Timor Leste 2024 Trip A Blog

A few of us started the day with mass at 6:30am, the power was out so mass was done by candlelight which was beautiful. Father Olek did the homily in English and reminded us that we are all called to be saints and that we need to think less of ourselves and more of others and live from the heart.

After breakfast we headed down to the school to spend the morning, we were greeted with our faces smiling back at us on a banner that we processed through after receiving yet another lot of tais. Teangi and Mrs Fisher unveiled the COSFAX logo that sits proudly next to the Tenison Woods College logo. Fr Godihno put it simply when he said, "together we can".

We spent the morning in the new computer room, visiting classrooms, signing our names on small bits of paper and dancing. After a delicious lunch at the school we went for a drive to Malara, a sleepy village just off the river bank. It is where we helped build a school a few years ago, so it was lovely to see the building alive with young children learning. We went for a walk through the village and learnt how the Bakhita Centre helped connect the village with water and built a toilet block for the villagers to use.

We arrived back at Hatolia with our young fan club there to greet us. Alex is a favourite of the children and has collected many gifts such as notebooks, a bracket and tais. Tonight we will practice for culture day tomorrow, which we are all looking forward to.