By being friends with our neighbours in Timor Leste, we become equals. We are not the givers and they the takers. We can sit together in conversation and connection, often with nothing more than a wink, a smile, a knowing look. We can inspire each other as friends do, help each other as friends do, love each other as friends do.

We are challenged to move the discourse away from ‘helping’ to ‘empowering’, from ‘feeding’ to ‘eating’, from ‘teaching’ to ‘sharing knowledge’ , from ‘watching’ to ‘noticing’. We can then find common ground where our hearts beat to the same rhythm, just like it does in motherhood, dance, song and smiles – all of which are universal experiences.

Once common ground is achieved, we can then truly understand the need of our East Timorese friends and respond through trust and hope, slathered in love, to open up and achieve endless possibilities for the future.