yorkshire water's export drive

It was raining lots when we left the calder valley on the first leg of our trip to america. The rain made me think of Australia and gave me a short wonder, why don't we export water to Australia?
I mean we've got lots of it.
They need it.
Isn't that supposed to be how the market works. It just needs someone to start.
Then I thought why don't we import Anglicare to britain? I am mean we need it, they have it.
If we used their expertise we could set it up small and see if it grows here.
Anglicare UK
Why don't we export water?
Why don't why we import Anglicare?
It may just be to do with our lack of confidence or our slowness to borrow ideas and to scale up.
I suspect this won't be the case in america where the church I am visiting has an annual budget of over $5000000.
I have tried to carry a question to every country I've visited.
So my question for america ought to be I think: how do they scale up?

In the meantime to bed and dreams of becoming a yorkshire water millionaire...

Green

Home again for the briefest of visits, and doesn't it look green! We forget what a blessing water is and that in parts of the world it is another commodity alongside oil and food.
I enjoy a lavish bath and a pile of washing. I also enjoy being home with Catherine. Tomorrow we start off for America. It will be lovely to have a companion.

Deserts

Killing time at Singapore Airport on my way home from Australia by using thier free internet. I am bored and there's no one to talk over on a five hour stopover.
I have just had the most amazing flight over the great Australian Desert, which is... deserted.
It makes you appreciate how big Australia is.
Also it makes you appreciate their key issue which is of course water resources. If there was a way to create water in the desert Australia would be tranformed. However if you look closely at the desert there are shrubs, if you look closer still there are tracks and signs of life even in the desert if you know where to look.
I am really looking forward to getting home, not for the usually rubbish about britishness but rather for the people, and in particular the person, Catherine who will go with me on my next trip on Friday to America.
Travelling on your own is fun but you often long for a companion. It's a naother kind of desert really.
I just changed my shirt etc. and had a shave so there is life in my desert still... oasisville tomorrow. I am a clean boy and it really does give you a lift!
It's going to be a long night... literally
I think about 14 hours... as we are chased by the morning sun.

So this is what Faith Based Regeneration Looks Like

It's the last day and it's back to Adelaide to visit the Mary Magdalene centre. Set up ten years ago it is everything a faith based organisation should.

1. Cheerful! Seven staff and 120 volunteers each committed to helping those who've reached the end of all other help, providing no fuss emergency relief and long term solutions.
2. Campaigning. They have been tireless advocates for the people they deal with feeding back anecdotes and statistics of the impact of government policy changes to the government who made them.
3. Community based. The first organisation I've met in Adelaide working with aborigines and employing aboriginal staff.
4. Connected. Building up business links with the largest law firm in Adelaide now offering over $300,000 a year of free advice. Links also with a huge number of churches in Adelaide, and of course Anglicare. Partnerships with government and NGO's all over the place. They are even teaching primary children how to pack a lunch boxes! Social entrepreneurism at its best.
5. Creative. Their craft workshop has young street graffiti artist spray painting lampshades to sell in Adelaide's trendy designer shops. The artist gets all the profits.
   They have just got $3000000 to build 24 low rent flats on the site of the old police morgue.
6. Christian. Proud of its roots and building on a Christian foundation of love of neighbour.
   

Impressive and a good formal end to my visit.

Adelaide has confirmed what I started to figure out in Yemen that churches and their organisations ought to behave more like NGO’s entering into partnerships with each other and outside bodies rather than just doing projects. There is a need for Memorandum of Understanding and formal contracts but these arise out of existing relationships not as a substitute for them.
The organic growth of initiatives like Picket Fence and The Magdalene Centre is testimony to the rightness of this approach.
Maintaining the Christian Character of an organisation or in the case of Anglicare actively seeking to restore that character brings added value and clearly underline the foolishness of pretending not to be faith based. Faith communities can clearly bring with them a huge volunteer base, a certain amount of local knowledge but also a baseline staying power.
Finally in these initial reflections I can’t help commenting on the affect of being involved in these programmes on everyone from volunteers to managers. Their faith is enhanced, their vision expanded and they find that they can do more than they ever thought possible. Surely this alone is sufficient “Added value” to encourage people to get involved.

NB to me... must look up a group called: "Common Ground" that sound a bit ace, who are big in Australia and USA buying up old hotels etc and making low cast housing.

Up Jacob's Creek... no paddle necessary

To Barossa the big wine making region this afternoon including a visit to Jacob’s Creek (see above; there is water in there somewhere!).

I felt a bit dumb actually, imagining Jacob’s Creek to be a few small fields but discovering that it is in fact a vast acreage and a multimillion pound industry that’s been around for 150 years. The countryside where it’s made is very beautiful and the towns it serves are the nearest to tourist destinations that I have seen in Australia. One of those touristy things is the Jacob’s Creek visitor centre which turned out to be a very beautifully built wine tasting centre… we tried several wines, though we didn’t swallow! The wine was lovely and if I were rich and the rules weren’t so tight I’d be coming home with gallons of it. It is kind of wonderful to see the place where something which I have enjoyed in Britain comes from… I think it might be even more beautiful in future now I know where it came from. We are so disconnected from the food we eat and the wine we drink it’s good to make the connection. I am so pleased that the beer we drink in the hall is from up the road. This connecting food and place is so enhancing.
Today has been a day for soup, something they’re big on here. I had soup after the morning service, soup for lunch and soup after the evening service. Eating and worship go together here just like in Mytholmroyd but I now feel a bit soupy!

Sunday in the Country

To church this morning in the country town of Barossa a faithful little congregation of twenty odd lead this morning by a part time bus driver/priest, no organist and no music. Priests with two jobs are quite common in Australia because the churches are responsible for paying stipends directly. Many priests negotiate themselves into .5 stipends and do other jobs. One priest I met was on a 1.3, in a rich parish, which I think might mean he doesn’t have any time off!
I am not sure about this local funding of clergy. On the one had, it does focus the minds of priests and people and does create sustainability. On the other it favours the more competent, more middle class area and the idea of mission to the poor goes right out the window unless the church like St Marys has land attached to it which brings an income.
The priest and parish do seem to spend a lot of their time raising the stipend.
I wonder what Deanery Synod would think if I suggested it?

Migrants

There's a party going on in the next room for the church. I have slipped away to write my blog.
Many of the older people came from britain in the fifties and sixties. It's interesting for me to hear their stories because their stories are remarkably like the one I used to hear amongst the afrocaribbean community in manchester when I worked there in the eighties. Stories of extreme poverty and prejudice, stories of inadequate accomodation and broken promises. As we received the commonwealth so we also sent to that commonwealth.
It makes me think that in telling the story of the immigrants to britain we have forgotten the story of the emigrants. Those whom we spread across the world. Maybe we would think differently about those who came if we remembered those who went.

