love from timor update, june 24th
I’ve never before been this out of touch with the world. I haven’t once used internet since my last email, now at least 5 days ago. For an internet junkie, this is serious! Although it’s really a nice change not to spend hours and hours each day staring at a computer, I am going through online news withdrawal… I’ve not read a newspaper. There is no television (where I’m staying) -- though even if there was, it seems that most of the shows are totally bizarre Indonesian teledramas. Last night on a short drive home, I managed to catch roughly 4 minutes of bbc radio news, but it only told me about some not so interesting Al Qeada arrests in the U.S.
In short, I have absolutely *no* idea what is happening in the world.
More than that, I don’t have a clear picture of what’s happening here. You all could probably look up a hundred articles on Google news and be far more in touch with reality than I am. Then again, maybe that reality is no more real than each day here. It’s a bit hard to explain, but reality, here, feels far more present… What matters most is the reality of where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing. What’s happening with the government - or in Iraq or Canada or Zimbabwe for that matter - is some sort of secondary reality.
Not to say, of course, that people are blissfully ignorant of the situation here. Quite the opposite is true. The lack of reliable information about what is happening here means that a lot of people are simply quite afraid. They just don’t know what will happen. From my perspective, that fear is partly unnecessary. But given the history, it’s also totally understandable and justified. If you want more information about what happened in 1999 when Timorese people voted for independence from Indonesia, definitely try to see a film called “Answered by Fire”. I just watched this two-part televised series last night. Although it doesn’t provide much context for the elections and the violence that surrounded it, the film offers a strong portrayal of what happened. It was funded jointly by Australia and Canada, but I don’t know if it’s been released in North America. At least try looking it up for me ☺
As for what’s been going on now, things have been very quiet in Dili. Last night, the city was silent. Many people are still frightened by the violence in the streets that happened mostly while I was in Australia a few weeks ago… Homes and market stalls were burned, and lots of young men took to the streets with weapons. Big sticks and machetes. In fact, these are extremely common tools here: the machetes are used in the fields or to cut wood for a stove. Driving around in Baucau, stalls on the side of the road sold machetes and knives for $6. But Ani aptly wrote “every tool is a weapon if you use it right”.
Remarkably few people have been actually killed or injured in the past months, but thousands of people who feared an escalation of violence fled to the hills and mountains outside of the Capital, to their homes in other districts, or to make-shift shelters in the city. These are now established IDP camps (internally-displaced persons camps). Ba Futuru will be working in three IDP camps starting next week, with a large grant from UNICEF. We will do a shortened version of the normal curriculum, to include arts and play activities to help kids process the trauma, loss, grief, and to learn some conflict resolution skills. And, honestly, to just relieve plain boredom. I went to visit one of the camps a few days ago, but they are an entire story by themselves. Since we’ll be working in them soon, hopefully I’ll be able to write more about them later.
Anyway, people are still scared. Almost all of the Timorese staff at the restaurant where Sean (who I’m staying with) works is sleeping there at nights, both men and women. They don’t want to travel to and from home in the dark. And four of staff of Ba Futuru have been staying in Baucau, another district nearly 4 hours away by winding road.
But it is also more complicated. For some reason, which is still unclear to me, there have been divisions between people from the East and people from the West of the country. It’s not even clear to me how many people are from the East and how many from the West, and what the original mix in Dili was a few months ago, before people started fleeing the city. But it does seem clear that Easterners are being more targeted here. The neighbourhood directly behind where I’ve been staying (called Villa Verde) has a lot of burned houses, and apparently the families living there were from the East.
The girls in Baucau are all from the East. The program they are working on in two orphanages there will finish on Tuesday, and they want to return to Dili… but to ensure their safety and peace of mind, two of the girls will come stay with us here at Villa Verde, and we’ll possibly hire a local security guard. As well, one of the amazing Ba Futuru staff (a girl named Lica “Leeka”) whose background is Western will come stay here, in hopes that if anything crazy happens, the mixed population will protect everyone.
