Our radio is a lifeline. We have a World Space radio, which receives radio stations which are broadcast by a satellite. There are dozens of different stations, but only about five are “unlocked” when you buy the radio (fortunately including the BBC World Service). To “unlock” the rest you have to buy a subscription. We finally decided to commit ourselves and spend $60 on the World Space website for an unlock code. It’s turned out to be $60 well spent. As well as CNN, Fox Sport and other BBC services, we have some fantastic music channels. My current favourite is “Ngoma”, an African dance music channel. There is very little talk, and it is in English, so there is almost continuous music. It’s all very happy and cheerful music with fantastic rythms.

Friday was a public holiday (Ethiopian Patriots Day) and my HDP candidates agreed to come to college to attend two sessions. On Monday they had arranged themselves into groups and they were assigned a new active learning technique. Each group had to prepare 10 mins of microteaching to be delivered to the rest of the group on Friday. They all did very well and some good discussion and feedback was generated.

We have spent more time this week thinking about having a break in July. We want to go trekking in Bale Mountains National Park, but July is not good for weather. I am increasingly clear about wanting to visit the UK in July. I want some time amongst the familiar and without being hassled.