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We're back!

On Monday we had a day off and went to the National Museum, where we saw Lucy. Paul's blog tells you more about her. We did some shopping and then indulged ourselves in the hot pools at the Hilton Hotel.

On Tuesday we spent the morning sharing our experiences together with Bev. In the afternoon we prepared press releases and plans for our media and communications activities in the coming weeks.

Yesterday was the journey home via Rome - and farewells at Heathrow, especially to Claire who is moving to Sierra Lleone in January.

It is great to be home but we will never forget this wonderful experience. Tigray was beautiful and its people live simple lives. They still need help - but help is the answer - not handouts. They have an inherent wish to improve themselves but need the catalyst of expertise and start-up materials that CAFOD and its partners can provide to kick start the improvement. Wider help in the form of fairer trade rules also needs to be given at an inter-governemental level.

I plan some more blogs between now and Christmas to talk more about what we saw and the challenges that face Ethiopia (and its neighbours). In the new year we will look into capturing the blogs, pictures and notes into a small book of the trip.

I notice we've had a little rain here whilst we have been away. So maybe the threat of stand pipes at the ends of our roads has receded a little. For us stand pipes are an outrageous prospect. For the people of Tigray they are major progress.

Mike