FLAVOURS OF TIGRAY

At 8a.m. today (Thursday) we visited the Martyrs’ Memorial above Mekelle, built to honour those who gave their lives in overthrowing the communist regime in the early nineties. There was a display of photos including one which showed Meles, the current Ethiopian Prime Minister in a group of young members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Politically there is little doubt that people’s lives have become freer and more promising since the demise of the Communists.

Jannie and I visited the Daughters of Charity for lunch. These sisters do some incredible work with the poor around Mekele and in Alitena, which I visited last year. They have an amazing ambition to do much more – exemplified by a plan to obtain a large increase in funds from their various donors. Yesterday I had presented Sister Medhin with 20 football shirts donated by a school in Nottingham – for the street children of Mekele.

Meanwhile we are writing up our case studies and preparing for a presentation tomorrow (I’m still not quite sure who we are presenting to!) What is amazing is that everyone is preparing all this in English (which they give me to correct!), although the majority of the audience will be Ethiopian!

Tomorrow after the presentation we fly back to Addis – so the next blog may be Saturday.