TheChallengOfGrowingUpInTimor

The Literacy rate in Timor-Leste is 50%. Half of the population can't read. Even at San Miguel, the school where we worked, 2000 students have to take shifts (morning and afternoon) to be able to attend the school. The tiny classrooms are filled with 75-80 students at a time in unbearable heat. When it is the normal temperature outside (10 degrees hotter than hell) it is like an oven indoors. There is no air conditioning. little or no ventilation, no indoor plumbing or running water. During the torrential downpour of the rainy season, the roof leaks and buckets are placed everywhere to catch the leaks. There is a mountain of donated miscellaneous books in one storage room, but during our entire visit I never saw a student carry a book. Cristna, the head of the school works tirelessly from 4 am to 11 pm to do the impossible. This year he did it. After taking the standardized exams, only 6 out of his 200 seniors failed to graduate and one scored the highest of any senior in the city.

HelpingALocalSchool

Through our connection with Daryl, aka Daisy, the head of the Timor-Leste Rotary Club, we had the opportunity to help San Miguel, a local school, install the internet and open that gateway for the 2ooo kids who go to school there. Little did we know that we arrived 2 days before President Ramos-Horta was to arrive at the school for a ceremony christening a new wing and a newly installed internet!! Doug installed as I served as his lovely assistant and it was a study in frustration. We would instal, the school head redid, we would reinstall, the telecom guys uninstalled, we reinstalled, the kids would dismantle, we would reinstall, the power would go out... you get the picture. The worst part was that even though we finally installed everything, the entire internet went down during the Presidents visit.

WhereTheHeckIsTimorEast

After telling friends that I was going to Timor East, the same question was asked each time - where is that? It is such a small remote country that hardly anyone has heard of it. Also, it is well off the radar for tour guides and travel agents. Timor is an island that sits at the southern part of Indonesia in Asia. It is 400 miles north of Darwin, Australia. The western part of the island is still part of Indonesia. The eastern part of the island - Timor East (or Timor-Leste) has fought hard for its independence from invaders from Japan, Portugal, and Indonesia - and is now proudly an independent country - the newest country in the twentieth century.