Friday, February 12, 2010

Dili's version of Three Cups of Tea

If you haven't read Three Cups of Tea you really should. It is a wonderful book about building schools in Afghanistan. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts Timor Leste (East Timor) is a very poor and 'developing" country. Because of this they are in dire need of good schools. Last week the Ambassador wanted to go see a school that is being built in a remote part of the country. Chris was asked to go with him. We were both pretty excited about this. They left early in the morning and drove over crazy roads and forded lots of rivers (cars here have actual snorkels attached to them so that you can go in water up to the windshield!!! I will post a picture of one when I can.) The country is absolutely gorgeous. Christopher took a lot of amazing pictures but this one took my breath away:
landscape
Along the way they saw lots of local children willing to smile for the camera. This guy is too cute. We have no clue what he is holding, obviously a tool of some sort but what in the world would it do?
littleboy
They stopped and looked at some of the ruins from the Portuguese schools
ruins
Chris also snapped a shot of this gorgeous old church:
church
They stopped for the night and stayed with a local family, sleeping on the floor of their hut. Houses that are built up on stilts like this are called "Sacred Houses".
hut
The people here are so kind and generous. And the kids seem to love posing for pictures:
kiddos
The next day they made it to the school.
girl
They were able to bring along some toys and soccer balls etc. to give to the children. The locals performed dances and sang for Chris and the Ambassador. Chris has some really amazing pictures but we don't want to post anything we aren't supposed too... there is always a fine line :) It was such a wonderful experience for Christopher. It was great to already be participating in exactly the type of things we hoped this job would bring. I just hope the kiddos and I get to see some more of this gorgeous country
ricepatty

5 comments:

Mom/Jan said...

WOW!! Good for you Chris. Traveling and actually spending the night at someones house. The school looks nice. Did the US help build the school? What was the purpose of the trip? I read "3 Cups of Tea" and his new book "Stones into Schools". Mortenson is amazing. His group had completed 131 schools last October. What is the literacy rate there. Hopefully we can help it increase. Sure looks beautiful but I know we are only seeing the beautiful ocean scenes.

Garity said...

Oh my goodness! Beautiful! I'm off to catch up on your adventures the past few months that I've missed. Our adventure here in Mexico City is almost over thankfully and I'm ready to get back to small town USA. We are still waiting to find out where our next assignment is but our list was Spokane, Columbia SC (I'll be near Marsha!) or back to Denver. Hope to hear this week. Ok, off to read about East Timor!

Anna said...

UH-MAZING! Incredible photos.

The Grady's said...

those pictures are amazing! What a beautiful country!

Anonymous said...

Kelly O my gosh how beautiful! Looks like you have already made is fun and wonderful! You are Amazing!!! Keep us updated! I LOVE the photos and the kids look so happy! We miss you all so much!