CookingTimor-Leste

Hetan osan dollar liuhosi
bosok boek ho botir plastik
‘Boek-boek-boek-boek!’
Lian sira hanesan ne’e mak ita rona wainhira
halo viajen liuhosi Ponte Loes – inan feton no
labarik sira hakilar atu atrai no hapara kareta
no motór sira hodi sosa sira nia boek fresku.
Mota Loes hanesan baliza entre Munísipiu
Liquíça no Bobonaro. Nia parte husi mota
ki’ik balun iha Timor-Leste ne’ebe suli hela
de’it durante tinan tomak hodi fornese
bee irigasaun ba natar no suporta mós
setór importante peskas inklui boek bee
moos nian.
Iha tempu beiala sira kedas, ema Timor oan
sira hatene ona oinsá atu ka’er boek no han
boek. Uluk, sira ka’er boek atu han no mós
hanesan sasán ne’ebe sira uza hodi troka
fali ho sasan seluk (barter). Iha tempu ne’eba
sira uza ekipamentus ne’ebe sira halo ho
liman husi material lokál sira. Tempu udan,
wainhira bee merak suli husi foho leten, feto
sira kaer boek uza nere no mane sira ba tiha
uza dai iha mota ninin, no iha bailoro sira
lamas de’it iha fatuk okos tanba bee moos.
Boek hanesan rekursu importante ida ba
rendimentu uma kain ruanulu resin ne’ebe
agora hela besik iha mota Loes. Mezmu
métodu tradisional mós dala ruma sei uza,
maibé ema barak liu mak agora ka’er boek ho
uza lasu botir plastik. Lasu ida ne’e sei halo
husi botir plastiku ne’ebe ko’a fahe ba rua.
Feto balun iha botir lasu ne’e bele 100 ka to’o
iha 200.
Making money by tricking
shrimp with plastic bottles
‘Boek-boek-boek-boek!’
This is the sound you hear when you travel
across the Loes River bridge – women and
children calling out to passing cars and
motorbikes to stop and buy their freshly
caught shrimp or boek in Tetun.
The Loes River forms the border between
Liquíça and Bobonaro municipalities. It is one
of the few rivers in Timor-Leste that flows
all year round, providing rice-field irrigation
and supporting important fisheries, including
freshwater shrimp.
Timorese people have known how to catch
and eat shrimp since before the time of our
great-grandparents. In the past, shrimp were
caught for food or barter, using hand-woven
equipment made from local materials. In the
wet season, when the river water was brown
with sediment from the mountains, women
scooped up shrimp in handheld nets (nere)
and men threw cast nets (dai) in the shallows.
In the dry season, people just used their
hands, feeling around underneath rocks in the
clear water.
Shrimp are an important source of income
for the 20 or so households that now live on
the banks of the Loes River. While traditional
methods are still sometimes used, most
people use plastic bottle traps to catch shrimp.
These traps are made from two cut-off water
bottles with one put inside the other. Some
women have 100 or 200 of these bottle traps.
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