The Trapani's in Timor Leste

This was our English class graduation. It was remarkable. At the urging of Janu, who has become our class assistant, we planned the ceremony according to timor-leste custom. This ment a three-hour-long graduation with plans to include dancing, songs, English recitals and Thanksgiving. It would then be followed up by a meal of local food and then a picture taking ceremony. This was all for a 18 week long English class. We were sure no one would come and no one would stay. But we've learned to trust Janu and his understanding of local customs. We were shocked. Out of the 66 people registered in our classes 62 of them showed up. Everyone stay the whole time. Most were involved with some sort of presentation or song. They had a great time together. There was a lot of laughing and clapping and talking. Even when it was all over people just hung around. It was a great experience. It was moving how thankful and appreciative the students were for the classes. The ceremony started

This cage is in the front corner of the churchyard close to the street. I think it was created as a dog pen. This is the front porch of the church facing the street. It works out great for English class. The class congregates here prior to the start. There is not much water pressure here so like most buildings our church has a water tank on the roof. This is the water pump that we have to plug in each time we at church. It pumps the water up to the tank. Whenever we plug in the water pump water starts to leak out of one of the pipes. We've tried to get it fixed but no luck so far. This is the baptismal font in an enclosed side yard of the church. It is outdoors with an awning that covers it. It's fairly tall and the stairs are pretty steep. It takes 2 days to fill up the font because it drains the water tank twice. This is the front of the church from the street. As you can see on top of the wall is barbed wire. There is barbed wire on three sides of the chu

This is Janu. He assists us in all of our English classes. He comes to almost everyone. He translates for us when there are some difficult concepts. He was a student in the prior years English class.  He is a graduate student of the University and is starting a business Consulting with local farmers. He recently got engaged but has not married due to the dowry required for his future wife. The dowry can be as much as a few thousand dollars which can be almost an entire years salary. So instead most couples just live together and eventually have common-law marriages. What makes him so interesting is his commitment to helping with the English classes. He receives no salary or compensation. He helps out 4 days a week. He just keeps on coming. Janu`s fiance has a side business where she makes these small Frozen popsicles called icees. They are a combination of milk, sugar and surprisingly a string bean. She sells them for $0.05 a piece. So occasionally we buy about $2 worth and h

Tuesday May 29th was Cheryl's birthday. Unfortunately we weren't able to do much special on that day. We taught our English class. Afterwards we went out to dinner and then this is her birthday cake. She was able to speak to almost all of our children on her birthday. Cheryl's present from me was an authentic timor-leste purse We met with dom Bosco which is a Catholic trade school on the island. They are extremely successful in placing students in jobs. The shortest man is Father Adrian who is in charge of the school. The tallest is Father Joseph who is the administrator. The man on the right is mr. Lee. He is a consulted from Korea who helps with the school. In our meeting we decided that our charity would help provide  modern tools for their General construction class. This is a picture from my morning run. The river  flows from the mountains and this is where it reaches the ocean.  Normally the flow from this river is about ten times higher but this is now the dr