Holidays in Timor-Leste

Christmas in Timor-Leste…..

I know- its all done and dusted, but it was a very different experience for me living here.

Christmas and New Year is all about family, everyone goes back to their village, Dili clears out, suddenly the houses where you thought only one family lived are overflowing with many people, and lots and lots of young people who are at college or working in Dili, or working abroad in the UK, Ireland, or Australia reappear to spend time with their loved ones. Abroad, many Timorese endure what seems like brutal conditions packed into tiny houses in the UK, sharing beds while alternating shifts as kitchen hands or working in chicken processing factories to earn money to send home to Timor-Leste- which to us would be paltry but to them is worth the hardship and discomfort.

In Timor, every village proudly creates a nativity scene somewhere along the roadside so it was a delight to see the creative inventions that were on display and stopping to chat to the people who were in the process of creating them was lovely. They keep adding until 24the Dec…here are some pictures below.

Then it all goes quiet- until New Year which is a major event- and even here in Lospalos we had fireworks! That was a surprise!

We spent our time travelling around with a couple of other VSA’s form Dili- Adam and Ashlee. We picked them up on 24th Dec and drove to Kom on the coast where we slept right by the sea and woke up on Christmas morning to a lovely breakfast and a beautiful clean beach. Kom is stunning and John and I have just returned from another trip there- it is only 2 hours away on a reasonable road and has great beaches and no sign of Lafeak’s – crocs- even though it is famous for them.

The next day we drove to Jaco Island, more of a challenging road but not too bad. We stayed in a simple lodge on the beach and endured a plagued of termites one evening. We spent the day on Jaco Island- uninhabited and lovely, again no crocs but still – it makes you a bit nervous in the water that you can’t really relax totally!

It as an overcast day on Jaco- perfect for lazing around……

We called into the caves on the way back to Lospalos- here are some images of the rock paintings …..

If you look carefully at the ceiling there are bees- the black mounds…

Back to Lospalos to show Ashlee and Adam the sights!!!! And the market. We drove back to Baucau where we stayed in the luxurious Pousada and they flew back to Dili the next day- a short 45 min flight in a tiny 4 seater plane. Driving back to Lospalos on New Years eve we saw many carcases of animals killed for the upcoming New Years feasts….

So yes- I feel as if I have seen some of the country here and it is good to get more of a view on TL.

And things are beginning to slowly happen at work- I am trying hard to practice Tetun, and am realising that Neineik neineik- slowly slowly is the mantra I have to adopt.