The UK seems far away in time and distance. Our life has settled back into a familiar and pleasant routine. Our vastly improved DVD collection and our new stock of books brought from the UK have made our evenings more interesting. The climate here now is so different from a month ago. The main rainy season (the “long rains”) has started. Most of the really heavy rain seems to fall overnight reducing the streets to a slimy mudbath, while the days are cool (what Ethiopians call “cold”!) and often cloudy. I have had to wear a fleece a few times, and Friday afternoon brought the unexpected and much daydreamed about experience of cold fingers!! I love the new temperatures but miss the continuous sunshine we had become used to since we arrived.

Work has not been so good this week. The summer programme has been delayed by a week, so with no teaching going on in the college I’ve had little to do apart from run my HDP sessions. Next week will be better as there will be lots of lesson observations for me to do. Boredom, frustration and under-stimulation are common experiences and are just part of life here. The sheer inefficiency of the college administration can be stunning and raises interesting issues about when and how we should offer our advice on improving admin and planning. A lot of the time we have to bite our tongues. There is too much we don’t know about the politics, relationships and social hierarchies in the college to sensibly go offering our views without causing offence. At times I think we have to walk a fine line between offering advice and keeping our thoughts to ourselves.

After three weeks in the UK we are back. Visiting the UK was an eye-opening experience. Just over 24 hours after leaving Addis I was walking along Oxford Street in London, filled with feelings of fascination and horror. Everybody seemed very rich and pre-occupied with buying “stuff” they don’t need. Two things struck me most of all: the orgy of consumerism and just how many fat people there are. After visiting friends and family, Gill and I spent a week camping and walking in the Lake District. Britain seemed so green to me. I hated London and any built up areas, but the countryside seemed incredibly beautiful. When we come back for good we will have to live somewhere remote and rural if only to stay sane.

Coming back to Ethiopia was a pleasant anticlimax. Walking the streets of Addis and then arriving back in Awassa seemed very familiar and normal. Compared to the UK everybody here is so friendly and cheerful. Everybody smiles here. Even being the centre of attention in the street doesn’t seem so bad right now. The weather is cooler than London and life is back to being very simple.