Jacob's Creek or Trickle

Today is turnaround day and I am off to the Borossa north of here. This is where Jacob's Creek wine comes from and there is a chance i may see the creek! Apparently it's usually a trickle. I had a migraine yesterday and it's left me a bit sparkly so I think I'll avoid tasting for a day or two.
Talking of tasting last night I went to the cinema and it was interesting to see Australians at drink. The pub I passed was full of recognisably anglosaxon forms of drinking. It's a big issue here as at home. It's particularly bad amongst the Aborigines whose addiction to grog and now soft drugs is a major national issue.
Last night I filled the car with petrol... $50 about twenty five pounds as their petrol is cheaper, mind they pay more in road tax apparently.

Tourist

Before I 'fess up to a day as a tourist I have been linked to an interestiing blog on Anglicare which I hope to follow up but you might like to: http://www.anglicarecan.blogspot.com/

So today I am a tourist, visiting Cleland animal park which celebrates the Australian wildlife. Unlike Australian birds the marsupials are more than happy to pose for photos. In fact the recumbent wallabies, kangaroos, and yes the enormous Koalas all were happy to be photographed and if they could have spoken they would have spoken the Australian Motto: “No worries.”
That aside the place was spotless and I did wonder if there were many places in Britain that celebrated our wildlife in such a great way.

With glory round her shed

To St Mary’s this morning which is in St Mary (funnily enough) South Adelaide just to be confusing. It is the third oldest church in South Australia I think. It was funny because it was the same age as my churches back in England. Funny to think of the church making it to Australia at the same time as it made it to Mytholmroyd.
St Mary’s was on the main road south of Adelaide and surrounded by a tiny graveyard peppered with ancient and modern former residents of the parish. After receiving communion I was taken round the back to their project.
Fifteen years ago the parish had decided that it should stop looking inwards and start looking outwards, using what they had: buildings and a few people. The first step was they rented a shop on the main street and opened it as a kind of community café. The difference being that the food and drink was free. As part of the shop there was what they call an op shop or we would call a second hand shop.
Two years in and the shop was too successful and so they decided to risk it and move into the church hall, thinking it might put people off. The opposite happened and the Picket Fence Community Centre was born and grew rapidly gathering a clientele from about a 10K radius with its centre bus. Using a mixture of parish investment in people and grant aid for equipment from two local town councils they began to reach some of the most vulnerable in society, with food and advice shops and art classes.
In time they came up with the idea of The Shed Project which converted an outhouse on their land into a workshop. This had tools and benches which was offered to anyone who wanted to use them with supervision. Today a much bigger shed attracts four groups of men:
1. The volunteers; mostly retired people who in return for retiring at sixty have to do fifteen hours community service.
2. Work for Dole people; like the ones in the previous Anglicare schemes who have to demonstrate a willingness to work by working.
3. Young disaffected school drop outs who mostly in the school holidays drop in to learn a craft. I think there were some apprentices there as well
4. Local residents who are working on a project.
There was a great sense of togetherness between the men and quite a lot of self policing of their three rules: no swearing, no drinking, and no being annoying. Whilst I was there they were already planning extensions to the workshop and hall which the shed men were going to do themselves.
Other partnerships now on board includes an emergency food bank, the biggest op shop I’ve ever seen, tax advisers, and now Anglicare is coming in as a partner… they say they have reached the limit of their abilities… but I doubt it.
This organic growth of a community group reminds me so much of what I saw NGO’s doing in Yemen.
Incidentally they have funded all this by using the value of their land… from which they get £60,000 a year rental. A bit more than the £52 a year we get off our tennis courts.
Tonight the family I’m with and I were sharing action songs… they have some great ones by a man called Michael Mangan that I need to look up when I get home. www.butterflymusic.com.au

Church of England NGO

This morning a return trip to Columba College, this time to the seniors where despite causing a bit of a disturbance with the balloon talk n assembly I think I did all right. It was fun to discover that teenagers in Australia laugh at the same daft things as they do in Britain.
Lunchtime found me in Adelaide meeting with the ministers fraternal, a mixed experience with much talk of technology, and reaching the many lonely people in the community. All of them seemed very busy and indeed there was a constant departure of people beginning after twenty minutes, then half an hour and it was all over after 45 minutes. Interestingly, none of the local Anglicans turned up.
Straight from there to meet with the director of Anglicare South Australia Lyn Arnold. Lyn had recently come from World Vision an NGO to run Anglicare. It’s going to take a while to unpack all we talked about: an hour with Lyn is like a day with someone else or even possibly a week. One thing struck me in my imeediate reflections on our time together that Lyn had taken his NGO experience and approach and was now applying it to Anglicare. I wonder if the NGO model could be one which we could use to improve the partnerships of faith groups and the government.
In NGO’s it is partnership that is key; if a group does something good there is usually a discussion about what they will do next. In NGO’s they are accountable to their donors as to how the money is spent. In NGO’s capacity building relationships are key to the work they do. NGO’s combine the active funding and pastoral role with a prophetic challenging role. NGO’s often have to champion community projects to governments and broker complex deals. They are also places whre local operatives are encouraged to take initiative and also risks.
Is the Church of England an NGO?
If it's not I don’t see why it shouldn't be.

Bright Children, Bright Ideas

A visit to the local schools which are low fee church schools, in a joint venture between Catholics and Anglicans. Everybody pays something towards their child’s education, usually about $1000, there are rebates for poorer families and school fees are tax deductible. The schools are wonderful with bright shiny children and pretty impressive buildings. They are pretty small with only 80-90 children in each year in three forms. In other parts of the state the schools are much bigger, one is as large as 3000 pupils and is split into three campuses. It’s interesting that Catholic schools don’t get local authority funding but rather have an institutional contract with the federal state who provide some funding. Maybe the ability to make a contract nationally about education provision makes the national agreement with Anglicare for welfare easier.
Tomorrow I get to talk to the older children in assembly, for those who know me it’s the balloon talk not the turkey insemination talk.
To Adelaide Cathedral to meet the Dean who is yet another regeneration kindred spirit. He has spent the last few years befriending business and community types in Adelaide and is now ready with his master plan… not to take over the world but rather a creative thing to collect the water that comes off the roof of the Cathedral to supplement the city’s water supply. Water is a huge issue here as the rivers are becoming seriously depleted. I can’t help thinking that they ought to be talking to the Yemenis. Particularly as part of what’s causing the problems is over extraction by farmers further up stream. Of course the other solution would be to build a pipeline to Britain where we have no lack of water. Meanwhile with the dean for lunch he talked about how faith leaders could champion projects, being the front person for projects. Whilst not necessarily having other transferable skills we are certainly comfortable with standing at the front.
Following our long lunch a wander back into Adelaide to find a hat that fits at Adelaide hats where they have ones that are too big for me! The wander is a bit too long and all the cafes are closed by 4.00 p.m. so I am spitting feathers on the long drive home. If Manchester is the 24 hour city Adelaide is the 6 hour one!
Tomorrow I get to meet the director of Anglicare so hopefully some answers to the question as to how it all works.

