Yesterday I took a trip into the mountains of Ainaro where I met with committee members of the Ainaro side of the Madison Ainaro Sister City Alliance (MASA). Although not all members were able to be present due to school, church, and other previous commitments, I was able to meet with:

(from left to right in the above photo)
-Filemeno de Silva, from the Division of Land and Property
-Sedonia de Jesus Liberto, Public Works Department Manager
-Manuel Ramos Pinto, the Ainaro District Development Officer
-Valentim Spinola Paixao Magno Soares, President of the Friendship City Committee (both MASA & the Ballarad, Australia-Ainaro Sister City Alliance)
-Komar Mendonca, an Agronomist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries
-Moises Batista Barros, the District Forestry Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries

Thanks to many donations to the Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project's 'holiday gift option', including a generous donation from MASA members in Madison, we were able to provide Ainaro with a donation of seeds valued at over $400.00USD. This donation was publicly received by Komar Mendonca, an Agronomist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who intends to pass the seeds on to several different groups for trials of new varieties of vegetables. In the coming months we will follow up with Sr. Mendonca to evaluate the successes of the seed trials and to determine what other training may be beneficial to the groups involved.

After a phone meeting last week with Madison leaders of MASA, Diane Farsetta and Eric Piotrowski, it was decided that at this meeting in Ainaro I would inform Ainaro members of MASA that Madison intends to bring a member of their community to Madison on a delegation this 2008 year, hopefully sometime between the months of June and August. Although it is now in the hands of the Ainaro Committee to decide who will serve to represent them in Madison, it was made clear that Madison hopes that someone who will serve as a long term contact and excellent communication liaison will be chosen. It was also recommended that someone with good English language skills be chosen so that they will be able to learn as much as possible from their experience in Madison as well as be able to share with their fellow sister city members while they are in Madison. It was further suggested that the chosen delegate be someone confident in speaking in front of others and that a woman be strongly considered for the position. I let the committee know that if they had any problems choosing the delegate for the trip, another option would be for them to narrow their choices down to 3 or 5 candidates. After that myself and fellow friend of Madison, Yohan York (founder of local theatre arts group, Bibi Bulak [Crazy Goat], who previously lived in Madison and who currently resides here in Dili) could then meet and interview the candidates and assist in choosing someone to send to Madison. The Ainaro committee was extremely pleased that Madison would like to send someone from Ainaro to Madison on a delegation thus further strengthening the Sister City relationship. They hope that this will be the beginning of a stronger and more direct relationship of friendship that may have further long term benefits to both cities.