A gift from South Korea

While the Australian Government purportedly lavished government officials with Prados (like we need more big-arse four-wheel drives on the road), the government of South Korea offered something entirely impractical but utterly inspirational – a ballet.

The Ewha Ballet Ensemble from the Dance Department of Ewha Womans  [sic] University performed two shows of almost two hours each.  Eighteen elfin dancers donned elegant costumes and, despite the heat, gave Timor-Leste’s school children and more Malae than organisers anticipated an artistic treat.

Timor-Leste is a predominantly Catholic country and so the program followed a definitely religious theme.  They started with the story of The Prodigal Son.  I quote from the program:  “This piece portrays how God forgives the greatest sins upon repentance just as a loving father receives back the son who returns in humility and repentance.”  The students loved it.

An interpretation of Amazing Grace followed by one of Spring in which “young women smiling gaily come forth to greet spring.  They walk on tiptoe in the warm sunlight, fluttering as though on wings, a flower basket tucked beneath one arm.”  Next came Pas de Quatre, “a plotless ballet in full Romantic style, the piece was created at a time when the ballerina was supreme and it brought together the four greatest ballerinas of the day.”  As beautiful as these were, the Timorese apparently preferred the story-based items with many students voting with their feet.

As I looked around the crowd though, there were two young men whose faces glowed with pure delight and perhaps wonder at the gracefulness of the woman that plied and minced across the dusty floor.  They held their phones aloft, recording every moment on the video cameras within.

The last item on the program was the story of Job.  Again the Timorese enjoyed having a plot – and probably one they know well.  As an encore performance the dancers interpreted Handle’s Messiah.  Though the dancing was finished, the dancers changed and returned for photographers with anyone and everyone who wished to join them . . . a number of grinning Timorese boys did.

Dili – Ex-pat fitness capital of the world

A warning to lovers of hamburgers, chips and chicken with eleven secret herbs and spices – Dili will not deliver for you.  Oddly enough though, for a city with no addresses, there are home delivery options.  Instead of giving a street name and a house number, you offer a landmark:  “It’s up the road passed the Cathedral, the house with the peace sign painted on the fence.”  Okay, I admittedly haven’t tested delivery to my new house yet.  It’s probably just easier to pick up.  However, I digress. 

The main reason that Dili is a no-go zone for junk-food-loving couch potatoes is that  it’s overflowing with fitness fanatics.  I would go so far as to assert that, Friday and Saturday night’s at Castaway and Dili Beach Hotel aside, fitness is the number one past-time of malae’s in Timor.  Let me give you a hint of what’s on offer.

There are Pilates classes almost every day and some days you can choose between three different time slots; over the week the location is varied too, so both ends of town are catered for.  On Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays there is yoga in the upstairs studio.   A different woman runs day-time yoga classes.

On Mondays and Wednesday evenings there is touch football at freedom field. Males and females are welcome just rock on up and you’ll be allocated to a team.  If you’re female and keen for an extended run, you’ll probably get one because there are ratios to adhere to and usually a dearth of women.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is boot camp.  This is not as bad as it sounds.  It’s been run by various people over the years – ex-pats tend to come and go.  On Tuesdays there are sprints and sit-ups and push-ups, as well as punching and kicking.  On Thursdays boot campers run up the 588 stairs at Christo Rei.

There is also a gym, though the opening hours may not suit, a Saturday walking group, a Saturday afternoon running group and of course the ad hoc activities organised by groups of friends – or soon to be friends united in their fitness pursuits.  For example, some friends walk the stairs at Christo Rei, on an almost religious basis (pun intended).  They start at 5:30am, walk up and down three times then head home for a shower and then work.  Others swim, though probably not at the moment; it’s wet season and a band of brown extends around the shore.  Others ride the Hera Loop, a distance, I’m told, of 25km of undulating landscape that hugs the coast before moving slightly inland.  In reality it’s a loop only in the sense that you start and end in Dili – though not at the same spots. 

In May there is the First Lady Cup, a 10km, 5km run / walk.  In June there is the Dili Marathon and then the pinnacle of human endurance in Timor – the Tour de Timor, a six-day bike race that some madly keen cyclists are already in training for. 

All in all, it’s not the place for sugar addicts . . . though I have to admit there are a couple of cake fridges around the place capable of providing rich rewards for calories burnt.