Highs and Lows

To Christ Church Adelaide, the richest church in Australia and at the Catholic end of the Anglican spectrum. In eight months since Lyndon the vicar's arrival they have invested in new community facilities, and in just getting moving again as he puts it. High quality facilities and a good social program including teaching language skills to those for whom English is a foreign language and computer skills to older people. All pretty impressive and interestingly they have a supportive link to Anglicare whose projects they support including the Magdalene centre which does outreach work to the homeless.. Little or no links to the government at the moment but with a growing civic position it's only a matter of time. Also, Lyndon is the kind of person who if something was happening in his community he would want to turn up.
Later in the day sat in a staff meeting of seven, who are planning a mission, lots of lively decision making until we talk about biscuits then world war three breaks out. Don't you just love church meetings!
Later on the way home in contrast I pop into Elizabeth shopping centre for a few bits and discover a bit more about this interesting community. As with the housing it looks flash on the outside but the inside is full of cheap shops and people wearing what is apparently the winter plumage here, jogging pants. Joking apart you can just sense the very real poverty that surrounds you and the despair if not desperation on the part of the shopkeepers to be able to sell to someone.
It's still really cold here but spotted two Cockatoos on a lamppost as I drove in today.The paedophile scandal is still the elephant in the room. Lyndon tells me whilst in his dog collar he was crossing the road holding his young son's hand and somebody wound down the window of their car and shouted paedphile... how will the church here ever get some sort of closure on this...

Hidden Deprevation - Hidden abuse

To Elizabeth today for church with Ruth and Neil the job share priests and their children Christina and Hamish. Elizabeth is an interesting place, it was developed in the 1950’s as a new town on the same model as those in Britain with the promise of employment and the development of new factory sites. Most of the people who came to Elizabeth were immigrants and the brighter ones quickly developed and moved out as did the businesses. Like many new towns in Britain it is now regarded as a deprived area. It is one of the poorest communities in South Australia although it doesn’t appear so as the housing stock is quite good and the public realm, standard but good. Ruth explains that the depravation is all behind doors where there are third generation unemployed. I wonder if this makes it better or worse for the people of Elizabeth?
The congregation was an interesting mixture including some of the newer inhabitants of Elizabeth town a family from Burundi who were identified as refugees. I talked to one lady who worked for Anglicare in Barossa as an outreach worker in domestic violence. It seems that one in four people in Australia has experienced domestic violence, so the depravation really is hidden. She talks about how Anglicare works on one year contracts and how difficult that is for the workers but helpful for the organisation in that it can easily move on those not suited to the work. Interestingly she said the one year contracts were also difficult for the clients who find that people come into to the area to help and are then moved on. So many people had come and gone with programs to help or to challenge that the first thing people always asked in Barossa was: “When are you leaving?”
So much then of what’s going wrong is hidden away and so much of the help that is given or available is hidden too.
For the church here much of what has been hidden is now being brought into public everywhere i go people mention the Paedophile scandal that has been rocking the churches. At the moment the Pope is here and has sort of apologised. The anglican church and the government appear to have made a better job of it and now as far as I can see are being exmplorary in their practises.
I wonder whether regeneration projects can be designed to go beyond the surface to reach the hidden pockets of derprevation in our communities in Yorkshire? Can you design a community so that abuse is harder to take place?
Perhaps if we get better at being community we might not say as they are here: "We would have stopped it, if only we had known."

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

To Port Adelaide to visit the seaside. We discovered in an interesting twist that the Tourist Information Centre was the only thing that was open! It was there to tell us what we would have been able to enjoy if anything had been open.
Port Adelaide is ready for regeneration, so lots of luxury apartments are planned (and opposed,) lots of public realm and art (that will be opposed,) and lots of other bright ideas that probably should be opposed.
Thankfully we went to Semaphore which was much more promising than its name and included a pier, a nice playground, and even nicer ice-cream. On the way back we visited Ruth’s parents, a retired vicar and his very German wife who made sure that we ate something in the way that old people often feel that the young need feeding up.
Tonight we travelled into Adelaide to have an amazing dinner with some wonderful ex’s: three ex mayors, and one ex senator. It was really very interesting as they challenged me and sparked around varying topics including: the arts, the church paedophile scandal, Anglicare and Australian politics. There was a lot of heat but not too much light, but rather a glow of understanding between those frustrated by the difficulties of doing stuff.
One person talked about the burnout they had experienced and it was really moving for someone to be so open. Sad to discover how little support they’d had.
It’s very easy in our striving forward to miss those who fall by the wayside.

Pastoral and Prophetic.

This morning after twelve hours sleep a visit to an enormous Anglicare project recycling household goods and computers. Incredibly impressive. Most of the men there are on the Australian Workfare scheme of on what they call work hardening, where people who have been on sick benefit are being retrained for work. The woman leading the project had an interesting background in some fairly boring retail jobs. Coming to Anglicare had clearly allowed her to blossom into a leadership role in helping lives change.
I keep on pursuing the question of whether the fact that Anglicare is a Christian Organisation makes a difference. I still think they do and one of the reasons is that they see themselves as having a dual role. Pastorally they care for people but prophetically they lobby the government on social issues. The pastoral role they take on is given more credibilty because they prohetically challenge the covernment and that challenge is given more strength because they know what they are talking about.
To Adelaide in the afternoon to visit the culture: two museums and an art gallery. There is much to be learnt of the story of the Aboriginis including some fairly ghastly stuff about the British taking away their children to trains as domestic servants for England, but also the destitution of many of the early immigrants' families. Incidentallly as I wander around Adelaide I discover one of the arcade of shops which is proud to sponser Anglicacare and another one supporting St Vincent's the catholic aid agency. I wonder at whether British businesses would be so openly supporting crhistian Charities.
In amongst all this I have visited two tea places and discovered that the Australians know how to make a good cup of tea!
Tonight sat and talked with Neil and Ruth, my hosts, who are becoming good friends as they help me reflect on what I have seen.

Journeying thoughts

When did we become so shy about faith in Britain? At a stopover at Singapore Airport a group of old and young Christians from Portugal held a little service. They had guitars, they had singing, they had bible readings they even had a bit of a dance. Nobody was offended, in a fact a number of people joined in. If this had been a British group we would have been hiding our identity, just in case there was trouble.
When I went to Sweden they said they were really pleased that Muslims had come to their country because it had allowed people of faith to be visible again. By embracing the opportunity other faiths had brought they were growing to a position of confidence which adds to society and makes our faith more visible too. It will be interesting to see how the Australians are.

