"Bukhara and Santa Fe signed the agreement in 1989, while the Soviet Union was still in existence. And early on we had numerous exchanges. In fact on a recent trip to Bukhara I met a gentman that now owns a car dealership in Bukhara, that had come to Santa Fe for a six week study program when he was in high school" says Carol Robertson Lopez, chair of the Bukhara-Santa Fe Sister Cities Association in an interview with Voice of America's Uzbek service.