The First Dance

This is a picture taken from the wedding we went to on the first
Saturday I was here (Oct. 26, I think). It's hard to believe I've
been here three weeks already! I don't really like to say I've been
here for three weeks - the first week here the school paid for us
to have Tetun classes, so I learned how to say "What is your
name?" (Ita-nia naran sa?), "Where do you come from?" (Ita
mai husi ne'ebe?) and a few other things. And when I told people
that I'd only been here a week, they were really impressed.
"And you already speak Tetun!" But, now, my Tetun hasn't
really improved and I've been here three weeks, so....I've got
to get cracking.

The thing about this wedding that really made an impression
on me was how Latin American it felt. Unfortunately, the video
option on my camera doesn't include sound, so you can't hear
the music, but if you can see the people dancing you can
probably get an idea of the rhythm. A very country-Latin
thing, me parecido de El Salvador. Sorry if that's not good
Spanish. What about this picture does not look Latin American?
I suppose the only thing is the woman wearing a hijab, which
is not very common here (Timor-Leste being a Catholic country).
Of course, we live right behind the oldest and, now, only mosque in
the country, in "Kampung Alor", so it's not super-uncommon in
our neighbourhood - but still, nobody on our street wears hijab.

Apparently people go into debt, for life, due to the cost of weddings.
I was told that this one cost - well, a lot. Like maybe two years' salary
for an 'average' Canadian. In a country where people make an
average of 50 cents a day (well, not these people, but still....) that's
a LOT of money. There could have easily been 1,000 people there,
with food, and drinks (not neccessarily alcohol) for all. Wow. As one
person there said to me "We don't get to party much", so I'm glad
we all had an excuse. (And I didn't have to pay for it!)

The reason the Timorese don't 'party' much is because most of them
are still afraid to go out after dark (6pm), and so they don't. If you
don't have your own form of transportation, you won't either. (Of
course most foreigners here work for the UN, so they have vehicles.
All they have to worry about is getting stones thrown at them (their
cars).) But according to the people who have been here a while,
things are getting better and people are going out a bit more. It's
certainly not a problem for most foreigners, as long as you have
wheels.