Adi Ha

So after passing through a camel caravan, having a 7 hour meeting with
farmers under a tree, and copying down some rainfall data written in
Tigrinya, I'm back from Adi Ha.

Can't write too much since I'm at an internet cafe and have another
meeting soon, but I hope the pictures sum up a bit of how
breathtaking, vivid, real, and meaningful the past 2 days were. The
most encouraging thing was I think the meeting with the Adi Ha
farmers. Our first cut at the data showed that about 90% of those
that attended were very interested in insurance as a drought risk
management strategy - and willing to give up some of what little money
they had to pay for it. What's more, the meeting ran about 3 hours
late, and the farmers refused to leave - so we turned our vehicles
around and turned the headlights toward the tree so we could keep
going. Pretty amazing.

Starting now for the rest of the trip will be the high level meetings,
hammering out strategy to make this project happen for this year.
Marjorie and I had about a 20 hour day yesterday, and probably will
have the same each day until we leave. Except maybe this weekend.
I'm going to try to go to another local market here - and if I have
the chance, to go see one of the 800yr old stone-hewn churches that
Tigray is famous for. But I really think it's going to be too much to
squeeze in for this trip. I'm ok with that though - Adi Ha was worth
it.