trying to say goodbye to dili but it's hard... as i walk the city streets lots of memories from the last days in the mountains in baguia keep on crossing my heart. they were preparing for the "dia dos finados", the day of the dead. they spend 3 days with the family to celebrate. they have a lot of pride in their dead here, they represent freedom, they are the independance of the country and it's not rare to see a framed picture of a man who died during the occupation years put in a little altar inside his fmily's house. the pictures are often in front of a revolutionary flag with a picture of che guevara or other freedom icons. in those 3 days whole villages go up to the big cemiteries and dig up the bones of their family members and take them back home. in baguia i stayed with sra adelaide cabral and sr martinho pinto, the best hosts i can think of as i felt straight away like part of the family. really sweet people! and the mountains are lovely up there, in those hard to reach villages where lots of people has been hidden for so many years. they showed me the hiding places of lots of portuguese people who went there in the time of the indonesian invasion. this things are told with an "oh pa" here and there, with the tone of a portuguese revolutionary :) and it all feels so special...
this country filled up my heart in a really special way! i was here long enough to have lots of strong feelings and i left enough things to see and do that i really feel i want to come back :) all and all... a perfect visit to a very very special part of the world!
this is also as east i will get on this trip. from now on i travel west :)
Friday, 30 October 2009
Thursday, 29 October 2009
cold weather?!
i have been in the sun since april and .... it's TOO MUCH!! i miss the cold! i wish for the day when i can have the joy of wearing long sleaves! puting on a jacket :) being warmed up by a blanket around me :):):) can't wait!
oh boy, what a journey!
this has been quite a trip! today when i got back at the dili's backpackers fabrizio said "you look like a kid coming back from the candy shop"... and that is exactly how i feel :) this place is so special! i have that traveling feeling i have only felt in burma and pakistan and now in east timor :D and here there are even more sides to it because of the connections with portugal, of the happiness of the people to speak my language, of how close i can get to people and how at home i feel immediately and the stories i liten to...
now i just came back from a great massage and decided to stay one more day in dili. not ready to leave yet... there is SO much to digest xx
now i just came back from a great massage and decided to stay one more day in dili. not ready to leave yet... there is SO much to digest xx
back in dili
i had one of the most amazing weeks of my life here in east timor :D
am back in dili now and have already been out for indian food (yumm, chapatis!!)and a great pastel de nata & expresso at hotel timor :) the pastel de nata costed 2 USD! totally worth it thought ;) to eat such a divine thing halfway across the world!
am back in dili now and have already been out for indian food (yumm, chapatis!!)and a great pastel de nata & expresso at hotel timor :) the pastel de nata costed 2 USD! totally worth it thought ;) to eat such a divine thing halfway across the world!
Monday, 26 October 2009
from los palos, east in east timor
i am LOOOOOVING this country!!
after i left dili i've been traveling on the back of trucks, inside cramped up minibuses with chickens and kilos of tobacco and old ladies sitting on my lap and kids leaning on my back... also walked with my backpack for many kilmeters, got lifts with a few jeeps and jumped to the back of a pick up truck that brought me to los palos, where i wasn't really going to come to but that was where the ride brought me by sunset and because it was to dark to go on to baguia i decided to stay :) happy i did!
at the guesthouse 27 i met joana, a really nice portuguese girl working at the UN mission who is letting me use the internet illegally at the UN facility ;) this is just after we went to the restaurante roberto carlos where i had caldeirada de peixe!!! the best meal i've had in over a month!! so good :):):):):)
but between dili and los palos there have been quite a few amazing things :D
first i got to baucau. i wasn't too impressed with the place and i wanted to avoid an australian who was almost stalking me... so i walked the 5 kilometers down to wataboo beach and i met senhora teresa who invited me to stay at her house :) and to become colegas (friends). she was the local baker, so we had amazing fresh bread in the morning! and at night we watched awful indonesian soap operas with her kids, and it was wonderful! the next day we went together to the market and i helped her sell the bread for a while (having a foreigner at the local market helps the sales!!).
then i went on to com. got to the junction at desa rasa where i met ngo worker koutiti from uganda :) and after a great chat over coffee on the shade of a beautiful tree we found me a ride - a gentleman who was going to com on official work offered to take me at the back of his motorbike ;) the best way to see the amazing coast! COM WAS GREAT :D i stayed at a lovely guesthouse by the sea where agustina cooked octopus with super mie and rice! across the street lived ricardo lopes with whom i had great conversations while helping him with his english and portuguese :) the com had the sweetest kids i've met in timor leste :):):) they started singing to me "indo eu indo eu para a cidade de viseu"...... this is an old portuguese song thet they sang in a bit of a different version from the one we sing in portugal :D then "o meu chapeu tem tres bicos, tem tres bicos o meu chapeu"...... and many other!!! it was so special!! on my second day in com, xanana gusmao was expected there. but he didn't make it by 7pm or so when it got dark and i went to do some yoga and didn't go to the reception where they had the beautiful girls dancing the beautiful traditional dances.
