Wed 22nd

Farewell to Adua

Mered took me to meet Government officials in the wereda (Local) Governement office.

Their main source of revenue is from central governemnt - the poor local population only contribute 1%. They have over 900 employees - over 50% are teachers for whom the demand is growing as the population expands and more schools are built.

On the door of every office was a code of practice for all government employees to follw - I'll talk more about this when home. But all the words we would expect to see are there. There seems to be a real attempt to reduye corruption.

From Adua we drove to Adigrat via the ancient temple at Yeha on a road which the Chinese are improving, The scenery was gobsmacking - unfortunately due to unseasonal clouds there was no point in photographing it.

We had dinner wuth the Bishop of Adigrat and talked about many things including HIV/Aids and the stand off with Eritrea. I want to say more about both these topics when home.

Before leaving Adua I did a live interview with Matyn Coote at BBC 3 Counties. I hope I conveyed my sense of excitement in waht I had seen, but also the sadness that so much more needs to be done.

It was bizarre to listen in to Martyn's item before me - about traffic charging! We're a million miles away.

Mike