迪利，东帝汶：东帝汶于周四（10月15日）开始为期三天的学校停课，原因是来自邻国印度尼西亚森林大火的浓雾飘至该国。在首都迪利，尽管天空呈黄色调，人们仍像往常一样外出，但大多数人佩戴了口罩，因为政府在宣布停课前一天就已建议如此。
DILI, Timor-Leste: Timor-Leste began a three-day school closure on Thursday (Oct 15) prompted by thick haze that has drifted over from raging forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia In the capital Dili, people were out as normal under a yellow-tinged sky, but most were wearing masks, as the government advised a day earlier in announcing the school closures. Residents welcomed the decision, although they said the pollution had been even worse earlier in the week.
居民欢迎这一决定，尽管他们表示本周早些时候污染情况更为严重。
"Recently, the pollution in Dili has been very severe," 30-year-old midwife Sonya da Costa Soares told AFP.
“最近，迪利的污染非常严重，”30岁的助产士索尼娅·达·科斯塔·索阿雷斯告诉法新社。“我们看不见太阳，污染很重，”她补充道。
"We can't see the sun, the pollution is heavy," she added. Though her child is still too young for school, she said the decision to keep students home was "very important so that children are not put in danger".
虽然她的孩子还太小，无法上学，但她说让学生留在家中的决定“非常重要，这样孩子就不会处于危险之中”。
Indonesia experiences forest fires regularly during its dry season, but this year the blazes have been especially severe because a strong El Nino has brought drought.
印度尼西亚在旱季期间经常发生森林大火，但今年由于强烈的厄尔尼诺现象导致干旱，火灾尤为严重。
The fires have burned through hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and plantations in Sumatra, Borneo and Papua, and caused air pollution to surge locally, as well as in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.
这些大火已烧毁苏门答腊、婆罗洲和巴布亚的数十万公顷森林和种植园，导致当地空气污染激增，同时也影响到马来西亚、新加坡、菲律宾和东帝汶。
Timor-Leste's government said on Wednesday it was necessary to close schools "to protect the health of students, teachers and other members of the educational community, given current air quality conditions".
东帝汶政府周三表示，鉴于当前空气质量状况，有必要关闭学校，“以保护学生、教师及其他教育社区成员的健康”。政府呼吁家庭让儿童留在室内，并建议公民外出时佩戴口罩。
It urged families to keep children indoors and advised citizens to wear masks if venturing out. Vitaliano da Costa Calapes, an 18-year-old student at St Ignatius Loyola College, said he was preparing for upcoming exams.
圣依纳爵·罗耀拉学院的18岁学生维塔利亚诺·达·科斯塔·卡拉佩斯表示，他正在为即将到来的考试做准备。
"We are staying at home, but we are continuing to study ...
“我们待在家里，但我们仍在继续学习……我们正面临期末考试，”他说。
We're facing our final exams," he said.
“我们相信，接下来的几天将没有污染，学校将恢复正常，这就是我们的期望，”他补充道。
"We believe in the coming days there will be no pollution and school will return to normal, that's what we hope," he added.
费利西达德·阿尔维斯·多斯·桑托斯·马丁斯的女儿费布里安蒂因初中停课而留在家中，她说本周早些时候污染情况更为严重。她说：“感觉就像火灾的烟雾笼罩了整个迪利和山脉。”“这种污染非常危险，会让我们生病。”
Felicidade Alves dos Santos Martins, whose daugher Febrianti was home from middle school, said the pollution had been even worse earlier in the week. "It felt like smoke from fires was covering all of Dili and the mountains," she said. "This pollution is very dangerous, it can make us sick."