DESTA in Ethiopia 2007

This text and the accompanying photographs were originally published at http://movinglikethesea.blogspot.com as a travel-blog during and after a trip to Ethiopia in September / October 2007. The purpose of the trip was to progress local development initiatives supported by the DESTA Project in the town of Degan in the Cheleka Valley region of North Eastern Ethiopia. The trip was arranged at relatively short notice, and a number of people asked about the project and the purpose of the visit. Publishing on the web provided an opportunity for them to learn about DESTA, and to keep in touch with unfolding events by checking in to read the blog entries. It demanded nothing from the author beyond translating a stream of consciousness into words. Telling the story as it unfolded was a daily meditation in the midst of an incredible, intense experience that often felt quite surreal at the time the events took place. It was far removed from the normal routine of a busy and satisfying, though not terribly eventful professional life. Readers commented that the words and pictures brought the experience to life for them, so the blog idea worked on both sides. Bob Geldof’s comment about his African journeys being ‘a direct experience with life’ (in Geldof in Africa, 2006, Arrow Books) provides fitting final words for this introduction. I can think of no better way to describe it.