Day 9 Dili to Kasait
Oscar Cavalletto and Jess Louth
We rose from our beds early this morning to prepare for the next part of our journey. Our gear was sorted and by the bus by 7.00am, breakfast was again consumed at the Timor Lodge restaurant which Mr O’Brien had ordered for us. We boarded the bus eagerly as our next stop was the San Ignacio de Loiola College in Kasait. This is a new school. It builds on the work of the Jesuits at a school near Santa Cruz, Dili called Saint Joseph’s which the Jesuits ran for 18 years from 1993. The diocese took stronger control of this school in 2010 but closed it after two years to develop a Catholic University. Handing back Saint Joseph’s to the Diocese provided the opportunity for the Jesuits to establish a new school. It took time to find land for this and the site at Kasait is about 30 mins west of Dili on the road to Liquica not far from the turn off road to Ermera district.
When the first group of the combined Australian immersions came in 2011 the school had not been built. Even in 2012, the immersionistas worked on clearing the land. At the start of 2013 the first Timorese commenced classes in Year 7. This year they are in Year 8 and there has been a new intake into Year 7. The school will build gradually year by year til the first group reaches Year 12 in 2018. The Jesuit schools in Australia are fundraising to build the school and the Australian Jesuits aim to contribute $5 million by 2017. Saint Ignatius Adelaide, St Aloysius’, Xavier College and Saint Ignatius Riverview are each trying to raise about $100,000 a year over the next five years to build this school.
We were greeted by Fr Quyen. He is Vietnamese born but came as refugee to Australia when he was 10 years old. When he grew up he joined the Jesuits and worked at St Aloysius’ as a teacher in 1999-2000 and then at Loyola Mount Druitt in 2005-6. He has had two periods working in Timor Leste where he has now been for over seven years. He taught at St Joseph’s and has worked at the new school since its inception. Fr Quyen is like our Rector back home. This is a significant week for him as he is about to begin a new assignment soon, most likely to establish a Jesuit school in Cambodia. He is a true missionary. In Kasait he is assisted by Fr Plinio who is like our Principal back home. Fr Plinio did his theology studies in Melbourne some time ago so speaks good English as well as Portuguese and Tetum. He is a nephew of the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao.
We were greeted by several magnificent buildings which have been extremely well built, designed by a Portuguese architect and assisted pro bono by an Australian architect and engineer, and of course an impressive amount of local building expertise and labour. The buildings are cool inside because of the clever design. Shane said there are five new buildings since last year. Our fundraising efforts are being put to excellent use. Fr Quyen and Fr Plinio warmly welcomed us and Tom Daly and Emily Jackson gave a lovely speech about our shared solidarity as Jesuit schools and how much our group is learning from being in Timor Leste.
We were soon assigned into groups of three, allocated to different classes and year levels within the school. Very quickly we were participating in activities with joyous children. For some of the classes the first order of the day was sport: football for the boys and volleyball for the girls. Here they take their sport quite seriously and the competition is fierce. Whilst some classes played sport, others started on their maths lessons. Compared to the children in Railaco the students here are extremely advanced, their maths skills were outstanding and we in Year 11 and 12 struggled at times to keep up with them in Years 7 and 8. Everyone had a blast. Two people from our group worked in the library with Miss Lisa cataloguing books. The librarian Fr Oura is a Jesuit from Japan and he took pride in showing books donated from our schools in Australia. There was even a school annual magazine from Xavier Harvey Bay with a picture of Emily Jackson in Year 8.
We had lunch at 12.00 which was fresh salad, chips and meat. We were tired but as per usual in this incredible community, we were looked after amazingly. We then returned to our classrooms and the students greeted us with such an eagerness to learn. Our next session was English and again each and every student was full of laughter and enthusiasm. Teaching the kids English was a little bit tricky due to the fact that they were so eager to learn and to extract as much information from us as they could. Through simple tasks such as getting the students to write and then share information about themselves to the group, we were able to get a solid English lesson completed. However no lesson will ever be truly over in Timor Leste without a song. My class 7B’s choice today was ‘In the Jungle’ from the Lion King. You could go as far as to say that it was the new neighbourhood hit. We even made a little war cry to use during our football and volleyball games.
In our next lesson entitled ‘animation’ we were required to engage the students in a variety of activities, so we cleverly integrated singing with some Australian geography. We varied these activities to ensure that boredom was not an option!!! We all tried really hard to develop a relationship with each of the students in our classes. They learnt our names and some also knew which state we were from in Australia. This was impressive and challenged us to be more focussed in remembering their names.
Upon completion of the ‘animation’, the students proudly tidied their classrooms. Then they all set off for home either walking or packing about fifty kids into the back of a truck that served as a school bus. There was one truck for the boys and one for the girls. No matter where they came from or where they were headed they all left with the biggest smiles on their faces. The joy that they brought to us was immense and indescribable. How they can have such a positive effect on a group of 16 kids is just amazing…and we are all from a situation that is much more prosperous than theirs. Although they come from such disadvantage, they teach us so many lessons about the vagaries of materialism, the value of family and friends, how to strive for the best regardless of your situation and how to really live and not be overwhelmed or overcome by the merciless hands of greed. After being immersed in what Timor Leste has to offer, so much of what they do and say embodies how easy it is to let go and to just to be content with what we have.
We had some time to set up our sleeping area on the floor of a classroom. Then we spent an hour or so reflecting on what worked in our various classes and we brainstormed some ideas for our lessons tomorrow. It was a good lesson in becoming a teacher.
We then congregated in the chapel as a group for the Eucharist with Fr Peter. It was an intimate gathering and most of the group was allocated a reading, reflection or song. It was a moving service that allowed us all the space and time to give thanks for the awareness raised and lessons learnt thus far on our Immersion journey. Emily Harwood and Nick led us in our Examen and reflection after communion. This was a prayerful time. We then had a lovely dinner in another classroom which has been converted into a makeshift dining area for us.
By now we have only six or seven days left and are more than halfway through our immersion experience. Our group is really getting along, and we all truly feel such a strong connection to the Timorese people and the cultural awareness they offer us. We all are fully aware that for most of us this is a once in a life time experience. As a group we feel quite adamant that we will continue to raise awareness back home of the spectacular work that is being conducted over here by so many, and the plight of these gentle, generous people.