After a relaxed weekend came a rollercoaster Monday. We ran yesterday and suffered a bit as a result. The lingering tiredness today probably contributed to feeling sluggish, lethargic and completely unmotivated. When I'm in that state the many minor nuisances of working life here start to take on overwhelming proportions. By lunchtime I just really really wanted to escape from this country and be in the UK. The sheer difficulty in getting some things done and the constant background of poverty can be too much sometimes.

After lunch Gill and I had to go to the Ethiopian Airlines office in town to collect our plane tickets. I'm off to Addis Ababa on Thursday to attend a volunteers committee meeting and Gill flies to Addis on Saturday. In the Ethiopian Airlines office three things hit me straight away: the two ferenjis sorting out the next leg of their tour, the posters advertising travel to lots of interesting places and the flat screen PC monitors. I felt like I was in an outpost of a world I've not been part of for a long time. The sprice juice I had afterwards (separate layers of papaya, avocado, guava, mango and pineapple juices served in a tall glass) reminded me of some of the pleasurable aspects to life here. In the short time I had left in college I managed to find the physics lab assistant and see the physics kit they've got. It didn't take long as all of the kit would fit into one of the cupboards in our house. At least I managed to find enough to do a demo in my lesson tomorrow, and my mood started to lift. Sometimes the small achievements are important.