2/12/09 East Timor
I’m still scanning and archiving and editing old photos. It’s turned into a larger task than I expected. These images are from an operation in East Timor back in 2002 when I was in the Marines. It’s strange looking at them, they don’t feel like pictures from 7 years ago but pictures from a past life altogether. East Timor was both exotic and barren, my brief time there made for some of my best memories while in the Corps. We traveled to several different villages, some in better shape than others. Many people we came across appeared to be incredibly peaceful despite the fact they struggled to survive. It was an experience that altered my view of both modern and Western culture. You spend your whole life taking certain things for granted, and you hear about how worse it is for some. Then the Marine Corps slaps you around a bit and you wake the fuck up, but in the end you’re still an American with a sense of security. Destitution doesn’t really sink in until you’re standing next to the people that are stuck in it. And I’m sure you can’t truly understand it until you become it.
I felt like an alien in East Timor. The security team that I was a part of was there to protect a team of doctors that was giving much needed care to the people in the villages. The team and I were geared up in case some shit went down, which was unlikely. I remember walking a patrol though the village, a lot of the structures were partially made from palm tree leaves and looked like they could just blow away. A young boy, maybe 4 or 5 turned a corner in front of us, like he probably had a thousand times before we ever showed up. But there we were, a couple of American 19 year-olds in camouflage uniforms, ammunition strapped to our bodies, throat mics around our necks, assault rifles in hand. The boy froze like Satan him-fucking-self just burst from hell spewing the souls of his dead ancestors. Poor kid just burst into tears, turned the other way and ran for his life. I remember, before laughing it off with my fellow Marines, feeling like I did something terrible without even wanting to. Later on I attempted a good deed by handing chocolate out to some of the kids. By the time I gave it to them, It had melted in the wrappers from the heat. It literally felt like I was handing them shit. I eventually scared another kid into tears without trying and made some of the elders really nervous. It felt like no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t do any good for those people. But, when I left that island I felt like I had received one of the greatest gifts of my life.
This entry was written by , posted on February 13, 2009 at 1:45 am, filed under Personal, Politics, Travels and tagged 2002, East Timor, Humanitarian Aid, Island, Marine Corps, Military, USMC. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.