during my 3 days away in Los Palos i asked people if they knew why the district was named as such. In old spanish (according to a colleague), it means 'the trees'. My explanation is that since LP has so much flat land, its name originated from people saying 'los ba los' (straight, go straight).... but a local said it might be because in Fatuluku, Los Pala means farmer..... It was my first time to LP and i was indeed blown away by the expanse of flat lands that reminded me a little of the plains in Tibet... especially with the cows dotting the plains... (except in tibet, it was the yaks). the cowboys herding the cows across and the lazy water buffaloes chilling out in water holes... i saw a colleague's father's house plonk right in the middle of a field like a house on a prairie... ah.... KAPAAS!
we took a small dirt road to a health centre in mehara and the view was really stunning along the way. on our right, was a long chain of mountains, capped with mist, and in front of it, the lake that's said to be a proposed site for electricity in the future. We passed by a small village called Sabaleta (according to the driver) and he said there was an old man (katuas) who once hid Xanana in a basket and piled lots of kang kong and aifarina leaves on top and carried Xanana to safety, even when he was stopped by the indonesian troops. Apparently this katuas is still living in the village! Unfortunately we didn't have the time to stop to visit this old man....
Along the way too, we saw many bibi malaes, especially in Laga... i never noticed these bibi malaes until the driver pointed them out. they are actually sheep! not goats. the bibi timor are the goats, while bibi malaes are sheep with very little wool.. the locals joked that the bibi malaes 'beik teen' (so stupid) because they don't know how to get out of the way of cars while bibi timor will run away.. but they also said that because bibi timor have horns and fight a lot, they are like timorese - very violent and love fighting while the malaes are stupider but peace loving (**Guffaw***) .... also, karau indonesia (cows) are red.... and fahi (pig) macau are supposedly gigantic.. i saw one that had huge huge ears but the timorese family i stay with say they can be as tall as a small adult timorese! i can't believe it and if i do, i will definitely snap a picture as evidence!
Ok, mak ne'e deit... now, i'm so busy clearing up my backlog of work after being away for 3 days only...............help...............
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