This said, I don’t want to worry you all. Nothing has made me feel particularly concerned about the situation. The Australia military has been stopping everyone at check-points into and out of the city, and people here know that they won’t get away with any weapons or violence. Seriously, the Aussie force is scary. With the constant tanks rolling down the streets, and men and women (!!) in full camouflage with major guns, I’m honestly somewhat more nervous every time we run into them than I am walking around the streets here! Don’t get me wrong; I think everyone here is thankful that the Aussies are around. But personally, it’s just a matter of which weapons are bigger.
There is a protest that has been building over the past few days, but probably because of the military presence, it has been peaceful. People have been protesting against the Prime Minister, Mari Alkitiri. There are claims of financial mismanagement, and that he has been giving major contracts to his family (ex. Reconstruction projects, etc), but there have been few positive results. Whether or not these are true, it seems clear that he no longer has support of the population, and any responsible politician would step down. Currently, we are waiting to hear whether or not this has happened. But, given my current lack of any news whatsoever, it could have happened hours ago ☺
Even though the protests have been peaceful, it has become apparent to me over the past week how quickly things can change in Timor, and how people seem capable of transforming almost instantaneously. Yesterday, I was in a photocopy shop with one of the staff, making I.D. cards for everyone, a small fight broke out on the street. I have no idea what instigated it, but one man just seemed all of a sudden to become livid with rage, so much so that his face changed entirely. Similarly, on Tuesday afternoon, we drove out to Baucau to visit the staff, and watch them implement the program at Venilale, one of the two orphanages where they have been working. Two girls, maybe 8 years old, were supposed to be painting a picture together, based on a story being narrated by one of the staff. All of a sudden, one of girls became enraged. Her face physically changed, and she hit the other girl with a hard whack. As soon as I looked in their direction, and said something like “no, you can’t do that” in Tetum, they stopped. I could see that the girl who was hit was trying to calm the other one down, possibly so they didn’t get in trouble. I’ve worked with kids for several years, ages 1-18. Especially young children get frustrated easily, and hitting is common. But I have never before seen a child (let alone a young girl) get so angry, so suddenly.
Witnessing these things made me realise the importance of the kind of conflict resolution, human rights education that Ba Futuru is doing here. Especially because the staff is all Timorese, even training 7 young people with peacebuilding skills and knowledge can make a real difference.
But, it also made me realize how difficult it would ever be to create sustainable change in the way people interact with each other here, or in the ways in which they chose to resolve problems.
Such is life: Where something is most needed, it is also most difficult.
In short, I have absolutely *no* idea what is happening in the world.
More than that, I don’t have a clear picture of what’s happening here. You all could probably look up a hundred articles on Google news and be far more in touch with reality than I am. Then again, maybe that reality is no more real than each day here. It’s a bit hard to explain, but reality, here, feels far more present… What matters most is the reality of where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing. What’s happening with the government - or in Iraq or Canada or Zimbabwe for that matter - is some sort of secondary reality.
Not to say, of course, that people are blissfully ignorant of the situation here. Quite the opposite is true. The lack of reliable information about what is happening here means that a lot of people are simply quite afraid. They just don’t know what will happen. From my perspective, that fear is partly unnecessary. But given the history, it’s also totally understandable and justified. If you want more information about what happened in 1999 when Timorese people voted for independence from Indonesia, definitely try to see a film called “Answered by Fire”. I just watched this two-part televised series last night. Although it doesn’t provide much context for the elections and the violence that surrounded it, the film offers a strong portrayal of what happened. It was funded jointly by Australia and Canada, but I don’t know if it’s been released in North America. At least try looking it up for me ☺
As for what’s been going on now, things have been very quiet in Dili. Last night, the city was silent. Many people are still frightened by the violence in the streets that happened mostly while I was in Australia a few weeks ago… Homes and market stalls were burned, and lots of young men took to the streets with weapons. Big sticks and machetes. In fact, these are extremely common tools here: the machetes are used in the fields or to cut wood for a stove. Driving around in Baucau, stalls on the side of the road sold machetes and knives for $6. But Ani aptly wrote “every tool is a weapon if you use it right”.
