I'M BACK!

Deja Vu. The uncomfortable ride in an old 757; being collected at Addis Ababa by Jannie (who with his wife Bev shares the job of Country Co-ordinator for CAFOD/Trocaire; the drive to the Ghion Hotel and the meeting in the office!

But there were differences!

• The plane stopped at ROME to pick up lots of people, most who had been allocated the same seat numbers as those occupied by many of us from London - a bit chaotic!
• The approach to Addis was cloudy so no view of the Nile and the panoramic scenary around the City
• The roads seem busier with more new buildings springing up - a sign of a better economy?
• But it's strange at the Ghion on my own without my former colleagues.

I've learnt a lot more about the plans for the next 2 weeks.Tomorrow is a public holiday - so I will be doing lots of preparation before visiting Jannie and Bev in the evening. I'll tell you more about the plans tomorrow.

Mike

I'M GOING BACK!!!!

I thought the trip decribed in this blog was a one-off! No sooner had I published the book - 'Ethiopia - A fleeting glimpse' on LULU www.lulu.com/mike221 than I was asked by Bev and Jannie from CAFOD in Addis Ababa to return to be part of the team reviewing the Watershed projects to ensure all the lessons learnt could be built into future similar CAFOD projects. They also want me to help out with marketing aspects of some of their other projects.

I leave on Sunday 29th and return on 13th May. It's going to be great to meet up with the CAFOD and REST staff again. But it will be strange to be there without Claire, Paul, Catherine and Seb.

I hope to be able to blog again throughout the trip. I'm going to learn much more about the challenges faced by many people in Ethiopia and how we can help.

So watch this space from 30th April!!!

Mike