{"id":579,"date":"2011-10-08T09:22:40","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T09:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/?p=579"},"modified":"2011-10-08T09:22:40","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T09:22:40","slug":"buffalo-feasts-donor-dancing-white-shoes-and-great-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo feasts, donor dancing, white shoes and great joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

With much pomp and ceremony and many hours of celebrations, Macalaco and Maucle schools are officially open!<\/p>\n

Early Wednesday morning, our \u00a0intrepid bunch of 11 donors and fund raisers\u00a0piled into rented 4WDs and \u00a0followed Kirsty Sword Gusmao’s car out of Dili.\u00a0 The road (the main one in the country) hugs the spectacular coastline and twists and turns through tiny villages.\u00a0 Dodging chickens, pigs and potholes, we drove for three hours to Baucau,before turning inland for another hour, fording a river and climbing a dirt road into the foot hills of the spectacular Mt Matebian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The villagers and children\u00a0of Macalaco were waiting in the blazing sun, cheering and clapping as we arrived.\u00a0 The children and adults performed dances, followed by many speeches including one by me – my first ever in Tetum (it was short!)\u00a0 I also provided great hilarity when I\u00a0kissed a local man on his cheek as part of a presentation – I’m not sure if he or I were more embarrassed… \u00a0Just when we thought the official ceremony was winding up, it turned the day was only just beginning.\u00a0 We were led up a hill to a huge bamboo structure with a woven palm frond roof – all\u00a0made for the occassion.\u00a0 Two huge tables were laid with food and we ate, toasted the school with champagne and then cut\u00a0what looked like a\u00a0wedding cake (all\u00a0prepared without ovens, electricity or running water).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then we danced – with local partners carefully chosen and paired to the foreigners.\u00a0 All wonderful fun and when we finally left it was clear the celebration was only just beginning for the villagers – palm wine until dawn we are sure!<\/p>\n

We made it back to Baucau for a quick swim on dusk (ignoring the crocodile warning sign on the beach) and a BBQ dinner near the spectacular beach.<\/p>\n

The next morning we were back on the road and at Maucale school, 30 mins outside Baucau by 10:00.\u00a0 Not to be outdone by the more remote Macalaco, Maucale village turned on a fabulous ceremony as well, with dances by children and adults which had obviously been practiced many times.\u00a0\u00a0 Our unanimous favourite was the village chief whose delight at the school and the occasion was unmissable – beaming through his speech and the rest of his day.\u00a0 His black suit and gleaming white slip on shoes several sizes too big were clearly his pride\u00a0and joy and it was obvious that he was\u00a0delighted to have somewhere to school\u00a0his children, but also to have something to celebrate in a life which is often desperate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kirsty is\u00a0revered and\u00a0treated like royalty – her presence in these villages is something that will be the\u00a0subject of village folk lore for generations.<\/p>\n

We all arrived back in Dili\u00a0on Thursday evening, dusty and weary but incredibly happy to have been part of helping these remote villages and to have shared their happiness and celebrations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With much pomp and ceremony and many hours of celebrations, Macalaco and Maucle schools are officially open! Early Wednesday morning, our \u00a0intrepid bunch of 11 donors and fund raisers\u00a0piled into rented 4WDs and \u00a0followed Kirsty Sword Gusmao’s car out of Dili.\u00a0 The road (the main one in the country) hugs the spectacular coastline and twists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spenditwell.com\/updates\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}