10. ANEXOS
10.1. ANEXO 1 Plan de protección de las microcuencas Maguazo y Bocatoma como
5.16.1 Context
Several of the students organised a dinner to farewell us and invited all the students to attend. It had been a busy week for the students with three days spent involved in their assessment and focus groups and interviews for my research. One of the organisers of the dinner had said he would collect us from the Hotel Dili at 6.30pm.
5.16.2 Anecdote
We hug the edge of the road as we travel through the rain along the coast to a
restaurant east of central Dili. A single windscreen wiper works laboriously through the driving rain providing little relief from the distorted, watery view of the road. The sun sets abruptly, as it does in the tropics, and light is dim. I find it hard to define any beam from the headlights of our car. He drives slowly, cautiously, occasionally avoiding potholes with a swift pull on the steering wheel. Oncoming cars are throwing up arcs of water onto our already watery windscreen. I speculate how far we still have to travel, fearing each swerve of a pothole and each curve of the road. The car moves slowly but still I feel vulnerable to injury. My thoughts wander to the relative protection of the street
lighting and bitumen roads in Australia and again I am reminded of how much I take for granted.
We reach our destination and rush in, out of the rain. We enter a large open space with plastic chairs and tables. The roof is supported by wooden pillars. There are no walls. I recognise it as the restaurant I visited with my colleagues on my first trip to TL. I know we are facing a beach. I listen for the gentle lap of the waves and I’m not disappointed. Three or four roaming cats and dogs lurk in the background. I recognise a group of three students and a stranger waiting for us at a table. We are introduced to a smiling nun who has accompanied my student from Baucau. She greets us easily in English. Food is brought to our table like magic. Plates of calamari, lettuce, a large whole
cooked fish, rice, chicken and chips, a dark green cooked leafy vegetable. Lots of garlic. Lots of chilli. There is enough food for at least fifteen people. Four students, one friend from Baucau and my colleague and I eat our way through as much as we can. We share a bottle of wine. There is urgent chatter in Tetun at different periods throughout the evening. I wonder why some students have not joined us. Perhaps this farewell is not important to them. Those who are here at the restaurant with us have done us great honour. We are presented with gifts. I hug them. They are shy. Goodbye.
Our journey back to the hotel is easier. The rain has stopped. We hug the ragged edge of the bitumen. There are no street lights. We thank the student who has given us this gift tonight. Tomorrow at 5.30am we will awaken and at 6am be driven to the airport by a hotel staff member. Our plane departs at 8am for Darwin.
The next morning a hotel driver transports us to the airport.
As we enter the airport building a beaming face appears before us. It is a student who had been with us at dinner. I had not expected any of the students at the airport for such an early take off. As we move through customs two of the female students who had not attended the dinner appear at our side, big smiles on their faces. They
apologise for not being at the dinner. The rain had prevented them attending. They both present us with gifts. One of them introduces her boyfriend. I glimpse more about this student during this introduction than I have during our twelve month relationship. She is petite and quiet. I feel happy for her. The boyfriend is studying medicine in South America. Somehow her connection with this aspiring young man explains her determination in her own work.
We board the plane and settle ourselves. I have time to think. Heavy rain prevented these students attending the dinner. The public transport I have witnessed in Dili consists of minibuses stopping anywhere along the main road as they are hailed. People hang out windows and doors of these vehicles and grab onto railings on the roof when the bus is overflowing. The service is not consistent or reliable. To own a car is a luxury. The student who drove us to and from the dinner must have been very proud to collect us in his car. I recall the one windscreen wiper that did not clear the windscreen
of water and the weak beam of the headlight. I also recall being told that although there are now many cars in Dili, obtaining spare parts is almost impossible. To have been driven in a privately owned car is a privilege. Life in Dili is what it is! I leave it behind as the plane lifts off the tarmac. As we climb, the coastline of TL is revealed in all its splendour of tropical vegetation and beautiful clear waters. The trauma and triumph within is hidden from view but is carried with me as I return to my disparate world of trauma and triumph. I am changed by my experience – more tolerant, wiser about what constitutes triumph, admiring. My work is not over – this story needs to be told.
5.16.3 Emotional response
Leaving was hard, but it was not. Each world is germane, both theirs and mine. There is a place for both. Moving between the two used to cause me discomfort. Now I am full of wonder. This work with the students from TL I rate amongst my greatest teaching accomplishments. I will enter student results and write my report. I have done my job. I am tired. My family needs me to return with commitment to them.
5.16.4 Reflexivity and strategies developed
During my time teaching the Timorese students I have had to question my underlying
assumptions on numerous occasions as outlined in these vignettes. When I instigated the walk and talk activity I was terrified that I had opened memories I had no right to rouse. I did not know how to handle what I perceived as intensity of experience so terrifying it could hardly bear to be recalled. I had to question why I believed the Timorese should sweep these memories ‘under the carpet’ as I had been encouraged to do as a child. In later vignettes I demonstrate how I learnt of a world where dealing with these memories can lead to a forgiveness that allows us to leave the past behind, to move forward without hate or fear. This experience has been transformational for me.
5.16.5 Conclusive comments on layered account
Learning to understand the ‘other’ requires patience and endurance, understanding and questioning, experimenting and innovation. The Timorese demonstrated these qualities beautifully. I thank them for what they have taught me.
The following chapter will expand the reader’s understanding of the development of the teacher/student relationship by revealing how the students developed their own strategies for dealing with the difference they experienced.