I’m fascinated by the way many Ethiopians can amble along in a way that looks as if they are barely moving, and yet they are walking at a reasonable speed. What’s the point of rushing in a hot climate? Ferenji stand out not just because of the colour of our skin, but because we try and walk at the pace we would do at home. Fasil and family have a maid who comes most days to clean and cook. She has an absolutely fascinating way of walking. She has a smoothly fluid walking motion with a gentle rolling of her hips. At first sight she doesn’t appear to be getting anywhere, but she moves at a reasonable speed in a seemingly effortless way.

Anyway, my HDP sessions are going OK, I think. The candidates seem happy and say they are enjoying it. They engage willingly with all the activities, and are enthusiastic about being exposed to student-centred active learning techniques. Some of them are trying out some of the tools we have used already, and yet there’s the depressingly familiar “Top Dog” voice in my head intruding with messages such as “they are actually bored”, “they think you’re no good at this”, etc. I haven’t been teaching since mid-December and I haven’t heard those messages since then. Well, Top Dog has woken up and the same old familiar, intrusive, unhelpful messages I often experienced in the classroom have returned. Something to think about: a complete change of scenery doesn’t leave all the old habits behind.

The morning run is becoming a very satisfying habit. Every second morning we get up at 5.15am and run. We do a circuit including Tabor Hill and get to see dawn develop, and arrive back at the house around sunrise. Today I ran on my own. The running routine starts with feeling awful and grumpy when the alarm goes off, then feeling leaden and stiff for the first 10 minutes of the run, then 40 minutes of pleasure and pain followed by an endorphin rush and looking forward to doing it again. The first 20 minutes is in darkness (there are almost no street lights) and is often adventurous due to the rough ground, the crazy stray dogs, the few especially crazy Ethiopians cycling to church with no lights and the occasional donkey standing in the middle of the road. The last 10 minutes are along a main street in daylight, with gawping Ethiopians being entertained by the sight of a sweaty Ferenji running for pleasure.

Although Ethiopia has some famous runners (e.g. Haile Gebreselassie), most of our colleagues appear completely unable to understand why anyone would want to exercise and push themselves physically for pleasure. Even their great runners became runners because they had to run many miles each day simply to go to school. Walking long distances or physically exerting yourself is associated with poverty, which might explain the bemusement and concern of our colleagues when we insist on cycling or walking to college every day instead of using the bus. Football though is different. Nearly everyone here is obsessed with the English Premiership: there are more Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea supporters here than I have ever met at home.