The appliance of science never stops impressing me, especially here where we get left out of most technological developments. I've written this entry using “StarOffice Writer”. StarOffice is an opensource equivalent to Microsoft Office, supplied by the Open University as part of the materials they supply you with before commencing a course. It's free, includes “Writer” (equivalent to “Word”), “Impress” (equivalent to “Powerpoint”) and “Calc” (equivalent to “Excel”), and I've just installed it on our laptop, out of curiosity. Not only does it do everything Office does but it appears to be better AND creates files in conventional Office formats or opendocument formats. Guess what: the opendocument formats produce smaller file sizes than Microsoft Office formats.

It's been a very slow return to work. Meleshew is away all summer at Mekele University (which I knew about) and Mulugeta has apparently gone to Harar (in the east of the country) to visit his family, but he hasn't returned yet despite being due last Friday. The fact that I'm counterpart-less is an issue for what I do with myself, but nowhere near as big an issue as the fact that nobody at college seems even slightly concerned that he is now a week overdue. He could have been killed in a road accident and his late return from holiday would be a possible disciplinary issue in the UK, but here everyone has just shrugged their shoulders and said that maybe he'll be back at the weekend. So I've done some small bits and pieces at work (such as rewriting the placement description for the volunteer who will replace me; a surprisingly enjoyable activity given I still have five months of work to do) but nothing to keep me fully occupied.

While walking to college on Thursday morning we passed a couple of children squatting by the roadside in full view and defecating, smiling at us and shouting “hello”. I'd forgotten how normal that is here.

What has been nice is the number of college staff who have welcomed us back with a feeling and expressiveness that's usually absent. Welcoming back people who have been away on a trip is an important social convention here, and all of the welcomes include being asked about the health of your family. This to me gives three insights into Ethiopian life: the importance of family, all non-work related trips are to visit your family (there is no concept of a holiday for fun/pleasure/interest/recreation/etc in the “developed”-world sense) and the state of your family's health is an important matter given the very poor state of health care. We've been surprised by some of the staff who have greeted us with enthusiasm when they normally wouldn't make any effort to talk with us.

I've found the last three days quite difficult. I loved being in the UK and to come back here to no work is a bit of an anticlimax. I've been more conscious of the poverty here since I returned and a wee bit guilty about how much I enjoyed all the opportunities to consume (even if I couldn't afford it) while in the UK. Ethiopia seemed a long way away, mentally, while in the UK and the reality of the state of the place has had to sink in all over again. My spirits lifted a lot last night when Gill and I went out to a tourist restaurant called Habisha Kitfo to meet Steve & Gemma. The restaurant is a “tourist” restaurant in that it's decorated with all the trappings of Ethiopia you'd find in an Ethiopian restaurant in London. It was though, very nice. The food was good, but the company was a tonic. As well as Gemma & Steve, we were joined by three British 1^st year medical students on an exchange visit to the University Hospital; Jacob & Lea, two Belgians who BICYCLED from Belgium to Ethiopia (via the Middle east) and are working in an orphanage in Gondar; a Finnish couple, who are working with Gemma in the eye clinic; Kate, a Canadian physiotherapist working at the hospital for a few weeks; Micky, a Japanese physio also at the hospital; Nigist, an Ethiopian who works for an NGO caring for the 2000 street children in Gondar; and an Italian who could only speak Italian and French (the Belgians being french speakers were very useful here). What a great night. I think both Gill and I had been feeling a bit down during the day. When you both work in the same place but have no work to do it's very easy to hit a low spot where you both have absolutely nothing to talk about. Blethering with people from a “northern” culture was a real boost. Yes, it's not always good to socialise with ferenji, as it hardly helps you to integrate into local culture, but sometimes I just can't be bothered with the whole integrating thing. It's nice to be able to talk in a culturally familiar way about culturally familiar things without the extra drag of doing so in slowly pronounced English so you might be understood. I like learning new things about Ethiopian culture, but I'm also more honest about how integrated I want to be or can be given the time we have left to us. I am afterall here to do a job, a job I care about and believe in, and am not looking to immigrate.

We went for our first run on Friday morning. Getting up at 4.45am was the usual horror, but the starry sky and that beautiful crescent moon, with the crescent along the “bottom” edge of the moon, is something I wish I could photograph. My running performance left a lot to be desired. I'll blame it on having to re-acclimatise to the altitude and four weeks of UK food.