Weddings and other extremely long experiences

The main event of the last two weeks was Marino and Rofina's wedding. This was held while Cruz Joven was at their aldea- 18 couples got married in total, at the same service.  These guys have all got kids but although they are a very devoutly Catholic country they seem to wait for special occasion like Cruz Joven to get married by the priest in a really really long mass. It was a real honor to be invited and it was exciting to turn up at their house and see everyone dressed up for the wedding. Men in suits with traditional tais and women in beautiful colourful dresses. We were invited for 9 o'clock, we had photos etc and admired everyone then the mass started at 10.30. With 18 couples getting married and a priest who really likes the sound of his own voice, it was quite a lengthy experience, finally wrapping up 3 hours later at 1.30. The fact that we can't understand most of it does make it feel a lot longer. Although after hearing it 18 times I think I can say "until death do us part" in Tetun. During the Mass Michele got a call to say the Prime Minister was at the CLC so she ducked out to meet him, had a coffee and still made it back before the end.  We were pretty hungry by this stage so excited to be conducted to where the food was by Marino. Sat down, he said we just have to wait for the sefi so we sat there looking longingly at the food and finally got to eat at 3 o'clock.  Ross was offered a warm beer by one of his workers Filipe and that pretty much finished him off for the day.  All in all it was a great day and it was a real privilege to be there, one of the experiences we would never have if we were just passsing through.

Marino,Mario and Charlie 

                                                                                          

                                                                                     

Talking of really long experiences we had a cyclist call in on his way from Melbourne to the UK. Simon had sold the car ,rented the house and quit the job . No training rides just loaded up the pushy and headed up to Darwin and jumped on a plane to Dili .He had ridden two weeks around the south coast to get to Balibo and done it tough. Counting on street food or restaurants he had ended up eating tinned sardines and instant noodles. We got chatting and invited him to stay the night . Tuna pasta and fresh salad went down pretty well. Good to talk to another 50 year old taking a different direction in life, he is a really nice bloke and not at all crazy. You can follow him on instagram @cyclodyssey 

Simon and Charlie 

It's election time here again this time for the position of all the MPs including prime minister so we have had all the usual rallies including a visit to Balibo from Xanana  Gusmao . He is a real showman  and you can see how he has made the transition from resistance fighter to politician 

Xanana 

We are typing this with a week to go here and besides feeling very excited to be heading home ,are attempting to reflect on our 6 months .Charlie told us yesterday that coming here has "straightened him out"  (his words) yeah he  was such a delinquent before.He explained that he meant that he won't complain as much.It has been  hard for him at times here so it was good to hear that he is taking something positive away from the experience .As for us I think it will take some time to process the whole experience.It will be an emotional day next Sunday when we leave ;not due to relief but saying goodbye to some wonderful people and it has been such a huge and sometimes overwhelming 6 months.(maybe a little bit of relief!!)