This section provides information on the progress of these projects, allowing the communities here in Australia to keep in touch with the communities they are sponsoring in East Timor.

supporting teachers

In August last year, et ef supported an educational trip for nine teachers from the Lolotoe district to visit schools in Darwin. The trip was an overwhelming success with both the visiting teachers and host schools describing it as a great cultural and educational experience.
 

The trip was designed to give these teachers an opportunity to experience a classroom outside of Timor and to experience different methods of teaching and learning as well as the use of resources. These teachers had not previously been exposed to wider educational methods and thus their teaching styles were quite limited. Since returning from Darwin, the most notable change in these teachers is their confidence. They're more confident as teachers and have become proactive in working towards better education. They spend more time preparing classes and use different ways of teaching the same material using different resources. They also network with other teachers and are more confident in their work and abilities. Furthermore, they also are very keen to teach their students about a different country and custom which they have all experienced.

Such a project wouldn't be possible without the assistance of many organisations. et ef acknowledges the financial support of AirNorth Airlines, Caritas Australia, the Catholic Education Office and Holy Name Parish. The success of this project is widely due to the warm reception these teachers from Lolotoe had from host schools; In particular we thank Holy Family School, Holy Spirit School, O'Loughlin College, Dripstone High school & Jinglie Pre-school. We also thank the people of the Tiwi Islands, the Darwin Catholic Community and other generous individuals for their kind support of this project.

Below are some letters that four of the teachers who participated in this trip have written to thank all involved for their support. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have!

  Feliciano

To everyone who helped us in Australia, I send my feeling for you in this simple paper about your willingness to support us for our trip from Dili to Darwin. With your help we were able to see and learn many wonderful things that seemed like Heaven.

Because of your help we were able to visit and see many, many new things and visit some interesting places like the military museum, the N.T. Museum, the Tiwi Islands, Crocodylus park and other places like; Berry Springs park, the Wildlife park and Windows on the Wetlands. Besides that we also visited some interesting schools such as Holy Family School, Holy Spirit School, Jinglie Pre-school, O'Loughlin College and Dripstone High school. We also visited an Indigenous school on Bathurst Island.

We learned many things such as Darwin was bombed more than 64 times by the Japanese military in the Second World War. We also saw the old gun which was used in the war. We learnt that the first and second cyclones happened in 1927 and 1974 in Darwin and Broome and also that saltwater crocodiles are dangerous for humans but that freshwater crocodiles are not. We also learnt about Tiwi culture, Aboriginal culture and Australian culture and that many animals in Australia are friendly with humans. During my time in Darwin I thought in my heart that probably you had created a second Heaven on earth in Australia.

Thankyou very much for the people in Darwin and Melbourne who helped us and also for the teachers working in the schools we visited. I felt like an angel in heaven to fly in the air and visit such beautiful places. Thankyou so much for your kindness. You will have a special pleasure from God. We know that to go to all those interesting places involved a lot of money.

For all the girls and boys each in your school, all of you were so nice to us and friendly. I won't forget you in my prayers. And thankyou too for your magic doors that respect
me and greeted me. When I walked next to your door, it opened by itself for me. That is the first time a door addressed me and it surprised me.

The last word, I was upset and sad when I heard on my radio on Sunday before mass an incident where many Australian people were killed in Bali. So I offer my condolences for all the families in Australia in your bereavement. I will remember you all in my prayers.

Thanks again and I hope to see you all in Lolotoe, East Timor.

Feliciano Da Costa

  Jose

When I travelled with the other teachers to Darwin, I was worried at first because this was the first time we had been on a plane and outside Timor. When we landed in Darwin, everything was very interesting for me. I saw the biggest apartment house and I was also interested to see Casuarina shopping centre . Everything seemed so expensive.

The Customs were very interesting for me. We saw that people in Darwin don't hunt animals in the forest and that lots of animals are friendly with people. What I found very interesting was that people don't cut down trees in the forest and that people had a lot of respect for their government. I am very happy and excited about that. Everything was very interesting for me. It was especially interesting to see the way of life in Darwin and compare this to the life of people in East Timor.

We saw lots of interesting things and learnt a lot working in the schools. I will never forget all that I saw and learnt. Thank you for helping us to travel to Darwin.

Thank you very much for helping us.

Jose A. Pereira

  Cipriano

In August we travelled to Darwin. We really enjoyed the plane trip to Darwin. When we arrived there we were really excited because we had never been to another country before. It really was a new experience. We had a tour of the airport when we landed. We found the airport buildings and tarmac very interesting. We also noticed that people in the airport were very busy.

I was really surprised by how flat Darwin was. We really enjoyed travelling around in a minibus and seeing Darwin. We noticed that very few people were walking in the streets. This is very different to what we are used to in East Timor. Most people in Darwin travel around in a car. We noticed that nobody was outside of their house until it was late afternoon and then people started playing sports.

We really enjoyed visiting the schools in Darwin. We noticed that a lot of children use computers in the schools. This must help the students to learn. We were also impressed by the classrooms and different resources being used. Many places we visited in Darwin we were very enjoyable. We especially enjoyed visiting the military museum. We learnt that the Japanese word 'Katana' is also in our native Tetun language and is what we call the knives we use in East Timor.

When we stayed in Darwin we had a real experience for the Australian way of life. Things are very different in Australia and there are many things that are easier to do in Australia than in East Timor. We like the people from Australia because they are really friendly.

Thank you so much to the people from Australia for supporting us to go to Darwin and having such a great experience.

Thanking you

Cipriano Alfonso Pinto

  Augistinho

Our trip to Darwin gave us an impression of travelling for the first time in our life. The East Timorese Government and all the East Timorese people felt that this opportunity was 'incredible, unbelievable and wonderful' because we have not thought about it before.

We have lots of the best impressions and experiences from our trip to Darwin. It was the first time we left East Timor to go overseas by airplane. It was a wonderful experience and very difficult to describe. When we landed in Darwin airport we saw everything was very different; Different people, different manner, different languages, different scenery and a different situation. I wondered what else might be different?

When we drove out of Darwin airport along the way we didn't see anybody walking around or on the streets and all the houses were closed with nobody outside the houses. I thought this might be an Australian custom. The road was very quiet, large and straight. Everywhere was flat and each crossroad had traffic lights. We also saw some automatic traffic cameras. We saw lots of cars and many different types of cars but it seemed easy for drivers because everything was regulated and organised.

Australian people were very friendly. They was no discrimination for different races and they were very friendly with animals too. They were very kind and generous. To this day I still remember 'walk together in solidarity' (a walk to support the people of East Timor) at O'Loughlin school. When we saw the East Timorese flag and everyone walking for us, that was a special feeling of respect and meaning and we knew that everyone was very serious with us.

We visited many famous places in Darwin like Crocodylus park, Darwin museum and the military museum. We also visited many schools. We also went to the Tiwi islands and we saw Indigenous Aboriginal people there and we learnt something about their culture, what language they speak, what they were doing. We also visited their museum and learnt about their history and that was all very interesting for us.

I have many images in my head and great experiences from our trip and have many practical ideas for the future, especially for our school and our life.

I want to say thank you to all the people in Australia who have helped us with our travels. Thank you so much for your kindness. Thank you very much for helping us.

I send my regards to everyone who has helped us. Thank you

Agostinho Mendes.