Our third month on Atauro had begun and put us in a holiday mood, so the first week after our "holiday" was very full and exhausting. Especially as Sister Sonia asked us on Tuesday to give a 45-minute talk on cultural differences and cultural encounters on Thursday. With a corresponding PowerPoint presentation. So we set to work and created a presentation under the headings "Behaviour", "Food", "Religion", "Language", "Music" and "Buildings, flags and national heroes". The task, as strenuous as it was alongside our normal work, was nevertheless enriching for us because we never had to present our culture so clearly and then contrast it with another. We then added a conclusion at the end, as our presentation was aimed at novices who will soon be sent abroad and should therefore be prepared accordingly for cultural differences. Although we teach several hours of English every day, we were more nervous than usual before this presentation, partly because Sister Sonia never normally accompanies our lessons. In the end, everything went smoothly; it felt more like a "chair circle situation" than a lecture and we had a lot of fun - I think our listeners did too, because we told them about the many blunders we always make. As a thank you, we received tais bags as a gift (see below), which we were really happy about.
Apparently we mentioned several times during our presentation that we really missed the cold from Germany and so Sister Sonia made it possible for us to travel to Ermera - to the monastery there - as a thank you. Ermera is located about 30 kilometres south of Dili in the mountains and is much cooler than the capital, simply because it is much higher up. We were delighted, even though we didn't really believe it would be cold (because it is still rather warm compared to our home). So we set off on 12 November, a Sunday and a very important day of remembrance (more on this later). In Timor, every day is a normal day, with normal traffic, normal opening hours and no major changes, even on public holidays nothing changes. So we were able to set off on the Mircolet in a relaxed manner. We were told that the journey would take around 90 minutes and we were delighted to reach our destination so quickly. We then travelled to tasi tolu ("third beach/third sea") with the microlet number 10 and immediately boarded a larger bus there. We were accompanied by Ivonia, a substitute teacher with whom Maria has been working for some time. She has family in Ermera and was therefore well placed to accompany us. We then had to wait another hour on the bus until "recruiters" had gathered enough people for our bus to make the journey worthwhile. The first stretch was a bit bumpy, but not really scary (we just had the feeling that we were travelling on dirt tracks the whole time). We arrived after about 90 minutes and were really pleased because we thought we had actually arrived. We were thrown out of the bus and then put straight into a Mirkolet without much explanation and had to recruit people again. At some point, the Mirkolet driver started asking us for English vocabulary, which made our time during the "recruitment" a little easier. Ivonia then drove back, her family apparently doesn't live directly in Ermera, but in the suburb of "Gleno" where we had just landed. After another hour's wait, we continued our journey, which was by far the most turbulent and turbulent journey of my entire life. The road went along a "forest track" in a serpentine fashion and without a crash barrier, so that we could look directly into the slope. In the meantime - whenever there was oncoming traffic - I questioned the kind intention behind Sister Sonia's travel arrangements; you could also use this road to really intimidate or get rid of someone. We wavered a little between "Yay, a new adventure!!!" and "Not even the ADAC can get here...". Fortunately, everything went well in the end and after a whopping 5!!!! hours of travelling we were actually dropped off in Ermera, in front of a church. And as churches are always a good sign for nuns, we were in high spirits. We then asked a few children and finally arrived at the convent. The convent in Ermera is also a boarding school for girls, which particularly welcomes girls from difficult backgrounds. When we arrived there, we were warmly welcomed by the six nuns who live there and we had lunch. As always in Canossa monasteries (at least in the ones we got to know), the food was really good. We were then shown to our room, which was a very typical boarding school room; with double beds and desks. Apparently we were given the room by the girls who could go home for the holiday. We were very happy with it, despite an ant problem (but let's be honest; ants are really nothing against giant cockroaches). We then had a short rest, which did us a lot of good, before we went for a walk around Ermera. On Sundays, a nun always brings wafers to those who are no longer able to walk up the hill to church. So we walked cross-country and brought wafers to 4 elderly ladies. This walk was again a very educational experience because it was simply the first time that we had seen the inside of houses that are not in Dili (or a monastery). Perhaps it can best be compared to another, much lighter culture shock and in the end we didn't know what to think. It had nothing to do with the fact that these houses were different to those in Dili, but rather with the fact that these older ladies had no infrastructure that we could see. Although there is a clinic in Ermera, there is no real doctor there at the moment and it is also up on the mountain. We had to walk through forest paths (meaning downhill and uphill again) that were not paved.