Arriving in Adelaide I have the interesting experience of getting a hire car and driving to my destination with a very nice clergy couple on the outskirts of Greater Adelaide. I am shown around the parish which is one of the biggest Anglicare centres in South Australia. The centre is really pleasant and interestingly manages to combine a real and upfront Christianity with an openness and provision for all. The key question for me is how they managed to sustain, this let alone set it up.

comings and goings

Sat in manchester airport having arrived far too early for my flight to London, and then to Adelaide. Two days turn around from Yemen has taken its toll and I am tired out with my body clock at sixes and sevens. It's also been hard on the family with a roller coaster of emotions from relief at my return to sadness at my departure.
I went to Yemen to ask a question about whether faith affected regeneration and concluded it made partnerships easier, and made projects more sustainable as people had already a "higher purpose" project to plug in to.
My question for Australia is how can faith groups make long term partnerships with the state? They have been such a long term partnership for years and I wonder how they do it.

Patience tried

To Sowerby tonight to chair a public meeting tonight to chair a public meeting about the Copley valley project. Began by talking about the importance of community engagement as this lead to partnerships and growing confidence and capacity. Talked about Sheik Noah who I met on Soqotra who led his mountain caves to plains to fidhing boats and now a harbour in ten years.
At a tetchy question time somebody said; "problem is it took Noah ten years to get his boats we've been at this for twenty years and we still have nothing to see for it!"
This long term consultation is a real problem, we in the community lose heart in the process their patience as we say is tried.
I wonder if my trip to Australia and America will give any answers.
I guess I will just have to try patience!

Yemini Total Blog

Wednesday 2nd July
Manchester airport and waiting for my flight to London and then on to Yemen, returning on 13th if that's a Saturday. I have been encouraged to take a big question with me... To kind of pursue at all costs.
For Yemen it is going to be: "what place does religion play in building a resilient community?"
I think, but don't know yet that this is one of the main contributions that faith groups can make is the ability to keep communities of people going when things get difficult. That is certainly their role in Yemen as far as I can see from Britain...
But maybe it's like in the Simpsons movie, when disaster hits the people in church run to the pub and the people in the bar run to church!

Sweeping down into Adan the first of our Yemeni stages we are presented with 1950s architecture left by the British after the Suez crisis began the collapse of the British Empire in this region. It's 7 o'clock local time and it's good with open doors to sniff fresh air rather than the recycled stuff we've gathered on the way.
Lots of evidence of the oil industry mixed in with dramatic landscape of desert sand and black islands of rock. Hard to imagine anyone living here let alone loving here.
Tony and I talk of population growth up from 3 million in 1970 when he first came to 18 million with the engine of health care bringing the changes. They reckon locally it's only the education of women that will reverse the growth but that will take time. Time is the thing none of have.
As Carl Sagan said: "time is the oxygen in which we burn!"
At the moment they are asking if we are sure we are going on to Sana, as they have three extra passengers! Maybe the population is still growing even on the plane.

Sanaa and we arrive with a physical and cultural bump.
The first thing is how scruffy the outside of things are. This isn't helped by the unfinished buildings. These are a result of a tax dodge... You have to pay a tax if you finish a building, so no building is ever fully finished. I am beginning to wonder whether this thing of not completing things might also be part of their character... I quite like it and wonder whether every project would benefit from being left a bit unfinished.
The second shock are the children begging by the car and selling things. Generally there were more children around but less women.
The third shock is the miltary road blocks which are to stop guns running to the north. I smile as I am told there's always trouble from the north.
The fourth shock is the hospitality of men. The separation of men and women seems to give men permission to be very close publically to each other. So they hold hands and when they meet one another there is much kissing. They are bit shy with new people so I haven't been kissed yet! Tony says this closeness of men is what he most misses when he is away from Yemen, I can see why you might.
Its very hot and Yemen's gone to sleep a bit. At four we go to visit the minister for water a good man and an interesting one I am told... Till then I think I will join the Yemenis for a zuzz.

Thursday 3rd July
Extraordinary journey up the wadi which is used as a "main" road when it's not got water in it. Made me think about whether we could do something similar with the Calder!
We were on our way to the minister for water's house which is well guarded but gorgeous on the inside. Talked about projects and issues and discovered a fear present in britain too I guess, that some religious NGO's pretend not to be political but are. Incidentally why don't we have NGO's in briitain? We export them to other places and we certainly have organisations that fit the bill but but they are not called NGO's, rather third sector.
The police check situation we encountered this morning was about such an NGO. Some grass roots community development groups pretend to be a charity but have a hidden political asperations.
I guess this is where some of the nervousness lies in giving money to faith groups.
I would still contend that partnership provides a corrective on this. When you are visiting and advising how can hidden agendas remain hidden?
We're going shopping then up into the mountains tomorrow, God willing, bismillah(i think is what they say here) or is it enchallah! Tony says its good to use an odd word of their language as it shows respect to their culture and their faith as they learn it through the Koran.
EVENING
Much, much later 6 hours on the most amazing road I have ever been on I am now in Tise which is a dump. It has sewers running in the street. It has expanded too quickly and the sanitation can't keep up. It's like a nightmare on regeneration street.
The hotel is the best of a very bad bunch. I have seen more of Yemen good and bad in the last twelve hours than I can quite take in.
Hoping all will look better in the morning when we go up into the mountains again.
Already feeling better as there is air conditioning in the room.
Please pray for safe journeys tomorrow as we venture up another mountain apparently.

Friday 4th July
MORNING
Just met up with people from islamic relief that the minister connected us with. Interesting conversation as one of them was Khalid a british muslim from Birmingham. Talked a bit and discovered that internationally they belong to Disaster emergency relief committee which includes many christian charities. Wondered if we could use this structure in britain as well as internationally..
Talked also about how we can be regarded with suspicion as active people of faith. "what we are about is challenging people's opinions of faith - by your actions you are known." They sensibly said.
Talked about partnerships too and they suggested they were more sustainable in that they give pool of funding available.
PARTNERSHIPS RULES
Build trust with governments
Have to be very open
Not what you know who you know
ISSUES
Sometimes ngo 60 per cent goes to consultants
Bringing in experts undermines local people
People have own agendas
Credibility
BRIGHT IDEA
Beneficiary committee - non party grouping of thise who might benefit.
Silver oxide - clears dirty water.

At the moment I am being driven up into the hills to Tise? The two drivers are both chewing the local drug qat. They say it makes them better drivers.
I hope so!
EVENING
Much, much later 6 hours on the most amazing road I have ever been on I am now in Tise which is a dump. It has sewers running in the street. It has expanded too quickly and the sanitation can't keep up. It's like a nightmare on regeneration street.
The hotel is the best of a very bad bunch. I have seen more of Yemen good and bad in the last twelve hours than I can quite take in.
Hoping all will look better in the morning when we go up into the mountains again.
Already feeling better as there is air conditioning in the room.
Please pray for safe journeys tomorrow as we venture up another mountain apparently.

