekend is (Sat 2nd Nov) a holiday for “All Souls Day”. Its a time to honor the dead, and we have Friday and Saturday holiday from training. The family are praying nightly this week. As part of the tradition in this neighborhood, every night in October a statue of Mary is carried from one house to another (so ~ 30 houses) and prayers are said (a lot of prayers). The statue then stays in the house the full next day before going onto the next house the following evening. It was a really nice experience which I took part in. Lots of kids and singing :). Also we got some fried banana and coffee/tea. Below I show the statue in our house 😀.
That’s all for this post. More to come. Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment or message me. It will be nice to hear from you. Cheers!!! James.
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