When we talk about the Global South, the focus - at least in my opinion - is incredibly often on helping children and young people and as sensible as that is, simply because they represent the future of every country, we often forget that other people also belong to a society. I realised this at that moment, while we were bringing the body of Christ to these ladies and they were beaming at us because someone was visiting them and someone was making the effort to walk up and down a mountain just for them. I have never seen a clearer example of "being there" and reaching out to one another. When we expressed our admiration to the nun and the girls who accompanied us, the nun just shrugged her shoulders and told us that this is a matter of course for her because the ladies can no longer come to church. And so the church comes to them. After this experience, as so often here, I was caught between admiration, amazement and gratitude. Admiration for the nun as a representative example of society in Timor, which doesn't seem to forget anyone. Amazement, because I have never thought about many things before and they still catch me off guard. And gratitude on the one hand because I was allowed to be part of "being there", at least for a short time, and on the other hand, of course, a selfish gratitude, I am grateful that I can so often rely on an infrastructure that can help my loved ones with every little thing.
Later, we sat together with the nuns and had dinner. We had noodles, mashed potatoes and lots of vegetables, which the nuns probably grow themselves. After the spaghetti at the latest, we were huge fans of the nuns. During the meal, the nuns told us something about 12 November, the day of remembrance, which is only known here as the day of the Santa Cruz massacre. One of the nuns was present when a peaceful demonstration, in which mainly young people took part, turned into a massacre in which over 200 people were killed and abducted. The massacre is so decisive for Timor because it was radically directed against the youth and many families lost their children and because at the same time the opinion of the world public finally turned in Timor's favour after this massacre on 12 November 1991. If you are interested in more detail (I find it incredibly interesting), you can find out more about the history of the Indonesian occupation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_East_Timor
The fact that the nun told us about it despite the horror that she had experienced and despite the fact that we had only known each other for such a short time meant a lot to us and we will always remember her openness.
The next day we travelled back again. Our return journey was not necessarily any less exciting than the outward journey, but at least it was shorter - it only took us 3 hours. A little extra information: we definitely underestimated the cold in Ermera, it was really fresh and you could even have put on a jumper. Hard to believe in Dili, where we are always confronted with an almost painful 35 degrees+.
On 14 November, something happened that Maria and I somehow wouldn't have thought possible. To celebrate Becci's birthday, in the afternoon, while Maria and I were on our way home, there was a thunderstorm and it started to rain cats and dogs. The rainy season has begun and has really presented us with some very different challenges. At the moment, it rains for 30 minutes every other day in the afternoon. After that, there is a period of about an hour during which it is very pleasantly cool outside. After that, everything heats up again and it gets very humid. You can compare it very well with garden sheds, that's how it usually smells. In the morning it is usually really hot and also very humid. Then around midday the sky clouds over, much to Maria's delight, who has been wishing for clouds for weeks.
If it rains during class, we either have to interrupt or really shout across the room, simply because the rain on the roof is incredibly loud. If you're on your way home when the rain comes, you have to hope for an umbrella and preferably put on flip-flops because everything is under water within minutes. Fortunately, however, our room turned out to be very dry. It is really fascinating to see what "seasons" make the tropics tick and also really exciting to see how things change during the rainy season; for example, it is much greener and dried-up riverbeds are now full of water again.
In mid-November we noticed another change; the change towards Christmas time. Let me tell you; it's very Christmassy in Timor! Everything is full of decorations; talking Santa Claus, fake Christmas trees filled to the top with tinsel and Christmas lights and other festive motifs can be found on almost every corner. Even on the beach (see below). The main aim seems to be to put up the most eye-catching (and yes, annoying) decorations possible. Our Christmas tree at our host family's house is only about 50cm high, but it can flash in almost any colour and has really cute pendants. It's also really fascinating how many Christmas songs are reminiscent of ours, but are then simply sung in Tetun or Portuguese. My students are particularly fond of the song "Silent Night" in both English and Portuguese, so we often sing it together after the lesson. We also do Secret Santa with the CMTC staff. But not a normal Secret Santa, no! I would like to introduce it as a "Secret Santa"; there is a Secret Santa gift at the end, but you should still pray for the person throughout the Christmas period. As crazy as it sounds at first, it's somehow very Christmassy and feels very Christian to think of a specific person and include them in your prayers.
Despite the extreme decorations and "German" Christmas carols, the Christmas spirit hasn't really caught up with us yet, but that's not all bad. For us, it feels like someone brought out the Christmas decorations in August; a bit out of place, but still beautiful.
November is a very busy birthday month for the CMTC: A total of four of our colleagues had birthdays and so we all celebrated together at the end of the month; we had rice, vegetables and fish and, above all, potatoes. Another thing that really stuck with Sister Sonia after our talk was that Germans like to eat potatoes. So she organised potatoes especially for us and, of course, we ate lots of them (I may be a little out of step with the "German potato" theory because I'm really not a huge fan, but it's definitely too late for that). Potato fan or not, we were very happy about the gesture. For all the other Germans who don't like potatoes and are visiting Sister Sonia, we're sorry, something went wrong (we might even have heard the phrase "potatoes are to Germans what rice is to Timorese").
