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St. Angela's Ursuline SS, Waterford linked with........
........Saint Joseph's School, Balide, Dili
Balide school, right next to Santa Cruz cemetery and just outside Dili, was the first school approached during Oran's second visit to East Timor. It's a senior high school (SMA) which means it teaches the equivalent of 4th, 5th and 6th years. It has 350 students, but 80 are still missing and spread around Indonesian West Timor. Two refugee families still live on the school grounds. It's a private school considered one of the best schools in East Timor, but they aren't too strict about fees these days. Its students wrote letters to Ireland in English unlike nearly all the other schools.It was also one of the few shelters for Timorese during the September troubles. On the day of the result, the 4th of September, they had 5,000 refugees on the grounds. There were no direct attacks on them, but plenty of intimidation. The Indonesian priests who chose to stay on through out the violence are respected by all, especially since they hid many Timorese who were too scared to leave the school. The principal Fr. Joseph Ageng Marwatas said that in the early days of the returns from Indonesian West Timor he waited at Dili port and his robe grew dirty from Timorese hugging and kissing him.
Pictured above: A student receives her letter from Ireland from Father Eduard
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