Raj and Lois in Timor

 If you're jogging along a pavement... and you violently slap a passerby's hand away because you thought  his hand was coming a bit too close to your hip at midswing... and you turn back midstride to see instead a rather decent and shocked-looking gentleman looking astounded at you... In such a situation, do you say " Lisensa!" (Excuse me) or  " Deskulpa!"  (Sorry)? I said both. And jogged away rapidly. 

This is how long it takes to bury your firstborn, your baby. Not included: An hour or so to mound a pile of cement powder, a little further away from the spot, and slosh water into it. Mix it well. Ave Maria, grasa barak liu iha ita boot. Maromak ho ita boot. Ita boot diak liu feto hotu-hotu. Ita boot nia oan Jesus diak liu. Santa Maria, Maromak nia Inan, harohan ba Nai Maromak tanba ami ata salan, oras nee ho oras nebe ami ata besik atu mate. A morning and a night to consider the spot in the family cemetery, the lush green hills framed in boughs heavy with ivory belladonna. To dig the child-sized hole... four feet, not six. To line it with cement, smoothing the edges down like a bedspread. Two days to greet the guests, feed the guests, change the flowers, accept the wreaths. Show them to the little coffin in the hallway. One night, the longest night, of watching the struggle to breathe, struggle to feed, the rosy skin mottling, fingertips chilling, slipping out of reach of a kangaroo ...

We're in the middle of a blissful 4 day holiday (All Soul's Day); the time has been spent moving into a new apartment (new to us; a few doors down in the serviced apartment block that has been our home since leaving quarantine); we have been mostly looking at trays, many trays; trays of trays; shelving units, and cutlery. I have an oven now! We have been visiting various churches and it has been refreshing to experience different communities within a common bond of fellowship. As we sat in a service today running in what we call "Tetun Speed 15" (I find 4-5 comfortable, 7-8 briskly challenging- TV/radio speed- and 10 impossible to follow), I reflected that to the Timorese colleagues we seek to train, we must sound as incomprehensible. I considered that I need to practise speaking slowly and dial my speech speed way down, consistently. We went out today with the few team members who remained in Dili over the long weekend. We talked over live music, black sand drying be...