Had a bit of a disasterous evening after a good day. Today we travelled on an amazing mountain road over 10000 feet. It's funny to think of having driven over three times the height of Ben Nevis. Some of the villages we saw were amazing as they clung to the mountainside with their terrace housing. After this amazing journey we reacted badly to our otherwise reliable drivers losing the hotel.
It turned out to have been the victim of a recent flash flood which had wrecked the street outside, turning into what seemed like a mud bath although was probably worse.
The hotel made us feel unwelcome and made me feel homesick for the first time. To bed then and with text messaging out... Good night and dreams of Mytholmroyd.

Saturday July 5th
Everywhere we go we are asked for a tesseria. This is a document that is signed by the minister to say we are on official business. It is probably best not to think about what would happen if we didn't have it.

Having come up in the car from tajs this morning I am sat at 12000 feet drinking tea with the men of the village as they chew qat. Its very relaxing, and no I am not chewing qat. We have been welcomed to this village as old friends. The comeraderie coming from our shared humanity though not language. Teaching the boys to make popping sound further builds a link. The food eaten with fingers is shared, the cigarettes shared, the building is shared, so is it surprising that work is shared.
Partnership comes from doing other things than work together. My partnership with Yorkshire Forward really began when we spent a night at Schipol airport.
This is a place for thinking. As they make their midday prayers I make mine and in this place I am overwhelmed by a great sense of thanksgiving flooding like the sudden into the terraces of my life causing this greening of praise. I am thankful for the great goodness of God in my journey so far, the great goodness of a wife and family, the great goodness of a community, a calling, an equipping, a partnership, a covenant, a love. I cry a little with the sense of God's goodness.
In the middle of prayers they break off in a chat then back to prayer, no threshold between spirituality and life. No bumps.
It will be hard to come off this moutaintop.

Tonight is my last night in Tais with which I now have mixed relationship. Last night it was a dump, today it's beautiful. The difference is to do with the state of mind when we arrived. Last night we arrived late in a dingy hotel with twitchy staff (as it turned out they had just had a flood that afternoon and were cleaning up the mess when we dropped in.) Having given me a speech about being careful because the streets were filled with sewage the hotel clothes accidentally dropped his clothes in it.
Tonight after a spiritual experience with a mountain top village we arrive to be greeted by friendly staff who after we bathed treated us like kings on their rooftop restaurant where viewing Tais from a distance we see it as a fairy land of lights and atmosphere.
Is Tais any different? No.
Any safer? Not really.
What's different?


We are...
As I told Tony this morning quoting Oscar Wilde; we may be in the gutter but we're looking at the stars.

Sunday 6th July
Despite the comfy room a bad nights sleep. How do you know if your temperatures up if its hot? Anyhow a sweaty night and a better morning.
Troubled this morning by a question what part did faith play in what we saw yesterday? I think quite a lot but not too obvious. There was the spiritual attachment and love of the land. The uniting of community prayer sung out across the mountain to remind one of the spiritual dimension of what they are doing. The reconciliation of disputes by the Imman.
Would the system work without faith? I don't know but my guess would be that it would not be as sustainable.
So here's another question for today, does faith make a community more or less sustainable?
Later on the way to Adan where we are catching the plane to Socatra the island where Toni does most of his work we find a bit of an answer. A community with the help of Islamic relief to pump water 12000 feet up a mountain so the women of the village don't have to carry the water on their heads. Originally the government scheme faltered but now through the mosque the local "parish council" it is flourishing and sustainable because of faith they are in it for the long haul.
Going up a half made dirt track in a very old land cruiser to the village 12000 feet up a mountain did wonders for my faith too.

Monday 7th July
HOME THOUGHT FROM ABROAD.
I missed church yesterday in both senses of the word, it's a big wrench being away from my community on the day when we celebrate our faith. The journey is very hot but the meal we eat in a massive canteen is delicious. We pass the Anglican church in Adan which looks like someone picked up a village church and parachuted it into the centre of the town. A bit Adan which shall remain forever England which looks quite frankly a bit bonkers.
The place we are staying for a night makes up for it a bit. A resort hotel in elephant bay, Adan, gives me an air conditioned room and a door that opens onto the beach. It is very beautiful and rests us ready for Soqotra.
Waking up early on the day of our flight I listen to the prayers which are accompanied by a chorus of crows who have also woken early... Not sure who woke who up but at the moment the crows are beating the prayers in volume in a weird dawn chorus.
It is five o'clock and I have home thoughts from abroad.
Tony asks every person we meet where are they from... Nobody is from where they are now but each has a village somewhere that is really home, a tribe which is really their people.
Maybe that's why the British when they were here built a church that looked like home, a tribal reminder that they had a home somewhere

Soqotora
We have arrived on the Island which looks like a dry version of treasure Island. No phone signal so I hope no-one thinks the pirates have got us.
The nice hotel in Aden because we got the plane proved not so nice when it came to the bill as they tried to rip us off... "Bloody Indians" said the Yemenis "at least the British didn't rip us off." Funny how people get rosey views even of invading armies if you give enough time.
The flight to the island was a bit scary, it sits in the indian ocean just off Sudan but is very Yemini. The wind was such that the Yemenis were relieved as they unloaded their baggage which included two dustbins and a child's bike.
We had fish and rice in a scruffy café, but as is arab custom we washed our hands thoroughly and it tasted delicious. It's actually much easier to eat fish with your fingers as any good Yorkshireman on a day trip to Scarborough will tell you. Any remains would be scooped up from the rubbish by Egyptian vultures.
It was from there we visited a nursery where they are growing many plants unique to Yemen to put back into the wild. The quiet dignity of the man who invited us to eat dates and drink tea under a canopy. Business was done, regeneration planned, family stories were shared, a little laughter, a few tears. A good meeting then... to our rooms.
A tourism project, a hut, with no light or sanitation... Beams that jut out, perfect.
Tonight we sleep here but the Soqorans think we're mad... I am not sure... I will have a better idea tomorrow.

Talking tonight around a tilly lamp with Adib. Joined by his adult daughter Fatima who wants to learn to teach English. It would be nice if she could, but there are so many hurdles. "Could we begin by e-mailing you?" No e-mail. "what's your address?" Don't have post. Telephone - mobile is available but it's patchy.
Left me feeling completely stupid not to have known this. I wonder how many others are excluded from participation because they are not connected. I always that clean water, good food etc were the essential for development but communication is crucial too.
Morning brings an exciting trip to the facilities which are some way from where we are. I am lead in a mini procession as an honoured guest might be to a banquet. The ablutions take a little longer than usual due to the exotic plumbing but I am clean!

