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Published: September 24th 2005
Early morning again, and this time I finally manage to oversleep and thus have to hurry outside to the car. Soon we are on the way to Maliana. The main road follows the coast, snaking around ridges and mountains and offering some great views. The hills and mountains are dry and dusty, their colours mainly orange and brown, scattered with pale trees. There is a good lookout point not far from Dili from where you can occasionally see dolphins play in the shallows beneath. Some parts of the road was constructed by the Japanese during the occupation years and is generally in good condition although it can easily inspire to motion sickness. The route is mainly travelled by larger buses, some mikrolets and the occasional car. Except of course for when the road passes through one of many small communities, when it becomes the home to pigs, dogs, chicken, cows, cats, ducks, donkeys, goats and buffalos. Today is also market day and some of the communities are absolutely swamped with villagers busy doing their trade.
Every now and then the road passes over dry riverbeds, some of them imposingly wide. Common to all of them is that there is a
faint trickle or no water at all passing under the massive steel bridges which were erected during the Indonesian days. Thinking about the rainy season when the rivers will be rushing down the mountain side towards the ocean I perfectly understand the challenges of travelling these roads during that time. Another indicator to the harsh traffic conditions are the handful of diminutive crosses and makeshift memorials that appear at what I presume to be traffic accident sites. At one point we pass by what appears to be a school house and parked in front of it is the remains of a Colt bus that has had its roof completely smashed into the rest of the body. Our journey is a peaceful one though, the only encounters with the afterlife come as we pass by houses where a family member has passed away. The family will put a vase of flowers or a small pile of rocks in the middle of the road to make cars slow down in a sign of respect as they pass by.
The route to Maliana takes us through Aipelo, Maubara, Atabae, through the border town of Batugade and back inland through Balibo until finally
Fantastic colours!
This hill is a good place to spot dolphins muck about.reaching Maliana. The little town itself is beautifully situated on the slopes of and in the bottom of a valley under towering mountains. However, the concentration of ruined buildings is also much higher here than in Dili. The town centre is not much more than the focal point of three roads converging on a small roundabout with a monument in the middle. The road from the north is lined with residential houses and rice fields, some government buildings and a church. Its extension to the south immediately goes up a slope to a network of smaller roads where houses are dotting the mountainside. The main town cemetery can be found up here. The third road finally goes eastward past the soccer field, the marketplace, some shops and some small hotels and restaurants. Well actually, maybe a more proper description is places where you can rent a bed, and places where you can get a meal.
We arrive at the home of Manuella's family and stay for lunch. Billy and Manuella have come to Maliana to participate in a ceremony marking three months of the passing away of a family member, and relatives from the close family have come to
pay respect at the cemetery. This ceremony is decidedly smaller than the funeral, but the close family in this case still appears to number around 25 people. Everyone will be wearing at least something black for a full year as a sign of respect. While they go to the cemetery I am cruising around town on my own for some sightseeing. It is late afternoon, and judging from all the children having a bath in the canals it is obviously mandi time. Many houses, regardless of their size or state appear to have access to some sort of running water, mainly in the form of dug canals. I decide to go to the rice fields to take some snaps before the sun comes down. Whereever you go you will find little purple stains on the sidewalk. These are the colourful remains of spit out betelnut, the chewing of which seems to be quite a popular pastime here.
Walking down the road will turn a head or two. Many will greet you with the proper phrase of the hour, which is an excellent way to practice some tetum. The staple topics in use in Indonesia seem to work just as
well here. Hello, what is your name friend, where are you going? A little girl is very happy to learn to connect the mister to my name, running around among the houses shouting "Misterjohan! Misterjohan!" and laughing hysterically. Soon more voices join in, it is quite surreal.
As the sun has set I know I should head back downtown to find the house before it goes dark, because there are no lamp posts anywhere and the roads will turn pitch black. Good thing then that I have the geography worked out beforehand, otherwise it would be too dark even to find someone to ask for directions. When I reach the market it is so dark I cannot see anything in front of me, and I am beginning to wonder how I will find the proper way back. Luckily Billy and Manuella have just come back and gone to the market to buy some foods, where we bump into each other. We return to our respective homes for dinner and some rest. Once again I get some good opportunities to study the local wildlife up close. The now familiar small lizards are running around on the walls, and I can
see some brave not-so-stealthy mice running right across the room. The generator goes off around ten and everything becomes very peaceful. Even though it is quite hot I sleep like a brick.
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greennoise
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nice pix
love your work, really interesting.