The President of Portugal visits Timor

The President of Portugal arrived in town today for a three-day visit. The President of Timor presented him with honorary citizenship for all the work he had done on behalf of Timor during his ten year in office (he’s about to step down from the post).

After lunch, I decided to visit the exclusive Hotel Timor to partake in some sweet offering and to savour the air-conditioned environment. On approaching the hotel, I noticed that the surrounding streets were blocked off with numerous police officers milling about, and assumed that the President of Portugal must be staying at the hotel and perhaps a special function was taking place. Inside the hotel, there were many Portuguese lounging about and only one small group of Aussies.

What is interesting about the expats who temporarily live here is the differences in where they work. The Portuguese and other Lusophones overwhelmingly work as advisors to the government and bureaucracy or they teach school teachers Portuguese; rarely do you see them working as volunteers at/or in NGOs. Australians on the other hand work as government and civil servant advisors, military and police trainers, volunteers and in NGOs.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)