Monday afternoon and it is chucking it down. We could see the rain coming when we were cycling back up the hill after lunch. Fantastic black skies, with the Rift Valley mountains obscured.

Today seemed to be the first day of term here, there were some schools open at the end of last week but loads more kids around today, all clutching stacks of new exercise books and some wearing new uniforms. All seems quite different to a new term at home. All instructors were meant to report back to college today and there was supposed to be a big meeting about the changes in the college structure but now enough people came so the meeting will happen some other time. Can you imagine?! I mean, either you are supposed to report back or you aren’t…. Obviously there are problems with the system. Instead today the management have interviewed 16 potential new staff for the degree programme – they needed to increase the number of instructors with masters degrees.

We don’t have much to do right now. We have two more weeks with no HDP classes and we have caught up with marking now so I am searching for employment. Theres are loads of things I could be doing but they are only useful if the college think they are. I am quite frustrated in this role really – I’d love to be more involved in the management of the college instead of being confined to the Higher Diploma programme. Oh well, only a couple of months to go here. Mind you I don’t know if things will be any better in the new placement.

I was thinking the other day – as I was doing the usual ten minute hurtle down the rutted track on my bike at breakneck speed, hoping there was enough life left in my brakes to stop me in case some unsuspecting pedestrian stepped out in front of me or I got too close to a gari driver’s whip - I was thinking of the London Underground. Well, particularly of Ange and that daily journey home on tube, train and foot. I hope, Ange, that the journey has improved (unlikely) or that you will be plotting some way to escape it – even if that is only the next holiday. Mid September, what signs are there of Autumn – definitely my favourite season.

There was an article in the Guardian weekly where someone was suggesting paying £500 for students who get A’s in their maths A Levels. I’m all for promoting maths but surely there is another way?

We are hoping to go to the Bale mountains next week and I asked a couple of colleagues if they wanted to come – since we are paying for guides anyway I figured we may as well make good use of them. Anyhow, they looked at me as if I was mad. People don’t have holidays here in the way we do – if there is time off work then mostly people go and visit their families and that is it. The only time people have travelled outside their own area is when they have been assigned to college or university in some far flung part of the country (part of a deliberate policy to spread students from the same ethnic groups out to minimise potential conflict) or on a rare field trip. Can you imagine that – you people who are off to exotic destinations at the mere sniff of a school holiday?

Rain has stopped. Mostly it is heavy but short lived here – not like the drizzle that can cloak parts of the UK for days at a time! Better find some work to do.

Had a fantastic evening yesterday – a couple we know got married and had evening drinks at a lakeside hotel as part of the celebration. It was an Irish-Ethiopian wedding, with quite a contingent of family and friends out from Ireland for the occasion. So I had gin and tonic (very large gin with very little tonic on an empty stomach) at the lake whilst the sun went down and we were entertained by the Awassa Youth Campus theatre – a local group who specialise in amazing gymnastic performances. There was lots of tumbling and an incredible contribution from a wee guy who must have been 3 or 4 years old. It would never get past health and safety regulations in the UK but the whole thing was breathtaking. The backdrop of the Rift Valley hills and the lake was fab. Sadly, we didn’t take the camera so you will have to take my word for it. The group somehow manage to incorporate storey telling and traditional music and dance into their shows. After that there was a group rendition of Molly Malone followed by the Hokey Cokey before we were restored to Ethiopian traditional music and song accompanied by a mesinko player.

Afterwards we had a long walk home in the darkness and I cooked up tagabeno. This is a fabulous local dish. It involves a pile of fresh tomatoes, red onions and garlic cooked in a liberal amount of olive oil. Berberi (a blend of about 14 spices including chillies, cardamom, cloves, ginger, garlic, onions, cinnamon & basil) is then added followed by shiro (powdered chick peas I think!). Tagebeno is best served with injera but it is also the best way to disguise the crap white bread you get here. It all seemed to soak up the gin very well.

Last Monday was New Years Day so we had a couple of days off work. A very quiet, relaxing, long weekend. We were invited out to breakfast with a couple of colleagues – really good to have some normal, social contact with Ethiopians! We also climbed Lamora (a local hill) again last weekend. The route back takes you past lots of local toukals (traditional houses) and involves lots of greetings and handshakes. So many wonderful smiles…

College is quiet at the moment as there are no classes. Big changes afoot though as plans for expansion progress. They are opening a medical and a business faculty this term and the education faculty is expanding to offer degree courses. The other day we were showing a new VSO worker around college only to be surprised by a gym full of bodies – not real ones, demonstration ones for the medical faculty. All white, bizarrely. They have since been moved to a “demonstraton classroom”. College are also opening several branches, one in Arba Minch, about a day to the south and another in a town just south of here. Several of our candidates on the HDP are in line for a range of positions at these colleges, ranging from registrars to academic deans. Not sure what impact that will have on our course as they might leave Awassa before we have finished the HDP. Another thing which will affect the Higher Diploma is people leaving to go and do Masters degrees in Addis. Although courses will start this month, perspective students do not yet know whether they have gained places. Demand far outstrips the number of places available – someone said for one course there were about 30 places and several hundred applicants. And everyone wants to do a masters degree here, it is the way to get on.

My Spoken English class! Sadly, we had our last lesson together on Friday - all that remains now is the final exam. I will miss them!

Had a great walk this morning, about three and a half hours, up a local hill. Had to set off around 7 am before it got too hot!