i got up early the next day to start going to tutuala. walked a gorgeous road for 8kms, got a lift with a truck, walked 5 other ks, another lift, waited at a nice couple's house, got on a bemo and sat on a girl's lap, then walked again and got a truck to the town where xanana gusmao was hidden for a long time during the occupation. then i walked some more under the HOT sun and i got a lift from a fancy and fast pajero!! that's how i reached tutuala beach, in front of jaco island :) i got a bungallow right at the beach and that night at an opening party for the new guesthouse i met xanana gusmao :D he was so nice!! first he offered me cake ;) then a beer :) and then he asked me for a dance! i shook his hand and told him how much i admire him ;) but i didn't dance, i was to shy to dance the tete in front of a hundred east timorese ;) that night i also met major neves, an amazing man who joined the guerrilha when he was 7 and at 44 is still with the timorese army.. he has 22 or 23 bullets in his body and a sweet smile, the kind of smile that i've hardly ever came across. loved meeting him and chatting way into the night.
stayed one more day in tutuala and got a ride at the back of a pick up truck to go all the way to los palos :) los palos looks like a town south of the mexican border... just like its name ;) and for me it offered the chance to enter the world of the UN in east timor and to hear first hand comments from people who are part of this mission that is, like they say, "just like being at summer camp"...
after i left dili i've been traveling on the back of trucks, inside cramped up minibuses with chickens and kilos of tobacco and old ladies sitting on my lap and kids leaning on my back... also walked with my backpack for many kilmeters, got lifts with a few jeeps and jumped to the back of a pick up truck that brought me to los palos, where i wasn't really going to come to but that was where the ride brought me by sunset and because it was to dark to go on to baguia i decided to stay :) happy i did!
at the guesthouse 27 i met joana, a really nice portuguese girl working at the UN mission who is letting me use the internet illegally at the UN facility ;) this is just after we went to the restaurante roberto carlos where i had caldeirada de peixe!!! the best meal i've had in over a month!! so good :):):):):)
but between dili and los palos there have been quite a few amazing things :D
first i got to baucau. i wasn't too impressed with the place and i wanted to avoid an australian who was almost stalking me... so i walked the 5 kilometers down to wataboo beach and i met senhora teresa who invited me to stay at her house :) and to become colegas (friends). she was the local baker, so we had amazing fresh bread in the morning! and at night we watched awful indonesian soap operas with her kids, and it was wonderful! the next day we went together to the market and i helped her sell the bread for a while (having a foreigner at the local market helps the sales!!).
then i went on to com. got to the junction at desa rasa where i met ngo worker koutiti from uganda :) and after a great chat over coffee on the shade of a beautiful tree we found me a ride - a gentleman who was going to com on official work offered to take me at the back of his motorbike ;) the best way to see the amazing coast! COM WAS GREAT :D i stayed at a lovely guesthouse by the sea where agustina cooked octopus with super mie and rice! across the street lived ricardo lopes with whom i had great conversations while helping him with his english and portuguese :) the com had the sweetest kids i've met in timor leste :):):) they started singing to me "indo eu indo eu para a cidade de viseu"...... this is an old portuguese song thet they sang in a bit of a different version from the one we sing in portugal :D then "o meu chapeu tem tres bicos, tem tres bicos o meu chapeu"...... and many other!!! it was so special!! on my second day in com, xanana gusmao was expected there. but he didn't make it by 7pm or so when it got dark and i went to do some yoga and didn't go to the reception where they had the beautiful girls dancing the beautiful traditional dances.
i got up early the next day to start going to tutuala. walked a gorgeous road for 8kms, got a lift with a truck, walked 5 other ks, another lift, waited at a nice couple's house, got on a bemo and sat on a girl's lap, then walked again and got a truck to the town where xanana gusmao was hidden for a long time during the occupation. then i walked some more under the HOT sun and i got a lift from a fancy and fast pajero!! that's how i reached tutuala beach, in front of jaco island :) i got a bungallow right at the beach and that night at an opening party for the new guesthouse i met xanana gusmao :D he was so nice!! first he offered me cake ;) then a beer :) and then he asked me for a dance! i shook his hand and told him how much i admire him ;) but i didn't dance, i was to shy to dance the tete in front of a hundred east timorese ;) that night i also met major neves, an amazing man who joined the guerrilha when he was 7 and at 44 is still with the timorese army.. he has 22 or 23 bullets in his body and a sweet smile, the kind of smile that i've hardly ever came across. loved meeting him and chatting way into the night.
stayed one more day in tutuala and got a ride at the back of a pick up truck to go all the way to los palos :) los palos looks like a town south of the mexican border... just like its name ;) and for me it offered the chance to enter the world of the UN in east timor and to hear first hand comments from people who are part of this mission that is, like they say, "just like being at summer camp"...
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
bom dia
walking the streets of dili around 7am is a delight :) some people are sweeping the floor of their homes, others walking to work and to whatever mission they have for the day. and everyone goes 'bom dia' or 'bom dia sinhora' :) and it makes me smile away
i'm headed to the santa cruz cemitery today and then to the new CHEGA! museum. i was 13 when the santa cruz massacre happened and it was the first thing that i remember really shocking me, making me think "what kind of world is this?" and realizing the life i was living in cascais was a small part of the whole thing... i clearly remember walking out of school one day and crossing the street to go to my bus stop and those images on TV where on my mind... and i couldn't really make sense of them...
off to the place where that happened .. .
i'm headed to the santa cruz cemitery today and then to the new CHEGA! museum. i was 13 when the santa cruz massacre happened and it was the first thing that i remember really shocking me, making me think "what kind of world is this?" and realizing the life i was living in cascais was a small part of the whole thing... i clearly remember walking out of school one day and crossing the street to go to my bus stop and those images on TV where on my mind... and i couldn't really make sense of them...
off to the place where that happened .. .
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