I decided I should do something cultural while I was Timor-Leste, so I visited the Timorese Resistance Archive and Museum. The name alone tells you it wasn't going to be a happy experience.

 

It turned out to be a small museum but it was packed full of information, including a detailed timeline of events over the last several hundred years. Before arriving in the country, I had read a brief overview of Timor's history, but it didn't prepare me for just how horrific the Indonesian invasion was (sadly with the help of the Australian and US governments). It is incomprehensible that a country had to live through these atrocities only a short number of decades ago, and how many people were killed or were listed as missing as a direct result on the invasion (estimates are about one third of the population died between 1975 and 1999).

 

One section I found particularly to difficult was watching a video of an Australian reporter broadcasting from Timor only two days before he and four other Australian journalists were killed by Indonesian forces. After the assistance they received from our country you would think they would be a little more friendly towards us. There was also footage of a massacre at the Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili that occurred only 31 years ago, where Indonesian soldiers killed hundreds of peaceful pro-independence demonstrators. It makes your wonder how anyone can be a part of something so horrendous.

 

Once I was out of the building of misery, I went dinner shopping in the most modern supermarket I've seen so far. I planned to make my usual noodle dinner in my apartment, but this time I added an extremely cheap packet of marinated tofu. It was by far the best tofu I have ever eaten in my life. It was so good I ended up eating half of it straight from the packet. Who knew Timor-Leste would be so vegan-friendly?