4 Volunteers travel to the town of Atambua on the island of Timor where we spent a week. Our first project was about 2 hours outside of Atambua in Kefa where we visited local villages and distributed the clothing and shopping bags that had been donated in Jakarta and then shipped to Atambua. Our good friend, Father Ino, and local young volunteers helped to organize the programs. We had wonderful time together meeting people, distributing goods and spending time with the local people. We taught the children songs and conducted an exciting English class using flash cards that everyone enjoyed and participated in.

The next day we visited the Primavera pre-school in Atambua. This is the school that we helped to sponsor the building and has now been in operation for 10 years. We brought snacks and lunch for all the children and donated musical instruments for them to learn how to perform. We had fun together singing and learning English with Joe and the flash cards. Laurie also conducted a short hygiene class teaching the children the importance and practical sample of how to wash their hands.

The following day it was off to another local village area outside of Atambua with Sister Imelda. She organized over 300 women from the area to get together at the local school. We again sang songs and conducted an English activity which everyone really enjoyed. Then we distributed the donated clothing and shopping bags to each of the women. They were very happy to receive such good quality new clothing.

Our final program was at the prison in Atambua with the 262 residents. We had an exciting time sharing with them our life experiences and doing a drama (The Camel’s Nose) to illustrate how bad habits can slowly come in our lives and the importance of stopping them when they are small. We sang and danced together and provided a small gift package for each of one.