Where in the World is East Timor?

Two of the most common questions we are asked are "Where in the world is East Timor, I've never even heard of it?" and "What will your living conditions be like?" We have been able to talk to three people that have lived there recently and this is what they report . . .

East Timor (also called Timor Leste)is located in Southeast Asia, just north of Australia, west of Papua New Guinea, directly south of the Philippines, in the Indonesian Island chain. It is a county the size of Connecticut with a population of about 1.2 million. They are a Catholic nation that declared independence from Indonesia in 1999. However, it wasn’t until 2002 that they were recognized as an independent country by the United Nations. We will be helping to rebuild a country that has been plagued by years of occupation, oppression and conflict.

We will be living in Aileu, one of the poorest districts in the country. There are eleven Maryknoll people already serving there: five nuns and six lay missioners. Their ministries include formal and informal education, a women’s literacy project, health clinics, an agricultural program, and rehabilitation for physically-disabled people. We don’t know exactly what we will be doing when we get there, but assume that the majority of our time will be spent in some type of education.

The Timorese people are kind, open to new ideas, full of energy and hope for their new nation. They are inventive with few resources yet their daily joys include music, dance and laughter.

We will be living in a duplex built by the Maryknoll Sisters. Our house will have cement walls, a corrugated tin roof and cement floor. There is an indoor toilet, running water, electricity from 6pm until midnight, and an internet connection. The real advantage we have is that we will use propane to cook. Almost all Timorese cook with wood in a grass kitchen hut separate from the rest of the house. The poorer Timorese live in houses built with bamboo or mud, a thatch roof and dirt floors.

Their simple but healthy diet is mostly rice, beans, fresh fruit and vegetables. Some of the items we can buy in the local market include potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, corn, carrots, soybeans, mustard greens, water spinach, bok choy, onions, garlic, cucumbers, cassava, avocados, oranges, bananas, mango, and papaya. They have great coffee and in the mornings you can buy locally baked bread, Portuguese rolls. About an hour away in the capitol, Dili, we can shop at supermarkets getting imported foods such as soup, pasta, cookies, dried fruit, meat, eggs, and loaves of bread.

We have learned that fruits that ripen naturally on the plants taste so much better. Aren't you envious?