RETURN TO THE SILENCE

The last day has been so full of sights, and meeting people that it's hard to take it all in - let alone do a short blog - but I'll try!

Yesterday I sat in on a meeting to identify the customer needs and possible production options for new tomato products. I was impressed with the enthusiasm all round, particularly 2 lady hotel owners who spelt out precisely what they wanted to buy locally instead of current imports. UK businesses often arrogantly forget to ask their customers what they want - so this was a very encouraging approach. We went to eat at one of the lady's restaurants last night.

Today I was taken out to an area which had benefitted from the type of watershed project I had seen in Tigray. It was at Woter, which was Belayneh's home town. I spoke to farmers whose whole lives had changed as they now grew productive and highly marketable potatoes rather than the staple sogrum. Their marketing training has led them to decide that there is now more money from selling these potatos as seeds for others than just selling their own output. This Country is full of natural businessmen!

I saw the results of the flood damage caused by the catastrophic events last August - and some of the work to rebuild roads and rehouse people. It must have been just as nightmarish as a Tsunami.

We visited the ancient town of Harar - the furthest east I will go.

When we picked up two of the farmers at Woter the first topic of conversation was Man U's defeat by Milan last night - they hadn't seen it of course but they'd heard enough to talk about it for several minutes! The Premiership is far more pouplar here than the local leagues!