Hey, I’m Maacah! And I will be your host.

I am half-Timorese and half-Australian. Being half-Timorese, you’d think I’d spent my years traveling to and from Timor to visit family. You’d think I’d be fluent in Tetum, right? Quite the opposite!

On my first trip to Timor, I was 27. I didn’t know anyone in the country. I came alone, I was scared, and I thought it might be dangerous. Family in Australia were asking me, “Are you sure you want to go? And alone?” I guess they didn’t know any better than to assume it was still a dangerous country riddled with the violence and civil unrest it had experienced in the past. However, Timor-Leste has been completely at peace since 2008. I took the leap anyway, and the only thing I regret about that trip was that I didn't take it many years earlier.

My Timorese father passed away in 2023. He never came back to Timor, and he never wanted to. He suffered from severe PTSD from his young adult life in the capital city of Dili, which experienced heavy civil unrest and the pending Indonesian invasion. He was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape. Fortunately, he had good connections through his workplace at Dili’s only hotel at the time, Hotel Tourismo. He got out, but he had to leave his family behind, eventually losing contact with them during the 24-year Indonesian occupation, a time when the Indonesian military made it practically impossible to get mail into or out of the country.

In April this year, by pure coincidence, I was reunited with that same family he had to leave behind over 50 years ago. Although only two people still alive in the family had actually met my father (his godmother and his godfather’s brother), they have ALL—and I mean ALL (I have more than 50 new cousins!) have welcomed me in like one of their own.

My Dad sacrificed so much to give me the life I have been given. Coming back to Timor without him has been incredibly hard. But since being here, my life’s purpose has completely shifted. I am meant to be here, with these people, on this land, and I am meant to do what I can to look after this country.

Hosting scuba diving trips is just the beginning. Like many people, I suffer from imposter syndrome. But somehow, with this trip hosting idea, I feel fully qualified to build from the ground up! Qualified? I've never felt that before! I mean, I’m not a professional scuba diver yet, but I can for sure bring people here to learn about and see this beautiful country. I learned to scuba dive on Ataúro Island, and paired with the local hospitality and warmth, it was just a purely magical experience. I immediately thought, I want to let my friends know about this.

So, I’m just going with it and we’ll see what is next for this business in the future! Let’s start here. It’s a small way to build up tourism exports in this country, support the locals, protect the reefs, and share this beautiful country with the rest of the world!