East Timor Notebook: You know how people always say that having children will change you?

26th June
Dili

You know how people always say that having children will change you?

Until Gabby, I’d always been dismissive of children. Not that I disliked them. Not at all. There have been plenty of occasions where I prefered the company of children to grown ups. I still remember what it was like, holing out in my bedroom, hoping not to have to entertain my parents’ guests. Seeing affluent foreigners in a country like Burma or Cambodia going all Angelina Jolie with the children had always made me cringe inwardly.

But things are remarkably, remarkably different now.

I see children suffering, little children who should have every chance as anyone to a decently life, suffering, my heart contracts painfully into a little fist, and I see Gabby’s sweet face on theirs, thinking of the impossible.

Oh Timor-Leste.
Maubere, maubere,
stand up, and let me stand with you.
Your wounds are the wounds of all humanity,
your hopes are too.

Maubere, maubere,
you sing without sorrow,
you dance without tears.

Remind us what it’s like
to love a people,
to dream a tomorrow.