Archive for January, 2010

When we came to Timor I didn’t know much about what I’d be doing. One friend very experienced in mission work said something like, “if you can be patient and flexible, God will find a use for you.” Really good advice and sometimes hard to follow! Teaching English came up right away when we got to Lospalos as something the church community wanted for the church youth and clinic staff. I’ve been working hard to put together a practical program mainly focused on practicing how to speak the language. Recently we’ve also been doing a little writing. I like it because I also like to study the Tetum language and it gives me lots of opportunity to do that as well as develop friendships with people.

English Class is Los Palos, East Timor

The students began their studies in October. The first two papers students have written are about their “typical day” and “something you know how to do.” Below are two short essays which also give a glimpse into the lives of the people in Timor.

The Life of a Fisherman
Asala is a member of the IPTL Church in Teino, a fishing village an hour away from Lospalos. He comes to Lospalos during the week to study English at Immanuel Church. Below is his reflection about his life as a fisherman.

Fishing by canoe for dinner

“The good time to fish is at night because at night we can get a many fish. Frequently, we also go fishing in the morning but sometimes we must care to prepare the tools of the fishing because very important like hook, rope, dragnet, oar, petromax and special boat. In the sea we shall be up against many problems like the wind, the wave, the rain and also the flow but it isn’t new one for us. As fishermen we are already invulnerable/immune from that, but we must be careful because sometimes weather is good and sometimes not. In my life the sea is like a bank for us because from it we can get money to support the family needs. We go out at 8:00 and come back at 6: 00 in the morning.”

Planting Corn
Mary is from Kupang, Indonesia (the Western end of Timor) and is a member of Immanuel Church in Lospalos. She is also a student in our English class. Mary is a seminary graduate and soon to be an ordained pastor in the IPTL. In addition to her pastoral work, like many Timorese, she is also a farmer. Below is her reflection about planting corn.

“Before I plant corn first of all I must clean my garden. After cleaning, I must wait for rain because if not rain, I am not plant corn. At the same time wait for to rain I prepare seed corn when it rain to plant. Usually after plant, I weed and clean my garden because in the garden too many weeds. After cleaning I wait for crop to harvest my corn.”

A few weeks ago I was in the “toko” (shop) right beside our house buying something and I saw a peculiar sight on the shelf – a black and gold 12 oz can with the word “Guinness” written on it. Imagine my surprise and joy; sometimes you can’t get rice or clean water in town but you can get a Guinness! Wow! Yesterday another miracle happened. We were at dinner with some friends from Samoa who told us about a family right near our house that makes fresh bread every afternoon. That was great news because up to now I’ve not been able to find good bread in the mornings, which is unusual in Timor. Usually one can walk out on the street and find fresh, warm “paun” in a basket or box for sale. That or a guy comes riding a bike or walking each morning yelling “paun, paun, paun” and you jump out of bed and run and buy some. Until now though I’ve been buying the only bread I could find near our house which is sort of like Wonder Bread except in the shape of a roll and could well be imported from a Sam’s Club in Minneapolis. Now I can get my bread in the evening and have my favorite Timorese breakfast the next morning – fresh bread and local coffee!

Christmas in Timor

Along the roadsides throughout Timor people have been building nativity scenes for weeks. They are made of bamboo, wood and various grasses. Additional touches are loud speakers and lights to turn on when the electricity comes on at night. At Immanuel church we started on the 23rd with a trip to the small Protestant Church in Illilopa. This village has only about a dozen Protestant families, down from Indonesian times when it was full every Sunday. Nowadays the church is largely empty and has no pastor, so each week a few from Immanuel go there to hold a service for the few folks who come. This afternoon there were more who came since it was Christmas (actually Dec. 23). As usual the service was held in 3 languages; Tetum, Indonesian, and Fataluku the local language. Often times older people speak only the local language, so most of the time there is translation of some kind going on.

Bomb Shell Bell

Outside the church at Illilopa is a bell which calls people to worship on Sunday. The bell is an old bomb from the World War 2 period when the Japanese invaded Timor and fought the Australians and Timorese for 2 years. The bell is reminiscent of the bell at our local church, Peace United Church of Christ in Duluth, MN. There we have 3 bells from war ships, once part of the destruction of humanity which now signal the start of worship each Sunday. Each time we hear them, we are reminded that one of God’s hopes for the world lies in the transformation our weapons of war into instruments of peace. (Is 2:4).

On the morning of the 24th we loaded up the truck with about 12 youth and drove down to the village of Livie, on the sea about an hour and a half away on the road to Dili. Like the church in Illilopa, this church does not have a pastor and has been largely abandoned, in fact today’s service was the first held in 5 years! About a dozen people came, half of them children. After the service a few of us went to a members house across the street where a family member has been sick for a long time. We prayed for her health and I interviewed her about the illness so I could inform Monica about it. Next time we pass by we’ll stop and Monica can consult with her.

Christmas eve services at Immanuel Church in Lospalos started somewhere between 6 and 7. At last minute request, I did the opening prayer in Tetum, the youth did all their performances in Indonesian and Tetum, and recent seminary graduate preached for about 45 minutes in Indonesian and it was translated to Makasse. The clinic nurse sat next to me and translated the Indonesian into Tetum!

English Class is Los Palos, East Timor

The two local languages most common here are Fataluku and Makassae (though there are several other smaller languages). Unlike Tetum, which is an “Austronesian” language like Indonesian, Fataluku and Makassae are both“Papuan” languages, originating from the eastern end of the Indonesian Archipelago and having nothing in common with Tetum, though Fataluku it is a very simple language so loanwords from Indonesian, Tetum and Portuguese are used with it. Fataluku is spoken by most of the people in the Lautem district of Timor, the far Eastern end of the island. In the Western part of Lautem district, most people speak Makassae, so in Lospalos about 20% are ‘ema Makassae’ (a Makassae speaking person). With the exception of older people, most people in Lautem now speaks at least some Tetum, one of East Timor’s two national languages (the other is Portuguese). Throughout East Timor, linguists estimate that about 80% speak Tetum as a first language, or fluently as a second language.