Bonne voyage Benjamin!

I met Benjamin shortly after my arrival in Timor. One always remembers so well when certain person arrives to ones life. I remember the conversation by the pool about the affinities of Europeans and how we felt Europeans more than French and Portuguese, though he had lived most of is life in Canada. We chattered using several languages, but always ended up in English with our foreigner accents. When we called each other it always started with: - Comment ça vá?” three more sentences in french and my vocabulary somehow turned to English. He was pleased by my effort to speak in French and I very upset for forgetting everything that I had learned.
Benjamin is a teaser; he always says something bombastic and run. He often mocked the Portuguese and the colonialist way. And we could see there was nothing of disrespectful or offensive. We teased, laughed, danced, sang, and prized the value of life and nature, hugged ...in the end we had a magnificent time! We were four foreigners in another people’s land. People come and go but can never be replaced.

Benjamin left Timor with no intention to come back! Benjamin is one the faces that belongs in my life here in Timor. I miss him already.