Among the things that have kept us particularly busy this month are definitely renewed insect encounters (unfortunately I'm not talking about the ant problem) and earthquakes.
Last week I woke up at about 1am because I heard a very strange noise. It sounded a bit like there were about 30 bugs crawling all around my bed. Despite my mosquito net (which I still love to bits), I quickly panicked: I thought of numerous horror stories involving scorpions, snakes and tarantulas, although my night-time visitor (plural if necessary) sounded rather different. So I called Maria very anxiously and after 7 calls I managed to wake her up. She then stood outside my door while I tried to recognise what was waiting for me "out there" from my mosquito net. I couldn't recognise anything at first so I quickly ran to the door and searched my room with the help of Maria and the big light. The culprit quickly revealed itself; a beetle about 10cm in size, which fortunately was lying on its back and couldn't crawl away. It took us almost an hour to get rid of it. Not really surprising that the next day was rather modest. We were also unable to avoid further spider encounters, but we were able to solve these - during the day - with our host sister. The second problem we were confronted with again, but to a much greater extent, was earthquakes. With our first two, we really only felt a slight jolt. This time, however, it was a real shake that even startled our host family. Although we know what to do in an emergency in the event of an earthquake, Nadia (our host sister) explained to us what to do, but in the actual event you are terrified. So far we've only ever had minor earthquakes - even the last one only had a magnitude of 5 - and it's probably very unusual for it to be stronger than that. Nevertheless, it sometimes makes us feel uneasy, especially when it has just happened. Now for the really positive things this month. Firstly, a Dutch supermarket that not only sells wasa crispbread, but also Haribo and the good sour gherkins and we were so excited when we discovered it that all the other shoppers just looked at us in complete horror, but friends, there's even Rittersport!!!! The other discovery was no less exciting, we found a café "Glorias Jeans Café", which is very similar to "Starbucks" and sells really good coffee. I can also recommend the brownies. The cafés are probably also available in Germany, so if you come across one, definitely try it out! We've already spent several hours/days there, reading, working or simply chatting. This café has a very quirky, homely atmosphere and it almost feels a bit like home.
The absolute highlight of this month happened on an inconspicuous Tuesday. Maria and I were on our way to the Immigration Service to renew our visa - successfully - when I got a call telling us to come to the "post office plaza". More than 6 weeks ago my mum had sent off a parcel with all sorts of important things and it seemed to have arrived. So we first googled and found a post office in Colmera Plaza, the neighbourhood where the immigration service is located, and so we searched this whole neighbourhood on foot for 3!!!! hours on foot looking for this post office and asking and chatting to everyone until our patience was stretched to the limit. So we gave up looking for the post office for the time being and went to our favourite DHL store to ask where it might be. Unfortunately, our DHL friend couldn't help us until I gave her my mobile phone so that she could call the man from the Plaza Office. Suddenly she did know and wrote down the way for us. We were then even more annoyed than before because she wrote down the way to Timor Plaza, the shopping mall that we really often visit and where we wouldn't have had to spend three hours searching. When we arrived at Timor Plaza, we went straight to the information desk and had the employee there phone our post office man again. From then on, we left nothing to chance! And tada: he took us to a small house NEXT to the mall, where I would never have expected a "correius" (port. for post office). And there my parcel finally was!
Unfortunately, we weren't just looking for my parcel, we also wanted to find Maria's parcels. So after having a little lunch at Timor Plaza, we went back to correius to ask him where the parcels might have ended up. We then got a telephone number (because we have really learnt how important contacts are!!!) and then went to our original destination, the Immigration Service. We actually got our visa within 10 minutes (but we also went to the Immigration Service three times this month and caused a lot of stress). Unfortunately, my name on this visa is Miriam Charlohe In Julie Stadier, so unfortunately not quite right. We then took a taxi and had the taxi driver call our new number in the hope that we would actually end up there. And indeed: after no less than 7 hours we had our parcels. We drove home completely exhausted and opened our treasures. And I'm happy to say that I finally have enough clothes and sweets to last me for months - just the most important things!
Our third month didn't always make it easy for us, whether it was birthdays in Germany, humid days or bugs. Nevertheless, I can say with a clear conscience that I have arrived, in the country and with the people. There will probably always be hardships and excitement, but that's the way it has to be - & otherwise I wouldn't have anything exciting to tell you! The next entry will be about our Christmas, the graduation party from the current package and our New Year's Eve in Bali :)
I wish you a happy, blessed and peaceful Christmas and a wonderful New Year! May all your wishes come true!
Warm greetings from Timor, Miriam
Kommentar hinzufügen
Kommentare