TIGRAY REVISITED

We arrived at Mekele 3 hours late yesterday (Sunday) - en episode worthy of a paragraph in the next book! - for which there is a growing expectation here!. We went to REST HQ for a pre-briefing for our Lessons Learnt project of the watershed work I saw last year. The idea is to make it very friendly by seeking the very best of the results obtained - less positive aspects can wait for the formal review when the project extension ends in October. This approach should mean many more stories of lives transformed by the conservation of water - this time in Hintalla.

Our timing upset the REST drivers as it was in the middle of the all important Chelsea/Arsenal match - this is a Man U town - so football fans will realise that today (Monday) there were many happy people here. If you're not a fan you won't have made sense of that!

Today I was not disappointed, visiting many similar sights to last November. The principles of this project are slightly different - but the result is the same - water to drink; water to grow different crops; water all year!

I met a single mum and her young son who can now grow three crops of potatoes each year instead of one, doubling her total income. I met a man who can now afford for his 4 sons to go to school as he too has more output of many different crops.

But maybe the find of the day - but I need to investigate further - is the fact that the methodolgy used by this CAFOD supported projects, which benefits 20% of the people in the area, is now being adopted by the government for the rest of the population, albeit maybe in a smaller way. If this is the case then the return on the project is way more significant than just the impact on the lives of its immediate beneficiaries.

More tomorrow!!