This web site provides a record of the University of Notre Dame Australia East Timor Project managed by the Edmund Rice Centre. The Edmund Rice Centre is now independent of the University of Notre Dame and this project is no longer collecting donations. For current information see the Bakhita Project.

My most challenging experience was the climb up Mount Ramelau, someone forgot to tell me beforehand exactly how high the mountain is. We were told that it was a four hour hike, originally I thought it was four hours return and was rather dubious when I found it was four hours each way but I really wanted to try. I also figured that if I made it then that would be my greatest challenge and after that I could handle anything. Mount Ramelau is a sacred mountain to the people, it is the highest mountain in East Timor and we were invited to climb it, have mass on it and sleep in the elements. As it turned out the mountain is 3,000 metres high, higher than any mountain in Australia.

I, of course, was the most unfit in the group so the slowest. I tried my hardest and pushed my body to the absolute limit but had to stop three hours into the climb after a particularly tough part. I had to be realistic and I was suffering from the altitude, my breathing sounded terrible and my heart was racing.

I told our leader that I couldn't go on, he offered to come back down the mountain with me but I didn't want him to do that, it was too important to him. I was assigned two young East Timorese men to take me back to where we had parked the trucks, in a tiny village with about six huts. The young men didn't speak English and I didn't speak Tetum so that was a very interesting experience too. I was a little scared entrusting my life to two total strangers but I was in safe hands, I didn't know until later that Father Domingus of Letefoho instructed our escorts to accompany us and keep us safe.

The failure to reach the summit of the mountain led to what I consider the best experience of my trip. When we reached the little village I tried communicating with the two young men and luckily someone had given me a phrase book so I used that and it was very helpful. I was obviously a novelty to the locals who kept looking at me, I doubt that they would see many white people in such a remote place. I was set to sleep in the truck for the night when I was invited by one of the families to sleep in their hut. I was very honoured and took my sleeping gear to the hut.

The hut consisted of bamboo walls, grass roof and dirt floor and was sectioned off. It was dark and the only light was from a very small primitive kerosene light. I sat with the men around a table and the women were off to one side. The table had a tablecloth on it and the chairs are plastic, just like our garden chairs. A meal had been prepared which I guessed was chick peas and plates and cutlery bought out. I was invited to serve myself first which is customary and then the men. We ate and when we were finished the saucepan was taken away along with the dishes and the women and children ate in what must have been the kitchen. All cooking is done in the hut. I tried to communicate but that wasn't very successful and later went to bed. The group talked for a while and besides myself and my two helpers the brother of the man of the house and another male were guests for dinner.

As the young men with me had no warm clothes and no bedding I lent them my jacket and let them sleep in the truck, it was a cold night. The night was an experience as the couple in the hut have four young children and two woke several times during the night and the smoke wafted through the hut. They also have a pig living in the house and it snorted on and off all night. I felt very privileged though and it was an experience no-one else in our group had. I was given the use of a double bed which I guessed belonged to the couple. In the morning I put my gear in the truck and wandered around and was shown where we could wash, some distance away is a little waterway. The children wear little if any clothing, they are cute though and I asked for the soccer ball that I had seen the night before in sign language and I played for about an hour with a group of children catching the ball.

After the rest of the group arrived back down the mountain and before we left in the trucks I thanked the man of the hut where I stayed for his hospitality.

Helena Kristel