Sunday, 18 October 2009

Saturday 17th Oct 2009

Breakfast was started with the news that there was no coffee, this was a bad start to the day, but despite our protests it was not possible. Then just as we got up to leave, coffee was found. This would be a good day after all.

Today we travel for another 2 hours, the driving was much more dirt track than yesterday. In some places it is quite bad, and in others some tarmac that is clearly a few years old, but better than bouncing along on the gravel.

As we get closer to our destination, we see extensive work being done on building new roads, these are essential for transporting produce and also for the aid trucks to have a quicker travelling time.

We have travelled to the Wolayta region, and Sodo in particular, 380km south of Addis Ababa. The trip south gave us some spectacular views on the way, but soon we saw field after field of dried, burnt maize. Entire fields of burnt crops.

After passing through a few sparse towns, Sodo was a surprise. The town was heaving with people, cafés, bars, restaurants lined the streets with hundreds of people trading and transporting goods along the main strip.

We met up with a local aid programme who took us to see some families who have been recipients of Plumpynut, A peanut mixture enhanced with vitamins and minerals which is developed for feeding to malnourished children. It's better than any flour based products as these need water to digest, where as Plumpynut is a butter. This used to be imported from France, but now is made by a local producer in Addis, so this is now an Ethiopian product.

We met two families who kindly told us their stories of famine, largely based around the failure of their crops meaning they had nothing of their own to eat or sell. When you drive into a community, once a child spots you, everyone knows about you arrival pretty quickly, and soon everyone is out to see what you are here for. All of them are happy to see you and want to take part in what you are doing.

After visiting the families we went to find a farmer to speak to who would tell us about the crops and the rains. We found two who were very keen to show us their land and tell us about the season. In Ethiopia, it should rain solidly for four months, June, July, August and September. This year they barely had a month, and when it did come, it was so erratic that is damaged what was left of the crop.

On the way we passed a market so decided to stop off and see what was being sold. The market had thousands of people there, and as soon as we arrive there was much excitement.

As soon as we stepped from the car we were surrounded by hundreds of children from all directions, as we moved around the market they followed us as closely as they could all the way around. There was much pushing, shoving and running to follow us round. It was an incredible experience to go through. We managed one small lap of the market, stopping to ask a woman about the corn she was selling.

On the way back to the village we stopped of to film one final piece, the “piece to camera” where Mike shows you the damaged corn field. We found a beautiful strip of farmland which overlooked the most stunning valley. It was a most beautiful breathtaking panoramic view. We managed to film this sequence just as the sun went down.

We were meant to spend the night about two hours back to Addis Ababa, but as the sun had gone down, we decided to drive back to Sodo to stay the night there. We arrived at the hotel, and grabbed the last rooms. There were no other options, so this was a great relief.

Tomorrow, back to Addis to gather final bits before out flight north to Mekelle.


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