I’m living in a zoo

I was woken this morning not by the usual sounds of the bloody “manu aman” (roosters), but to the sounds of a squealing “bibi” (goat). Have you ever heard a goat squeal? It seriously sounds like a child and initially that’s what I thought it was. Upon peering through the venetian blinds of one of the windows in our bedroom, I saw the following scene: Senyor Raphael on his motorbike and Joel his 16 year old son standing over a “bibi” with its legs tied together. Joel was trying to pick the “bibi” up and place it on the motorcycle! No wonder the poor creature was screaming like a child. Eventually, Joel was successful, and he and Senyor rode off with the “bibi’ upside down between them, legs tied stuck in the air. Where were they going with the “bibi” I wondered?

I may be living in the capital of a small South East Asian island nation, but with a mere population of 160,000 and a predominantly traditional, subsistence farming life, even the city can feel like a small village or, a zoo.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)