Tuesday 8th July
Talking last night around a tilly lamp with Adib. Joined by his adult daughter Fatima who wants to learn to teach English. It would be nice if she could, but there are so many hurdles. "Could we begin by e-mailing you?" No e-mail. "what's your address?" Don't have post. Telephone - mobile is available but it's patchy.
Left me feeling completely stupid not to have known this. I wonder how many others are excluded from participation because they are not connected. I always that clean water, good food etc were the essential for development but communication is crucial too.
Morning brings an exciting trip to the facilities which are some way from where we are. I am lead in a mini procession as an honoured guest might be to a banquet. The ablutions take a little longer than usual due to the exotic plumbing but I am clean!

Feeling a bit queezy this morning also a bit sad. We have been listening to Abid talking about the death of his daughter a month ago. She was a twin and I guess about ten. Her twin is with us and stares in a rather sad way at these noisy foreigners. Her sister as far as we can work our had some form of epilepsy. There is no hospital on.the Island and so it sounds like she couldn't be got help in time.
It's a good reminder that this is an underdeveloped country with all that brings. Any development needs the basics but the list for basics is a big list for any community.

Later in the day we climb to the mountains in the middle of the island where there is a limestone pavement worthy of the dales. Except this one has people living in caves and keeping sheep and goats. They are rugged farmers and the meeting is like an Arabic version of the Archers. They are very interested in what I do and wonder if we could exchange councillors. The councillor I talk to is on the school governors, involved in the project, etc. We talk about the importance of networking and introduce them to the concept of added value!
Following this we make a very arduous journey up a dirt road for what seemed like hours, to the wild Indian Ocean where tony is trying to build a jetty in the chalk cliffs. It smelt like the East Coast.
Then finally we arrived at the Sheik's village where I became a local celebrity by falling asleep! I have given up on food today so whilst I hear the feasting and smell the smoke, and with a bit of a headache I sit in my tent and I pray that I won't have to go to the loo, there isn't one.
Incidentally the place we are camped is a failed regeneration project; a garden built by the french and given to the whole village. Because they couldn't decide who owned it they fell out and abandoned it for the sake of harmony in the village. Next door is thriving garden, planted by one man, so private enterprise rules even in the republic of Yemen.

Thursday 10th July
Island of heroic failures

This morning at 4.30 I am woken by the wind rattling the door. The monsoon wind is strong at this time of year and batters the island relentlessly making it unattractive for tourists, hence an empty hotel. The wind is warm and dry and extremely powerful. I saw huge concrete wall yesterday that had been blown down in the last wind. It kind of defines Soqotra and people are constantly asking about it or talking about it. It's funny how weather often defines a place: Skegness is so bracing, Mytholmroyd, it rains a lot! It's the one thing that we can do little about.
Then again you can turn it round... Last night we met a man who was talking about Kite Surfing for which the constant is ideal. He has an idea for a business... Then again he is Soqotran.

It's lunchtime at Adib's nursery after a morning talking to various groups about their projects. They are at very different stages; talking to one at idea stage, one at association stage, one at injecting sheep stage. Everybody drops in at the office for a chat so that Mohammed complains he gets no work, but this is the work.
Makes me even more convinced that this is how the community enterprise at Mytholmroyd will work and I am very excited about what we might do.
I am feeling a lot less queezy today so I am looking forward to lunch.

Tonight we go to the beach @ 5.00pm to catch the last of the sun before it switches off at 6.00pm. The sun and the prayers are the only regular things on Socatra. On the way there, as is the custom here we pick people up. If you have a space you give a lift, at one point we ended up with five people on the back seat. It's the ultimate car sharing scheme, you share your good fortune.
Along the way we see a number of failed schemes. Socatra is the island of heroic failures. The successes are amazing. The men we met this morning were living on the hills in caves ten years ago. Now they have twenty fishing boats, with help they are excavating a harbour and making an ice making plant. Sheik Noah has boats now and a successful tribe.
You need a few heroic failures to succeed a few times, ask Noah.

Friday 11th July
Today I part company with Tony and the Socotra conservation fund and fly solo to Sanaa for the night and then in the morning home. It's really another part of my personal adventure and development but I wish I could go straight home.
Tony has been a great companion and has been very brave to let me walk so closely and climb so slowly alongside him and his NGO. It's a fine organisation and I will try and do all I can to promote its work when I get home. What comes across most is his tremendous love for Yemen growing from a first encounter over thirty years ago. His love and passion for the people here is only matched by the respect they show him.
As I leave him at the airport I am a bit emotional which in the push and shove of the crowd I think he interprets as nervousness. The reality is much more complex, it it is the parting of companionş people who have been places together physically and if it's not too pompous spiritually. Just as with Leon and Stephen my companions in Sweden I know that we will not walk this way again.
I hope my love for people I care for in the Calder Valley, like his for the people of Socotra and Yemen is always as real. We need more people to fall in love with people, and places, it is the seed from which a good world will grow into a good one.

When ever anybody wants to do anything on the island they form an association. So today we are talking to the fishing association. This makes ownership less of an issue because much aid is given to associations.
The aid that comes always comes with training and people who have made a good job in the past are often given more. This principle of a tripartate aid + training + partnership = successful project when working with community groups is a good model for us in Yorkshire Forward. Of course you also need time and commitment in the long term.
I met the Mullah this morning who is following in his father's footsteps. I had actually met him before but he looks the same and is fully integrated in village life. I guess that is what most of us of faith hope, that we might just a part of life. He gave me a goat wool prayer mat.
It smells a bit!

It's lunchtime at Adib's nursery after a morning talking to various groups about their projects. They are at very different stages; talking to one at idea stage, one at association stage, one at injecting sheep stage. Everybody drops in at the office for a chat so that Mohammed complains he gets no work, but this is the work.
Makes me even more convinced that this is how the community enterprise at Mytholmroyd will work and I am very excited about what we might do.
I am feeling a lot less queezy today so I am looking forward to lunch.
This afternoon and evening thoughts about schools and I hope that we can set up a real link between our schools and the Soqotra ones. Meeting with parents of one school tonight they wanted what all parents would want, a good school for their kids and a better world for every one.
So on my last night on Socotra what have I learned.
The incredible adaptability of humanity who can move from caves to fishermen in ten years
The importance of associations and using traditional structures to create them
To always want more than what you are offered. To push and push those who are in partnership.
The community enterprise centre and its place in any community a staffed office.
I am not breakable!

Just experienced a Yemini phenomena, a riot with laughter. People were waiting for the doors to open onto the runway at Soqora and for some reason there was a bit of a tussle. Yeminis don't queue so it was everyone for themselves. A small riot ensued but throughout it all everyone except the man at the door was laughing they even suggested I body surf to the front!
Was just about to suggest they form a queue but left it as this was much more fun. Also fun in that I met three people I knew, so much for travelling on my own.

Saturday 12th July
Just been for a walk around the sucke in Sana'a, I can't tell you how safe I feel on my own wandering about. Obviously it's me that has changed, picking the mood signals in people's faces, is easier now, working out what is safe is also easier. Friday afternoon is like Sunday afternoon in Britain, everybody's a bit chilled. Mind we don't have the Qat they traditionally chew after Friday Prayers. Tonight I either dine alone in the hotel or possibly the minister will invite me, he said he might. Quite frankly I don't care!
What makes a place safe we often ask in regeneration? A better question would be "what makes us feel safe?" what makes us feel safe is the journey we make inside our heads.

To the airport early for a departure to Aden and then London. Meet a man from the Yemeni community in Birmingham. It turns out he taugtht Khalid the young man from Islamic Relief we met a week ago. It feels right to come around to that first meeting making a bit of a circle. I think perhaps a trip to Birmingham in September would be a good idea.
As I sit on the plane silent, for a change, for eight hours Yemen starts to distance itself from me as the miles role on. Its impact and the insights I have discovered will not fade but hopefullly become all the clearer as I share my experiences with others.
I can't wait to tell my tales.

5.20 pm finds me home in Britain

Inbetween day

An awkward, inbetween, day recovering quickly from returning from Yemen yesterday and quickly gearing up for the trip to Australia the day after tomorrow. It’s Sunday and I am desperate to go to church but find it difficult to get to one which was open on a Sunday evening. In the end we had communion at home as a family which was really very moving. My daughter explains to her visiting boyfriend that we don’t normally do things like this which is true. Like many Christians our fiath is either in church or on our own.
This is so very different from faith in Yemen where people are comfortable to have prayers blasting out over loudspeakers, to break off into prayer in the middle of meetings. It’s not that they are more spiritual than us, they have their equivalent of hot and cooler Muslims nor is it that they have a more demonstrative faith, in many parts of the world Christianity is equally a public. It is something cultural: Britain has become a place uncomfortable with public expressions of faith.
If we are to make our proper contribution to society we need to work out what’s going on. Church and state need a new way to talk to each other because apart we can do so much less than we can do together.

home

To the airport early for a departure to Aden and then London. Meet a man from the Yemeni community in Birmingham. It turns out he taugtht Khalid the young man from Islamic Relief we met a week ago. It feels right to come around to that first meeting making a bit of a circle. I think perhaps a trip to Birmingham in September would be a good idea.
As I sit on the plane silent, for a change, for eight hours Yemen starts to distance itself from me as the miles role on. Its impact and the insights I have discovered will not fade but hopefullly become all the clearer as I share my experiences with others.
I can't wait to tell my tales.

5.20 pm finds me home in Britain

Home thought from abroad

I missed church yesterday in both senses of the word, it's a big wrench being away from my community on the day when we celebrate our faith. The journey is very hot but the meal we eat in a massive canteen is delicious. We pass the Anglican church in Adan which looks like someone picled up a village church and parachuted it into the centre of the town. A bit of Adan which shall remain forever England which looks quite frankly a bit bonkers.

The place we are staying for a night makes up for it a bit. A resort hotel in elephant bay, Adan, gives me an air conditioned room and a door that opens onto the beach. It is very beautiful and rests us ready for Soqotra.

Waking up early on the day of our flight I listen to the prayers which are accompanied by a chorus of crows who have also woken early... Not sure who woke who up but at the moment the crows are beating the prayers in volume in a weird dawn chorus.

It is five o'clock and I have home thoughts from abroad.

Tony asks every person we meet where are they from... Nobody is from where they are now but each has a village somewhere that is really home, a tribe which is really their people.

Maybe that's why the British when they were here built a church that looked like home, a tribal reminder that they had a home somewhere.

A map of Yemen so you can see the places I'm visiting

Faith provides sustainable projects

Despite the comfy room a bad nights sleep. How do you know if your temperatures up if its hot? Anyhow a sweaty night and a better morning.
Troubled this morning by a question what part did faith play in what we saw yesterday? I think quite a lot but not too obvious. There was the spiritual attachment and love of the land. The uniting of community prayer sung out across the mountain to remind one of the spiritual dimension of what they are doing. The reconciliation of disputes by the Imman.
Would the system work without faith? I don't know but my guess would be that it would not be as sustainable.
So here's another question for today, does faith make a community more or less sustainable?
Later on the way to Adan where we are catching the plane to Socatra the island where Toni does most of his work we find a bit of an answer. A community with the help of Islamic relief to pump water 12000 feet up a mountain so the women of the village don't have to carry the water on their heads. Originally the government scheme faltered but now through the mosque the local "parish council" it is flourishing and sustainable because of faith they are in it for the long haul.
Going up a half made dirt track in a very old land cruiser to the village 12000 feet up a mountain did wonders for my faith too.
Thinking of you all on a beach in Aden where it is 45 degrees in the shade.

A change of place or a change of heart

Tonight is my last night in Tais with which I now have mixed relationship. Last night it was a dump, today it's beautiful. The difference is to do with the state of mind when we arrived. Last night we arrived late in a dingy hotel with twitchy staff (as it turned out they had just had a flood that afternoon and were cleaning up the mess when we dropped in.) Having given me a speach about being careful because the streets were filled with sewage the hotel clothes accidentally dropped his clothes in it.
Tonight after a spiritual exoerience with a moutain top village we arrive to be greeted by friendly staff who after we bathed treated us like kings on their rooftop restaurant where viewing Tais from a distance we see it as a fairy land of lights and atmosphere.
Is Tais any different? No.
Any safer? Not really.
What's different?


We are...
As I told Tony this morning quoting Oscar Wilde; we may be in the gutter but we're looking at the stars.

Mountain top experience

Having come up in the car from tajs this morning I am sat at 12000 feet drinking tea with the men of the village as they chew qat. Its very relaxing, and no I am not chewing qat. We have been welcomed to this village as old friends. The comeraderie coming from our shared humanity though not language. Teaching the boys to make popping sound further builds a link. The food eaten with fingers is shared, the cigarettes shared, the building is shared, so is it surprising that work is shared.
Partnership comes from doing other things than work together. My partnership with Yorkshire Forward really began when we spent a night at Schipol airport.
This is a place for thinking. As they make their midday prayers I make mine and in this place I am overwhelmed by a great sense of thanksgiving flooding like the sudden into the terraces of my life causing this greening of praise. I am thankful for the great goodness of God in my journey so far, the great goodness of a wife and family, the great goodness of a community, a calling, an equipping, a partnership, a covenant, a love. I cry a little with the sense of God's goodness.
In the middle of prayers they break off in a chat then back to prayer, no threshold between spirituality and life. No bumps.
It will be hard to come off this moutaintop.

Homesick in Tajs

Had a bit of a disasterous evening after a good day. Today we travelled on an amazing mountain road over 10000 feet. It's funny to think of having driven over three times the height of Ben Nevis. Some of the villages we saw were amazing as they clung to the mountainside with their terrace housing. After this amazing journey we reacted badly to our otherwise reliable drivers losing the hotel.
It turned out to have been the victim of a recent flash flood which had wrecked the street outside, turning into what seemed like a mud bath although was probably worse.
The hotel made us feel unwelcome and made me feel homesick for the first time. To bed then and with text messaging out... Good night and dreams of Mytholmroyd.

NGOs

Extraordinary journey up the Wadi which is used as a "main" road when it's not got water in it. Made me think about whether we could do something similar with the Calder!
We were on our way to the minister for water's house which is well guarded but gorgeous on the inside. Talked about projects and issues and discovered a fear present in Britain too I guess, that some religious NGOs pretend not to be political but are. Incidentally why don't we have NGOs in Britain? We export them to other places and we certainly have organisations that fit the bill but they are not called NGOs, rather third sector.
The police check situation we encountered this morning was about such an NGO. Some grass roots community development groups pretend to be charity but have hidden political aspirations.
I guess this is where some of the nervousness lies in giving money to faith groups.
I would still contend that partnership provides a corrective on this. When you are visiting and advising how can hidden agendas remain hidden? We're going shopping then up into the mountains tomorrow, God willing, bismallah (I think that is what they say here) or is it enchallan! Tony says its good to use an odd word of their language as it shows respect to their culture and their faith as they learn it through the Koran.

Evening

Much, much later 6 hours on the most amazing road I have ever been on I am now in Tise which is a dump. It has sewers running in the street. It has expanded too quickly and the sanitation can't keep up. It's like a nightmare on regeneration street.

The hotel is the best of a very bad bunch. I have seen more of Yemen good and bad in the last twelve hours than I can quite take in.

Hoping all will look better in the morning when we go up into the mountains again.

Already feeling better as there is air conditioning in the room.

Morning

Just met up with people from islamic relief that the minister connected us with. Interesting conversation as one of them was british muslim from Birmingham. Talked a bit and discovered that internationally they belong to Disaster emergency relief committee which includes many christian charities. Wondered if we could use this structure in britain as well as internationally..

Talked also about how we can be regarded with suspicion as active people of faith. "what we are about is challenging people's opinions of faith - by your actions you are known." They sensibly said.

Talked about partnerships too and they suggested they were more sustainable in that they give pool of funding available.

PARTNERSHIPS RULES

Build trust with governments

Have to be very open

Not what you know who you know

ISSUES

Sometimes ngo 60 per cent goes to consultants

Bringing in experts undermines local people

People have own agendas

Credibility

BRIGHT IDEA

Beneficiary committee - non party grouping of thise who might benefit.

Silver oxide - clears dirty water.

At the moment I am being driven up into the hills to Tise? The two drivers are both chewing the local drug qat. They say it makes them better drivers.

I hope so!

Population explosion on plane

Sweeping down into Adan the first of our Yemeni stages we are presented with 1950s architecture left by the British after the suez crisis began the collapse of the British Empire in this region. It's 7 o'clock local time and it's good with open doors to sniff fresh air rather than the recycled stuff we've gathered on the way.
Lots of evidence of the oil industry mixed in with dramatic landscape of desert sand and black islands of rock. Hard to imagine anyone living here let alone loving here.
Tony and I talk of population growth up from 3 million in 1970 when he first came to 18 million with the engine of health care bringing the changes. They reckon locally it's only the education of women that will reverse the growth but that will take time. Time is the thing none of them have. As Carl Sagan said: "time is the oxygen in which we burn!"
At the moment they are asking if we are sure we are going on to Sana, as they have three extra passengers! Maybe the population is still growing even on the plane.
Sana and we arrive with a physical and cultural bump.
The first thing is how scruffy the outside of things are. This isn't helped by the unfinished buildings. These are the result of a tax dodge... You have to pay tax if you finish a building so no building is ever fully finished. I am beginning to wonder whether this thing of not completing things might also be part of their character... I quite like it and wonder whether every project would benifit from being left a bit unfinished.
The second shock are the children begging by the car and selling things. Generally there were morechildren around but less women.
The third shock is the military road blocks which are to stop guns running to the north. I smile as I am told there's always trouble from the north.
The fourth shock is the hospitality of men. The separation of men and women seems to give men permission to be very close publically to each other. So they hold hands and when they meet one another there is much kissing. They are a bit shy with new people so I haven't been kissed yet! Tony says the closeness of men is what he most misses when he is away from Yemen, I can see why you might.
Its very hot and Yemen's gone to sleep. At four we go to visit the minister for water a good man and an interesting one I am told... Till then I think I will join the Yemenis for a zuzz.

building resilient communities

Manchester airport and waiting for my flight to London and then on to Yemen, returning on 13th if that's a Saturday. I have been encouraged to take a big question with me... To kind of pursue at all costs.
For Yemen it is going to be: "what place does religion play in building a resilient community?"
I think, but don't know yet that this is one of the main contributions that faith groups can make is the ability to keep communities of people going when things get difficult. That is certainly their role in Yemen as far as I can see from britain...
But maybe it's like in the Simpsons movie, when disaster hits the people in church run to the pub and the people in the bar run to church!

Trust Games

Everything's packed and I am as ready as I'll ever be for my tirp to Yemen.
I am to say the least a little anxious.
It feels like that time when somebody persuaded me to go on a roller coaster. I've never liked the things preferring to be in a situation where I do the driving not gravity. Usually when I was a teenager I would get my friends to go on them with my then girlfriend Catherine.
Anyhow I was dragged on to this roller coaster at Morecambe which would be old and probably very slow so I thought.
More like terrifying and without any of the modern safety harnesses, it was needless to say the last time I went on a roller coaster.
You see the thing is that whilst in entrepeneurial terms I do take risks they often carried out with me in the driving seat.
Tomorrow is all about trusting others, planes, companions, weather, a nation, God even! I worry that my trust bubble will burst and I will panic. Sudden my quest and my trip seem a bit frivolous, a bit too high a risk.

Just had a thought, how foolish to think that I am ever really in the driving seat, it's all an adventrue and Yemen is just the latest one.

When I first came to Cragg I used to visit a blind old lady called Hilda Pickles. we became good friends but the first time I met her she said to me:
"do you trust in the lord vicar?"
It was a bit bold for a first encounter but I answered "Yes!"
She said that I would be all right...
She's been right so far, I will keep on trusting.