Remarkably few people have been actually killed or injured in the past months, but thousands of people who feared an escalation of violence fled to the hills and mountains outside of the Capital, to their homes in other districts, or to make-shift shelters in the city. These are now established IDP camps (internally-displaced persons camps). Ba Futuru will be working in three IDP camps starting next week, with a large grant from UNICEF. We will do a shortened version of the normal curriculum, to include arts and play activities to help kids process the trauma, loss, grief, and to learn some conflict resolution skills. And, honestly, to just relieve plain boredom. I went to visit one of the camps a few days ago, but they are an entire story by themselves. Since we’ll be working in them soon, hopefully I’ll be able to write more about them later.
Anyway, people are still scared. Almost all of the Timorese staff at the restaurant where Sean (who I’m staying with) works is sleeping there at nights, both men and women. They don’t want to travel to and from home in the dark. And four of staff of Ba Futuru have been staying in Baucau, another district nearly 4 hours away by winding road.
But it is also more complicated. For some reason, which is still unclear to me, there have been divisions between people from the East and people from the West of the country. It’s not even clear to me how many people are from the East and how many from the West, and what the original mix in Dili was a few months ago, before people started fleeing the city. But it does seem clear that Easterners are being more targeted here. The neighbourhood directly behind where I’ve been staying (called Villa Verde) has a lot of burned houses, and apparently the families living there were from the East.
The girls in Baucau are all from the East. The program they are working on in two orphanages there will finish on Tuesday, and they want to return to Dili… but to ensure their safety and peace of mind, two of the girls will come stay with us here at Villa Verde, and we’ll possibly hire a local security guard. As well, one of the amazing Ba Futuru staff (a girl named Lica “Leeka”) whose background is Western will come stay here, in hopes that if anything crazy happens, the mixed population will protect everyone.
This said, I don’t want to worry you all. Nothing has made me feel particularly concerned about the situation. The Australia military has been stopping everyone at check-points into and out of the city, and people here know that they won’t get away with any weapons or violence. Seriously, the Aussie force is scary. With the constant tanks rolling down the streets, and men and women (!!) in full camouflage with major guns, I’m honestly somewhat more nervous every time we run into them than I am walking around the streets here! Don’t get me wrong; I think everyone here is thankful that the Aussies are around. But personally, it’s just a matter of which weapons are bigger.
There is a protest that has been building over the past few days, but probably because of the military presence, it has been peaceful. People have been protesting against the Prime Minister, Mari Alkitiri. There are claims of financial mismanagement, and that he has been giving major contracts to his family (ex. Reconstruction projects, etc), but there have been few positive results. Whether or not these are true, it seems clear that he no longer has support of the population, and any responsible politician would step down. Currently, we are waiting to hear whether or not this has happened. But, given my current lack of any news whatsoever, it could have happened hours ago ☺
Even though the protests have been peaceful, it has become apparent to me over the past week how quickly things can change in Timor, and how people seem capable of transforming almost instantaneously. Yesterday, I was in a photocopy shop with one of the staff, making I.D. cards for everyone, a small fight broke out on the street. I have no idea what instigated it, but one man just seemed all of a sudden to become livid with rage, so much so that his face changed entirely. Similarly, on Tuesday afternoon, we drove out to Baucau to visit the staff, and watch them implement the program at Venilale, one of the two orphanages where they have been working. Two girls, maybe 8 years old, were supposed to be painting a picture together, based on a story being narrated by one of the staff. All of a sudden, one of girls became enraged. Her face physically changed, and she hit the other girl with a hard whack. As soon as I looked in their direction, and said something like “no, you can’t do that” in Tetum, they stopped. I could see that the girl who was hit was trying to calm the other one down, possibly so they didn’t get in trouble. I’ve worked with kids for several years, ages 1-18. Especially young children get frustrated easily, and hitting is common. But I have never before seen a child (let alone a young girl) get so angry, so suddenly.
Witnessing these things made me realise the importance of the kind of conflict resolution, human rights education that Ba Futuru is doing here. Especially because the staff is all Timorese, even training 7 young people with peacebuilding skills and knowledge can make a real difference.
But, it also made me realize how difficult it would ever be to create sustainable change in the way people interact with each other here, or in the ways in which they chose to resolve problems.
Such is life: Where something is most needed, it is also most difficult.
posted by melissa at 8:14 PM
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