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were so few trees in this country.
    This time it was Marcel who explained. It was because of the embargo. This country had for a long time been run by quite bad people, but one day even worse people took over, which ended up by annoying countries like Hector’s. And so the presidents and prime ministers of those countries had got together and voted for an embargo to force the bad people to resign. An embargo is when a country isn’t allowed to buy from or sell to other countries, so that it becomes even poorer, and the inhabitants get angry and this forces their country’s leaders to behave properly or resign. The problem is that it never works, because in general the leaders of those countries couldn’t care less if their people starve, even the babies, whereas the people who voted for the embargo come from countries where people and babies are looked after, and they can’t understand it, and so the embargo continues and the babies grow thinner and their mothers are very sad.
    It hadn’t been good for the trees either, because since the country was unable to buy oil or gas due to the embargo, people living in towns had had to go and cut wood in order to build fires to do their cooking. As a result, in many places there were no more trees. And this meant that the rain had washed away the soil and all that was left was big hills of rock, and rocks aren’t much use unless you like collecting them.
    ‘And now,’ Marcel said, ‘the United Nations wants to finance a reforestation project, but have you ever seen trees growing out of rock?’
    Marcel didn’t look very happy as he was saying all this; he seemed a little angry at the United Nations (the people who had voted for the embargo), even though the bad people who’d been running the country had finally gone. But, if the bad people had gone, why did it seem as if things were not getting better? Marcel explained that the people here had elected a president who was a good man and had always been against the bad people who were there before, but that as soon as he became leader himself he’d become a bit like them.
    Finally the road began to climb, and they came to a prettier area with trees and small villages, and Hector noticed that the people he saw along the roadside looked happier, and when the car slowed down to pass a donkey or a cart, the children didn’t come up to beg.
    They stopped in front of a building next to a small church. Above it was written ‘Health Centre’ and outside on a bench in the shade lots of African women were waiting with their babies.
    They smiled at Hector when they saw him go in with Jean-Michel, and Jean-Michel explained that they must think that Hector was a new doctor, which wasn’t entirely untrue after all, because, contrary to what some people say, psychiatrists are real doctors!
    Inside there were some other young African women in white coats examining babies, and a young man, too. They looked very pleased to see Jean-Michel and Hector arrive. Jean-Michel explained that they were all nurses, but that they did a lot of the same things that doctors in Hector’s country do, and that he only went there to see children who had slightly more complicated illnesses. Because after going there, Jean-Michel had three more health centres to visit.
    Hector left him to work and went outside to find Marcel smoking a pipe in the shade of the trees. He asked Marcel why people seemed happier here than in the city.
    ‘In the country you can always get by with a bit of land and some chickens. And families stay together, people support each other. In the city people can’t manage without money. And families crack under the strain, and there’s a lot of alcohol and drugs, and people see what they could buy if they only had the money. There aren’t as many temptations here.’
    Hector told himself that this reminded him of at least three of the lessons he’d already written down.
    But he had also learnt another:
    Lesson no. 11: Happiness is