It was hard to spot Mrio Viegas Carrascalo's house from the main road. To reach it, guests must take a dusty dirt road overgrown with cogongrass for around 200 meters.

The house's garden is decorated with a wide variety of plants. "I'm a forestry engineer," Mario said, laughing. Next door are the homes of two of his three children. One of them, Sonia, is still an Indonesian national. The others are citizens of Timor-Leste.

Mario, 76, is enjoying a relat