Santa Cruz Cemetary

As promised, I'm just adding the video clip I took
last Friday (a week ago) at the Santa Cruz cemetary.
Actually, I didn't take the video, I gave my camera
to a guy sitting on the wall and asked him to do it.
I only saw one other foreigner ("malae") while we
were there, and I din't want to be the big white
woman taking pictures. The video doesn't really
capture the sense of how completely packed the
cemetary was. It was a bit overwhelming at first,
when we first stepped inside. All the tombstones
were covered in flower petals and surrounded by
burning candles (not a good place to wear a long
skirt.) This is the same cemetary where the Santa
Cruz massacre happened in 1991, when about 250
people were killed by Indonesian troops. And East
Timor - finally - made the news. Not, of course,
that making the news that way is a good thing,
but 100 - 200,000 people died between 1975 and
1980 or so and still very few people even knew
there was such a place as East Timor.
Lil (Li-Lien Gibbons) brother Kamal was one of
those who died in the Santa Cruz massacre.
November 2, however, was not a commemoration
of the massacre but the yearly 'Day of the Dead' or
All Saints Day. Unfortunately I don't remember
the name of the day in Tetun. Families go to the
cemetaries and clean the graves of their loved
ones and place flowers and candles on the graves.
The anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre is now
a national holiday, and it's this coming Monday,
Nov. 12. So I may go to the cemetary again,
although I may not take any pictures or videos.