The vegetation was amazing too – we learnt different tree and shrub names and walked a lot of the time on a carpet of thyme. At one hut we drank fresh mint tea – mint just grows wild in many areas. Hussein knew so much about all the different plants and their uses – part of one tree is used to treat intestinal worms!

Anyway, I will add some more photos and finish by saying get there if you can! A fabulous few days.

A bit of a roller coaster day today – started it feeling a bit dissatisfied with what I was doing here and the prospect of the next placement and finished on a high following a fabulous session with my Higher Diploma group. The last module in the course is on action research and two of the groups were presenting their projects. They were really inspirational, really fired up and enthusiastic about what they had done and how it could be used to change things in the future at the college. Wow!

I had been feeling frustrated that I wasn’t able to impact on the management of the college but I have managed to fix a meeting with the new Dean tomorrow so we will see what happens. We did a joint session last week – both HDP groups, management and us – on institutional evaluation and action planning. It was also quite dynamic – loads of ideas raised about the direction of the college and how systems and policies can be strengthened further. I really want to be able to build on it but I guess the idea is that the existing staff do that!