Earlier this week myself along with members of Fundasaun Hari'i Au Metan (FHAM-Foundation to Raise up the Black Bamboo, a local Timorese NGO who sponsors the Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project), Hector Hill, Merita Alves, Luis Alves, and Maun Leonardo, took a trip to visit Grupo Agrikultura Mau-Roma Horaiqiq south of Maubisse in the district of Ainaro.

The 2007 year ended difficultly for this vegetable and coffee producing group as they lost an investment in potatoes of over $1000 due to giant winds and torrential rains in December. Sr. Batista Tilman, the coordinator of the group, also suffered the death of his five month old baby in November.

Despite these individual and group setbacks 2008 is already looking positive and the group is in good spirits. They have just harvested their first ever crop of cauliflower, silver beet spinach, and arugula/rocket! As these vegetables were unfamiliar to the group, agricultural specialists of FHAM provided the group with hands on explanations of the vegetables themselves, how to harvest them, seed collecting methods, as well as food preparation suggestions and techniques. FHAM then assisted with transportation of the above mentioned vegetables along with different varieties of carotts than are generally found in markets here in Timor-Leste down to Dili where they had already identified a market of individual westerners and restaurants thrilled to pay good prices to receive the delicious vegetables they miss. Within twenty four hours the entire crop of fresh vegetables brought to Dili had been sold.

The $75 earned from the sale of the vegetables will all be returned to the hands of Grupo Agrikultura Mau-Roma Horaiqiq. Although it may not seem like much money, it is far more than the group is normally able to earn. They usually sell their vegetables to 'middle men' who pay very low prices (example 5 cents for a pound of carotts) and then take the produce down to Dili where the same pound is then sold at a local market for $1. As this Ainaro agricultural group has no transportation of their own, nor money to transport their produce, they are not able to compete and sell in the larger Dili market, and the same as coffee, are at the mercy of the 'middle men' or whom ever arrives to purchase their crops. Although their production is not yet constant FHAM and the Gardeners of Eden Seed Project is seeking means to assist this and other groups with processing, transportation, and marketing for their products, wether it be vegetables or coffee.

Although Grupo Agrikultura Mau-Roma Horaiqiq believes intends to try another crop of potatoes and believes it to be a valuable investment, as almost all potatoes currently sold in markets are imported from Australia, they will not be able to try again until much later in the 2008 year. In the mean time they plan to continue growing and selling the 'western' vegetables that they have had success with to restaurants, including Restaurant Motion, and individuals in Dili who are pleased to receive them.

For this group, the coffee season will soon be beginning as well. Plans are underway to install a hand coffee depulper and small wet processing facility on the hill above the vegetable gardens. This will be a great step for this group as it will allow them to have more control over the processing and quality of their coffee therefore allowing them to demand a higher price for their exceptional beans. FHAM will continue to work with them to assist in this process as well as in seeking the best possible domestic and international market for their coffee.

Personally, although I feel overall optimistic for the families that make up this group, I can not help but feel disheartened when I see first hand their living situation and conditions and think about what it would really take to move them from this place of extreme poverty. Now is the wet season. The homes these people live in in the mountains are the most simple cement block structures. They are hard and cold and wet. Many people live together in small structures. Clothes don't dry when it is cloudy and rainy all day and people don't even have warm clothes to wear. This last day I visited this group it rained most of the day. People walk barefoot or with thin worn plastic thongs. They hold their babies and shiver. These families are lucky to have the skills, initiative, land and resources to produce vegetables to eat. But, they still lack other basics essentials to Timorese diets such as rice and oil. Their bodies, all of them, are strong from a life of hard work but they are also, all of them, thin and frail. I still don't understand how these cycles are changed and what any of us are to do. So, for now, I just continue to work together and hope that one day it will change and then somehow make sense.