Assuncao, East Timor/Northern Ireland

My name is Assunçao Gonsalves and I am twenty-nine years old. I am from a small country, we call it East Timor. When I was in my country I was doing nothing, that’s why I came to Northern Ireland. I was coming here in 2006, January, 21st. I come here by myself with my brother. I’ve been living in Northern Ireland for nine years, nine or ten years. I choose Northern Ireland because I hear there’s a lot of opportunity to update my career and to work as well.

The object that I bring from my country is called a Tais, and Lafatik. It’s important for me because it’s a traditional object and I always bring to anywhere that I go. Tais, that means our traditional clothes. A couple hundred years ago the Portuguese invaded our country. We use this to protect our body, as clothes, we can call it as a trouser. The meaning, the function of Tais is, we can use it to give honor for a son-in-law from a brother-in-law, as you get engaged to somebody’s daughter. And you can write your name to give it as a present to someone. There’s a lot of functions of Tais.

The other item is Lafatik. We use Lafatik to clean the rice. Before it’s going to be rice, we call it seeds. We use the Lafatik to clean it. And that’s it.