Trips are for only four to six people, visiting the remote parish of Mequat Mariam and other villages, as well as treks to the Abuna Yoseph mountain where much of the income goes directly to the villagers who decide collectively how to spend it.
Barnstorming performances by South African musician Hugh Masekela, Mali's Amadou and Mariam, who were introduced by singer Cerys Matthews, and later by Lianne La Havas, Rosemary Nalden, the choir Only Boys Aloud and Plan B, all won cheers of appreciation, while, as befitted the historic London venue, dance also enjoyed its moment in the limelight too.
Nick Zinner was with Rokia Traoré; Damon was at one point with Amadou and Mariam.
This frontline at Mariam Bek marks the new 1,000km faultline along which Iraq is fracturing.
Meles Zenawi, who had been in power ever since his forces ousted the Marxist junta of Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, was the Horn's dominant figure and the West's main ally in the region.
Over the years, and against a backdrop of civil war and the rise of the Taliban, a bond develops between Mariam and Laila as they become allies in a personal war against their husband, a man they despise for his violence but upon whom they depend for survival.The book works well on several levels.
The same is true for other Malian stars including Habib Koite, Boubacar Traoré, Amadou and Mariam, a couple who met in Bamako's school for the blind, and a Touareg group called Tinariwen.
In place of a bad old regime run by grasping and incompetent landlords, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam and his colleagues have installed a bad new regime run by doctrinaire and incompetent soldiers.
On May 8th Mesfin Wolde Mariam, a veteran human-rights campaigner, and Berhanu Nega, an academic, were arrested, accused of stirring up the students.
He had travelled to Tripoli with his sister Mariam.
He cannot forgive Mr Mugabe for sheltering Mengistu Haile Mariam, the bloody dictator who has been sentenced to death in absentia in Ethiopia but lives in comfort in Zimbabwe.By contrast, Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, starred at the forum, despite his left-wing provenance and education in East Germany.
