Four Months Later...
Where has Andy been?!
Greetings to you all,
Another four months, another broken promise. I published my previous newsletter on July 2 and concluded with some optimistic message about hoping to write more frequently. Now it’s been over four months and so much has happened. Through a combination of busyness and, admittedly, a fair bit of procrastination I have neglected to provide an update. No matter… I am now! a luta continua
Vaticationâ„¢ or Pontifficationâ„¢
One of the more major events to happen in the past few months was Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste as part of his Asia-Pacific Tour. On September 10, the Pope held a Mass for an audience of 700,000 people (!) in Dili, the capital. That is more than 50% of East Timor’s roughly 1.3 million people. This high attendance stems from the fact that Timor-Leste is the second-most Catholic country in the world (~97-99%) only behind the Vatican itself. This was the just the second time that a Pope has visited the country, and the first since the end of Indonesian occupation and independence in 2002. Many Timorese credit Pope John Paul II’s visit to Dili in 1989 amidst Indonesian occupation, which was accompanied by protests and state-sanctioned violence, as a catalyst towards the 1999 independence referendum administered by the UN and, eventually, internationally-recognized independence. This is all to say that anticipation for Pope Francis’ visit was palpable. As someone on the ground, I can tell you that his visit was a main topic of conversation and source of preparation for months leading up to it. The government took it upon itself to spend $12 million in the lead up to his visit, part of which involved ‘cleaning up’ Dili by bulldozing houses built on public land. Not exactly a popular policy in the eyes of many people. But when Pope Francis finally landed in Dili the day before he gave Mass, the streets were jam-packed with pilgrims from all over the country trying desperately to get a glimpse of the papal figure. How do I know this, you may ask? Well, the answer is not as exciting as one might think. I was not one of the 700,000 Mass attendees. And neither were the other 23 Peace Corps volunteers in country.
As a precaution against both insurmountable logistical challenges (e.g., all roads in and out of the capital would be closed for three days, etc.) and potential violence which could come from crowds that size, Peace Corps Timor-Leste directed all volunteers to do one of two things: 1) Consolidate in a hotel in Baucau (a city 45 minutes from my site) for two weeks or 2) Travel outside of the country on your own dime for two weeks (which wouldn’t be counted against our limited annual leave). Most volunteers, including myself, chose the second option and that is how I found myself traveling to Vanuatu with fellow volunteer Quentin. While the majority of other volunteers decided to travel a bit closer to home within Asia, Quentin and I headed in the opposite direction from one small island to an even smaller one. This was the first time I left the island of Timor in 10 months and it sure felt strange when I got onto that plane. My exploits during my two week vacation in Vanuatu are too much to cover in this post (and are not necessarily the focus of this newsletter as a whole), but here’s some photos of the highlights.
‘Doing Culture’
Learn Tetun!
halo kultura lit. 'do culture' is the phrase used to describe attending or participating in traditional Timorese cultural ceremonies.In September, my English teaching counterpart Joanico invited me to go with him to ‘do culture’ in a remote part of Viqueque, the neighboring municipality. The occasion was the inauguration of a new uma lulik or sacred house. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned Timorese sacred/totem houses in a previous post or not, so I’ll briefly explain a bit more.
Uma luliks are the center of Timorese culture and traditional beliefs. They define family and dictate how people follow their culture. Generally people don’t live in these houses, although some older people still do especially if they’re the one responsible for it’s protection and upkeep. The knowledge of how to build these totem houses is passed down from generation to generation and far predates Portuguese colonization. Importantly, they are built using only local materials that cannot be altered or changed out for modern replacements. For the inauguration of a new house, the umane ‘wife-giving clan’ and fetosaan ‘wife-taking clan’ (determined by how a certain family unit is connected to the particular uma lulik through marriage; difficult to explain fully) are gathered together to eat meat prepared in the sacred house and receive matak malirin ‘blessing’ from their ancestors via betel but and betel pepper leaves.
I went with Joanico because his mother is from Liaruca, this rural part of Viqueque (see map above), hense we were a part of the ‘wife-taking clan’. This was easily the most remote and rural part of Timor that I’ve visited thus far, and it was a really special experience which I was very grateful to be invited to join. Needless to say most of the guests did not expect a random white guy to show up at this particular ceremony, but I was well-received especially being able to speak some Midiki and willing to drink plenty of tua mutin ‘white palm wine’ with the other men. The road to get there was difficult to pass, even in dry season, meaning that it would near impossible in the rainy season without a big truck. On the way back, we took a different route which, although it was quicker, required about an hour and a half of walking a footpath before waiting for a pickup truck to pick us up once we crossed the river and reached the road.
National Exams: It all comes down to this
As I write this, 12th graders all across Timor-Leste are taking a series national exams on seven of the thirteen subjects they have studied for the past three years. The results of these exams will determine to which university students are admitted (i.e., the only public university in the country Universidade Nasional Timór Lorosa’e UNTL [$30/semester] or a private university [$100-200/semester], which course they can take at university, and for some, whether they will even continue on to higher education or not. The exams topics (depending on whether the student is in the natural science track or social science track) are as follows:
Math or Economics
English
Portuguese
Chemistry or History
Physics or Themes of Literature
Biology or Sociology
Tetun
The English exam was yesterday. It is 60 multiple choice questions, ~10 of which are based off of a text — This time the text’s topic was migration. I have been spending the last couple months trying to help our 12th grade students prepare as much as possible (a difficult task given the frequency of days with no classes because of Mass or some other activity). We will wait and see how effective our review sessions were. I’ll include a question or two from the real 2024 English national exam for you to test yourself and see if you’d pass or not.
22. The plural form of "Nationality" is ____
a. Nations
b. Nationalist
c. Nationals
d. Nationalities
31. I've been waiting for you ____ 10 o'clock.
a. since
b. for
c. at
d. onHow’d you do?
On a more introspective and celebratory note, October 10 marked exactly one year since arriving in Timor — a big milestone — and my time here is passing faster than I could have ever imagined. I have certainly learned and grown a lot in that time, and I hope I continue to in the 14 months remaining.
Of course this by no means covers all of my activities and adventures over the past four months, but I enjoyed looking back and summarizing a few of the highlights. Hopefully that means I will continue to enjoy the writing process as a time for reflection and more posts will come as this year winds to a close. As always, thank you all for your patience with me and for continuing to read.
Obrigadu barak doben sira,
Andy
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this newsletter are my own and in no way represent the views of the Peace Corps nor the U.S. Government.
Always good to hear from you.