Timor Leste 2024 Trip A Blog

Today we started off with another mass in Hatolia at 8:00am in the morning, led by Fr Agustinho and co-run with Fr Olek and Fr Godinho.

Teachers and students were presented with Tais. We then went on a long drive to a small village called manalete, we were greeted with a cultural dance and then Lisa was finally important enough to receive a tai but she is still one behind school captain Teangi Stephens. Fr Olek, Bernadette Fisher, Teangi Stephens, Ben Braithwaite, Alex Hudson and Xan Stephens all received tais, the attention Xan is giving Fr Godinho is paying off as he received a special tai made just for him, a reward for all the special hugs with him.

Fr Godinho said some powerful words at mass in manalete, “We come in different coloured skin and different sizes”. Add some hand gestures to this and you will understand why we’re all laughing. We then dropped Fr Godinho off at his third mass.

The bumpy roads were a 4wd heaven but had made a few of us car sick such as our Timor friend, Louis. We came back to Hatolia and the kids were waiting eagerly and a few of us were playing frisbee with the kids from the balcony. Some of the kids went for a walk to the 'supermarket' and were merely disappointed with what was on offer but they did find cheap lollipops that they handed out for the children and women on the street.