We’ve had a lot of people asking us: when’s the 2013 Dili Marathon?!

Well the date has just been released, so get your running socks ready, your ticket to East Timor booked and your countdown training calendar set because…..

If you’d like to know what you can expect on the day (including tips), read our post here.

Online registrations for the Dili Marathon open at 12pm this Friday, 5th April. Check out their website for more information.

Easter is a special time in East Timor. Two words to sum it up would be, theatrical and reverent. You can read my experience of a Good Friday church service here. When my Mum came to visit me in Timor, her trip also coincided with Easter, you can read what her experience was like here.

Now another Easter has swung around, and if you're like me, you're probably thinking about what chocolate eggs you're going to buy your loved ones.

I love chocolate, but do we really need to eat any more?

What if, you could give a gift of a different kind, that had an even sweeter reward than chocolate.

Well you can, Oxfam is currently taking donations to eliminate malnutrition in East Timor. They are also a sponsor of this site, and we couldn't be happier to advertise their great work here on Unofficial East Timor (see below).

This is a guest post written by the three manas! But before we begin, I bet you're wondering, what does "manas" mean? Mana is a Tetum term of respect meaning sister (older). Tetum is the language of East Timor. During their visit to Knua ba Labarik (an early childhood centre in Timor) Lester they became known as "The Manas".

Last week 1500 women, men, girls and boys gathered for breakfast at the Brisbane Convention Centre to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD) . On IWD each year people gather across the globe to, 

Have you recently moved to East Timor?

Would you describe yourself as outgoing and fun?

Are you aged under 45?

Do you own or rent property in Timor?

Do ya wanna be on TV?

If you answered YES to all of the above, House Hunters International WANTS YOU!

More about the show: House Hunters International is a half-hour TV show which currently airs on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV) in America. The series is designed to de-mystify the international home-buying / renting process, by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where expats tour around 3 homes. At its core, House Hunters International is a travel show concentrating on the idiosyncrasies of the locales and what makes them special and different.

If you are interested in this opportunity, let us know and we will pass on your details to the producer.

Picture of the hut from: freedigitalphotos.net

What do you get when 10 Canberrans go to Timor-Leste?

Well, you get a whole damn BOOK!

And this week we are talking with Barry Brown from the Canberra Friends of Dili group about their new book which follows the adventures of, yep you guessed it, ten Canberrans in Timor-Leste!

Enter Barry.

This year we are going to feature more of the incredible work happening in East Timor. It's going to be an extension of our already popular question and answer posts (qanda's).These spots will be scheduled and they are limited and we won't be able to feature everyone so email us now to lock something in!

Send your feature request (one paragraph) to: jasonandzena@unofficialeasttimor.com

We look forward to hearing from about what you are up to in 2013! And if you know someone who would be interested in this offer, please pass this link on.

This holiday season support Timor! It's not too late to still get last minute presents through the post.

Oxfam, Organic Coffee
East Timor Women Australia, Raspberry Neptune Ethical-Trade Coffee
Friends of Aileu, East Timor Coffee

East Timor Women Australia, various (earrings, bracelets, tais and boneca dolls)
Rotary Club of Kew, soap
Every Village, various (earrings, bags and dolls)

Union Aid Abroad APHEDA, Literacy training for women in Timor
Alola, Scholarship Gift Certificates
Oxfam, Farmer Education

Lian Husi Klamar, Ros Dunlop
East Timor: The Road to Recovery, Ted McDonnell

ETAN - East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, Books, videos and Tetun learning materials

In the comments field below. Include:

• Website Address
• What you sell

There’s a lot of stuff that get’s written by academics about Timor-Leste and although I am sure this is an important way to document Timorese culture, I do question where it all ends up and whether anyone actually reads it.

This is certainly not the case with Ros Dunlop’s incredible new book, Lian Husi Klamar: Musika Tradisional Husi Timor-Leste (Sounds of the Soul: The Traditional Music of East Timor). The book, which has taken Ros ten years to create, is set to become a lasting and valuable resource on the traditional music of East Timor. And it’s more than just a book. Lian Husi Klamar comes with an accompanying CD and DVD with recordings of traditional music and performances.

Here are our top five tourist attractions for Dili, the capital of East Timor.

Located at the eastern end of Dili is the 27 meter tall statue of Jesus, Cristo Rei de Dili (Christ the King of Dili). It was modeled on Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer. The statue was opened by President Soeharto in 1996 and was given to the East Timorese people as a present to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s integration with Indonesia. Now expats and locals flock to the statue in the early morning and evening for exercise. You too can pound (or walk) up the steps to get to the top of the statue. The view of the ocean and Dili’s harbour from the top is spectacular and you shouldn’t miss it.

Getting there: Head East on the coastal road, just keep driving until you get to it, you can't miss it! See it on a map.

Okay, so not technically in Dili, but the Dare Memorial cafe does give you beautiful sweeping views of Dili, and that's one of the reasons why it's been included in this list. The site is a memorial to the Australian and East Timorese's who fought together against the Japanese occupation of East Timor during World War II. At the cafe you can watch a short and interesting documentary about the memorial and enjoy a serve of their yummy toasties with a piping hot cup of East Timorese coffee. Don’t forget your mosquito spray, there are some big ones flying around up there.

Getting there: The Dare Memorial Cafe is just a ten minute drive from Dili, see this map. Alternatively a lot of people choose to hike up there. It's only open on the weekends from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. Visit their website for more info.

It's a strange question, but it's exactly what you'll be saying when your time in East Timor has come to an end and you're madly dashing around trying to find the perfect gifts for friends and family back home.

Tais are a traditional woven cloth made by women in East Timor. They are used in traditional ceremonies      (marriage ceremonies, funerals and dowry ceremonies) where they are worn as clothing/costume or used as units of exchange. They are elaborated designed and often contain traditional imagery, and symbolic patterns and colours.