Bondia,

We arrived in Baucau yesterday afternoon after a five hour bus trip from Dili to Baucau. A little longer than the usual trip, however there is a great deal of road works underway. We all travelled well with no muta (travel sickness) on the way.

 

Day 1 – What surprised the group about the day:

• The amount of rubbish, how busy and big Dili is.
• How nice the Timorese are.
• Blokes sitting around all day.
• The heat. We thought it would be hot, but not this hot!
• All the buildings and how run down they are.
• Seeing people do the sign of the cross as they passed Sante Cruz (cemetery).
• Organised life to the disorganised colour, sound and smells.
• How well everyone responded to the new experiences.
• Pappa Yo Yo’s attention to detail.

 

Best part of day one in Dili:

• First mikrolet ride.
• Seeing Sebas (our guide) again.
• Getting off the plane and not being too hot or tired.
• Going up Jesus Man (Christo Rei) and the Christi Rei walk.
• Swimming at the beach, walking around seeing everything.
• The smiles and everyone saying “bondia”, “batarde”. We felt like pop stars!
• Too many best parts.
• Lunch with everyone.

 

Day 2 Dili to Baucau bus ride.

Best part of the journey:

• Water buffalo.
• The different housing and buildings.
• The views.
• Playing soccer with the young kids at our stop.
• Waving hello to everyone and them waving excitingly back yelling “malae, malae!”
• No travel sickness and being awake for the entire journey.

Many of us were woken this morning at 6am to the beautiful singing from the boarders here at Canossa.

The group are keen to know footy scores as they become available otherwise they are all content at the moment playing spit before we start our orientation this morning.

We will be in contact in a few days!

Team Timor 2018