Adam was a white man?

This week I read a class of 10 year olds my book, Mundu Ne'ebe Maromak Halo. They were very interested, but it wasn't until we got to this page that the real discussions took place:

"Wasn't Adam a white man?" asked one of the children. "It doesn't say in the Bible that he was a white man," I replied, "or black." They needed a moment to digest this and I went on to explain that the Bible doesn't tell us what Adam looked like at all. What the Bible does tell us is that from Adam and Eve came all the peoples of the world.

And then one of the children had an "Aha! moment" - those moments that every teacher knows is the reason they love being a teacher:

"That means we are all related!".

And the little pale skinned boy with freckles looked at his dark-skinned friend and grinned.

We are all related. Oh yes, we are!!

Tetun for beginners #3

A note to explain the title of the second book:

Mundu is world. You can see the Portugese influence here, can't you?

Ne'ebé is which. The pronoun ne'e is that, this or it.

Maromak is the Tetun word for God.

Halo is the verb to make. Tetun is easy, my teacher told me. Verbs never change form. After struggling with the French language for years as a teenager, I must agree that verbs that stay right where they are certainly is a blessing!

Book #2 - Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo

God made the world. The children look around them and everything that they can see has been made by God. Grandmother tells them the story of creation....

This is my second book - Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo – or The World that God made. It represents a dramatically steep learning curve for me, because I decided to publish this book 'properly'. I had to learn what it means to become a publisher. I had to learn all about ISBNs and how to use them. I needed to know the legal requirements for published matter and I had to learn to talk to printers. By the grace of God, the cheapest quote I had was from a local man who had a vast deal of experience in printing for Timor Leste and could advise me on many aspects of the job, including choosing suitable paper.

I decided to print under the imprint Grasa Mesak, which I have already translated for you here. The print run was very small, just 500 copies, but was funded exclusively by a very special group of people: the tiny congregation of Seaford Presbyterian Church. Their support was invaluable!

God made the birds and fish.....

The book was translated by Samuel Marcal, the man who translated the first of my books. It concludes with a Tetun translation of Psalm 8. The illustrations were done entirely on my computer using Corel Painter - a program that imitates artist's media and methods. It was tremendous fun but took a lot of hard work.

I was very blessed in that I was able to take the entire print run to Timor myself, thanks to the generousity of friends and family. It was wonderful to be able to meet some of the people to whom I had only previously communicated by email. I also met some very friendly children who patiently talked with me, despite my slow and awkward Tetun. It was much harder to understand the adults, who spoke too fast, but in Timor, so many people will respond to the minimal amount of dialogue. Everywhere I went, people would smile and respond to 'Bondia!'

In Dili, I handed out copies of the books to children in Sunday School. In Liquica, a young boy delighted me by reading my book to me in Tetun. In Gleno Town, a group of little boys were itching to peek into the box I brought.....full of books.

A girl in Dili reads her new book

Boys in Gleno Town examining
'Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo'