The Sudan - 17

Well the little bird that was flying round our workshop appears to have got out somehow, but hes been replaced with an 8" lizard scurrying around the ceiling. Thank heavens for their little sticky feet - id be mortified if that fella fell on me.

Our car got stopped again by the police on way to the venue this morning. This time it felt a little more agitated. We had a different driver - a bit less cool than our usual driver Jamal, and the policeman was a bit more scruffy in his tatty blue uniform than the crisp white uniformed policeman the other day. I think the blue boys are traffic cops. There was a lot of shouting and arguing through the opened drivers window until the driver was ordered out and marched off to a waiting police car. In the confusion, my colleague who speaks arabic, explained that we were running late for a "meeting with the minister of finance" (which is in part true, but he wasnt actually attending the meeting himself today) - within minutes we were back on our way! Ah the life of diplomatic immunity! Turns out the the fracas was over the fact that our driver had been on his mobile phone. The police werent bothered about the act but the fact that in the processes of being on his phone he was delaying the traffic!

Today was as predictable as every other 5 day workshop ive ever run. Today we hit the low point. It always comes. Its the point when the delegates and facilitators and stakeholders (who are all starting to get a bit tired - thinking is tough work) start to realise that the end of the event is in sight and we have got so many loose ends that seem impossible to tie up. The agenda slips as people get into more heated debate, and frustrations rise as it appears to different parties that we might be going in wrong directions. Fortunately experience comforts me - its a bit like going to the dentist - you know that its going to hurt for a while, but you also know its going to be alright in the end.

Its interesting just how much stickier blu-tac is here that it is in England. you almost have to apply it with a trowel here, it kind of drips. in the uk i often have to kneed blu-tac to create some warmth and stickiness - not so here, the heat softens everything. There must be a product opportunity for blu-tac to exploit in this phenominum. As an aside i also notice that the gunk that i put in my hair (we may be helping the starving millions, but one has still got to look good!) is also much easier to apply

Starving, poverty stricken people - its a crying shame, and yet the solution appears to be so complex. Is it just about money? Could money solve starvation? I posed the question - what if David Beckham were to donate one million pounds a year to a village of 500 people (he could easily afford it and 500 people might be saved - "Beckham Village where life is not a game" - would that solve starvation and poverty for that community? A response to this that made me laugh was that the first thing that everyone would do would be to by a plane ticket and go and live in Paris! Good point - too much money would just offset the problem to somewhere else. But if managed properly could cash injection cure poverty? could it educate people - im sure it could fund a solar powered internet hub and teaching facilities. Could it create a sustainable wealth providing employment? Agriculture appears difficult, supply and demand is all topsy turvy - food prices are rising and yet the market for the crops they grow is dropping. But what about creating say,a village call center? why couldnt Beckham village build a call center for services to the rest of the world? this might help the people fund the import of water and staple foods. Of course on its own, Beckham Village would have to fortress itself against the bandits and beggers (and maybe even Governments) who would be constantly invading to have some of those precious goods.... but what if all our developed-World celebrity superstars sponsored a village of their own. We could have "Jagger Town", "Dolce&Gabbana village" and "P Diddy Hamlets" Why we might even get a "Bono Bogs" and "Sting city". Could it work?

Arrgh! did i take my Malaria tablet yesterday??