Have You Ever Heard of East Timor?

With a population of 1 million and a GDP of $2 billion, my waitress from there wished me luck when she learned I was American.

Not many have ever been to, let alone heard of, Timor-Leste. It is a small island nation floating somewhere between “Indonesia and Australia.” That is how our waitress last night at a pleasant wine bar in Coimbra, Portugal, explained where it was located. She called it just “Timor,” though, and not Timor-Leste. That’s the official name.

Timor-Leste is the eastern part of Timor’s island, which used to be a Portuguese colony. It gained independence from Portugal and was then invaded by Indonesia. Then, in 2002, it fought to gain freedom from Indonesia (I may be wrong on some of these details because it’s so hard to find anything clear and accurate about this country). The million-plus population has since been living freely. The country’s GDP is just over $2 billion. Most people are farmers or rickshaw drivers, while others do whatever pays. Most people eat rice and whatever else they can get their hands on — sometimes chicken, sometimes pork. This unvaried approach to their diet is pretty much a daily occurrence.

Seeing the restaurant was empty, my wife and I sat down outside on a small, romantic sidestreet like the dozens that…