Some months ago, a friend, co-worker and fellow communard Joshua Hobby received an email from an organisation in East Timor called HIAM Health.

In early 2009, Josh worked with HIAM to establish a ‘home garden’ (toos uma-hun) at HIAM’s new premises in Dili. Over 6 months Josh and several Timorese worked with an inhospitable and infertile site to establish a garden infrastucture using Permaculture design methods. After this work Josh left East Timor for a time, eventually returning to Australia. The recent email from HIAM was a request that he return and assist with further training in Permaculture and organic gardening techniques as soon as possible.