Happy Chinese New Year

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to let in the Year of the Ox with some members of the local Asian community and a group of Chinese students visiting from our Sister City, Jiujiang China. As the adults gathered in the kitchen and left the students to call home and wish their families on the other side of the world a Happy New Year I was warmly welcomed into an enthusiastic dumpling production line. With delicate instruction I was soon on my way producing one dumpling to their three and placed them onto the tray with a slight concern that my novice folding might lead to a dumpling explosion in the pan. The dumplings turned out just right and absolutely delicious - which reminds me, I must get that pork & shrimp filling recipe! I have spent the past two years giving presentations about how Louisville 

is a friendly city and welcoming to immigrants; this past weekend I found myself on the other side of that -being welcomed and completely accepted by both local and visiting internationals, I only hope my home feels as warm and welcoming to guests. The students seemed to have a good time too, tucking into the food and enjoying each others company; it was a lesson that teenagers are the same the world over - giggly, excitable, loud and very hungry. 

Farewell Fran

The countdown begins for Fran Warren, Co-chair to our Sister City in Jiujiang, China. Fran will be leaving for Jiujiang tomorrow 1/21 to embark on a 5 month teaching experience as part of the Teaching in Asia program, representing Jefferson Community College per a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Dr. Newberry and President Lu of Jiujiang Vocational University. Fran will be teaching conversational English and is more than qualified for the challenge. This will be Fran's third trip to Jiujiang. After much pestering we have convinced Fran to send us updates and photos of her experiences as they happen, we look forward to living in China vicariously through Fran in the coming months! So look out for Fran's updates right here at the Sister Cities blog. Good Luck Fran, we wish you all the best in your travels!

One of many inspiring projects

The more people I meet, the more I am inspired and excited about Sister Cities of Louisville and the endless possibilities. This past Friday I had the opportunity to talk with Steve Diamond, Executive Director of Healing the Children, Louisville. This is an amazing organization which helps children around the world who require medical help that they otherwise could not receive. They do this through a number of different projects and Sister Cities of Louisville is proud to be involved. Currently three of Louisville's Sister Cities have established relationships with Healing the Children, in fact as we speak Johana Ona, a little 5 year old girl from Quito is preparing to return home as her 5 month stay in Louisville comes to an end. Johana now has a new right ear thanks to donated care from our wonderful medical community and has been fitted with a bone conductivity hearing aid enabling her to hear and speak for the first time. Johana also received some much needed dental work during her stay. We wish Johana a safe trip back home and thank all of those who have been involved in her care. There are also plans to send a team of doctors and other medical personnel to spend 7-10 days in Quito this Spring to work directly with children in need there.

Sister Cities will shortly be adding another city to our relationship with Healing the Children: Tamale, Ghana. We look forward to the projects and aid work that this may lead to, we have already been provided with a list of much needed medical equipment; if you can help please let us know!

If you are interested in helping with any or all of these initiatives please contact us, Louisville is such a giving city - be proud Louisville!

A New Year, A New Blog

It's a new year and Sister Cities of Louisville has a New Year's resolution to enter the world of social networking. We hope to keep you up to date with all the exciting programs, exchanges, visits, events and much much more. We just can't physically fit everything into our quarterly newsletter anymore so we're branching out! Each of our eight sister cities have unique relationships ranging from aid work to arts & culture to educational exchanges and lots more - so subsribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with what's happening! Incidentally, if you are new to Sister Cities and would like the 101 then take a look at our website http://www.sclou.org/ and click on the About Us link.


Here's what's happening between our sister cities right now:

• Two louisville students arrived in Tamale, Ghana last week to continue a research project, studying early and elementary childhood education....Learn More



• Louisville photographer Michael Brohm leaves for Perm, Russia tomorrow to exhibit 60 pieces of local work to an estimated 80,000..... Learn More



• Students from JiuJiang, China will arrive in Louisville for a two week exchange this month....Learn More

The sky's the limit with Sister Cities - tell us what programs you'd like to see by leaving a comment.