I'm gradually getting into the habit of working, although I don't start leading any sessions until Monday. Today started badly when I accidentally fried our voltage surge protector at home. It's a box which regulates the voltage of the somewhat erratically "regulated" mains supply. I stupidly plugged the iron into it forgetting about how much current this would draw. After a few seconds of thinking "some idiot is burning plastic outside" I realised that the idiot was the one holding the iron connected to the now-smoking surge protector. I was momentarily annoyed that the fuse in the surge box didn't blow. Me and my high expectations. A quick look around some shops tonight has revealed a cheapest price of 200 birr for a new one. That's a lot (we can eat out in a restaurant very well for 20 birr each), and is probably a Ferenji price. I will now have to ask Fasil (our landlord) for help only two days after he helped me get my bike sorted out.

On the plus side, we had our first mail delivery in Awassa. Two packages arrived successfully in the college PO box; one from Amazon (only £14 p&p for two small books!) and one from a friend, Sue. Her package included a selection of fruit teabags (unavailable here), blu tack (completely unknown in Ethiopia) and a bar of Green & Blacks chocolate. Decent chocolate simply doesn't exist here, although we can get half-decent Snickers. Quite cleverly Sue didn't declare the chocolate on the customs notification. We know from other people that chocolate and other goodies are often knicked. The most bizarre was somebody who was sent a package of six toblerone and on arrival, one was missing! Todays delivery was eyewateringly delicious. The post office notified the college about our Amazon package today while claiming it actually arrived on the 15th. We therefore had to pay a "storage charge" of 5 birr for the 15 days they had to "look after it for us". Hmmmm...