{"id":2566,"date":"2011-03-31T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/?page_id=2566"},"modified":"2011-08-28T07:20:20","modified_gmt":"2011-08-28T11:20:20","slug":"ashley-chow-timor-leste","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/past-fellows\/2011-global-fellows\/ashley-chow-timor-leste\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Chow: Timor-Leste"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 28, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

The longer I stay in this country, the more I see how my life in America is an embarrassment of riches.\u00a0 Materially speaking and in terms of education.\u00a0 A single bookstore in America probably has more books (and quality books, for that matter) than the entire city of Dili.\u00a0 Students in the university don\u2019t have access to the internet or textbooks to study from.\u00a0 The classrooms have broken desks and whiteboards that have not been properly erased and cleaned in years.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, Timor has its own riches.\u00a0 The other day I spent the afternoon at the beach at low tide.\u00a0 Among the tidal pools I was delighted to encounter a world of life: sea urchins, starfish, salt water snails, hermit crabs, tiny fish, something that looked like a sea cucumber.\u00a0 I could have stayed there for hours if not for the burning heat of the sun.\u00a0 It\u2019s winter in Timor, so in the shade and at night time, the temperature actually feels quite cool and refreshing.\u00a0 Under the sun, it\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n

For the most part, I\u2019m still not completely comfortable in this country and still feel as though I\u2019m adapting to Timor life.\u00a0 The unremitting crows of roosters throughout the day have dissolved my childhood image of picture-book roosters that obediently crow once a day at dawn.\u00a0 The boars, stray dogs, and goats are not only ubiquitous but for some reason also pregnant.\u00a0 Thankfully the animals mind their own business and do not seem interested in approaching people.\u00a0 While driving along the road by the beach, the fresh ocean air gets regularly interrupted with the smell of burning trash.\u00a0 What else.\u00a0 This is a country without addresses, only districts and street names.\u00a0 The place where I\u2019m staying at is indicated by the first red gate down California Road.\u00a0 I visited the postal office in Dili, but am not sure how mail gets distributed around the city.<\/p>\n

I finally wrote my first poem here last week and hope that it is one of many more to come.<\/p>\n

August 1, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four days and four plane rides later, through Chicago, Seoul, and Bali, I finally arrived in Dili, Timor-Leste.\u00a0 I’ve been here for a little over a week now and feel very far from Boston.\u00a0 Probably the most familiar trace of Americana I’ve encountered are the pop songs playing in a cafe that I frequent.\u00a0 Other than that, I feel quite displaced here and have just been trying to absorb all of the unfamiliar: the clear sea water and soft sand beaches (this is no rocky New England coastline), coconut trees, bananas of varying species, including a red-skinned one, orange tap water, traffic anarchy on the roads.\u00a0 Timor-Leste’s status as one of the poorest countries in the world is apparent even in Dili, probably the most well-off area of the island.\u00a0 Almost all the Timorese children walk barefoot along streets littered with broken glass, rusted cans, and other debris.\u00a0 Goats, chickens, and stray dogs roam around and pick at trash piles for food.\u00a0 Electricity, internet, and running water flicker on and off or refuse to work at all.<\/p>\n

So far I’ve just been trying to take copious notes and observations that will hopefully be used for my poetry.\u00a0 I’m not sure how being in Timor will manifest in my writing, but I’m sure the poems that will come will be different than they have been this past year.<\/p>\n

Here is a photo of a beach in Dili, close to where I\u2019m staying.<\/p>\n

April 24, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

This summer through fall I’ll be in Timor-Leste to experience firsthand a post-conflict society and to speak directly with survivors of extremity. As I live in the capital Dili, I hope to talk with and learn from the Timorese people–political leaders, doctors, fishermen, teachers, writers, artists–anyone who is willing to share life experiences with me. I imagine these conversations will be eye-opening in profound and devastating ways for me, and as I grapple artistically with the realities I encounter, I hope to find inspiration for my own poetry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 28, 2011 The longer I stay in this country, the more I see how my life in America is an embarrassment of riches.\u00a0 Materially speaking and in terms of education.\u00a0 A single bookstore in America probably has more books (and quality books, for that matter) than the entire city of Dili.\u00a0 Students in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"parent":2511,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2566\/revisions\/2739"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}