Back from Addis, laden with apples, leeks, green beans, cheese and tofu! Had a good few days, working at the Ministry and catching up with people. Great to be part of a professional community – it is so isolated here in Gondar.

Booked flights while I was there, returning to the UK for four weeks in July. I’m going to do the Scottish 6 days orienteering - can’t wait! We will try and change the flights so that we can stop off in Egypt and see the pyramids – since we will be passing by anyway.

Today is a holiday here to celebrate the downfall of the Derg. Still, we are in training now (ha!) so the alarm went off at 4.45 am. Michael’s first words to me were “good morning” followed rapidly by “come on else I’ll go without you”. Sometimes I hate him. He’s been running twice whilst I’ve been in Addis and he is completely unbearable if he goes running and I don’t – he gloats all day! Anyway, as usual, as soon as I am out I love it.

Things have picked up a bit, workwise. I had a very promising meeting with the Dean of the college and a couple of the senior managers, starting to discuss some of the issues and brainstorm solutions. We are meeting again this week and the Dean seems really keen to move things forward. I’m off to Addis again on Tuesday to do more work at the Ministry of Education on the teacher trainers CPD programme and am hoping to meet someone working in staff development in the universities. Maybe there is more work out there! Mike and I did some training with a local school about active learning – we used a first floor classroom and there was a storm brewing. The wind was howling through the broken window (it was a private school, so at least it had windows) and I had visions of my matching activity blowing allover the place. Fortunately, the wind had died down sufficiently by the time we got to it.

No rude comments about the haircut please. I despair of finding anyone who can do a decent job here.

We have put our visit to the UK back to July. I am hoping to be able to get to the Scottish 6 days too (orienteering). Schools here have a long break in July and August. College will be open but there are allsorts of extension classes running so people are generally busier in summer than at any other time. Nobody really takes holidays here. Anyway, it will be a year since we were last back and we are both badly in need... of many things really, but mostly just what passes for normality in the UK. Hopefully I won't hate it all as much as last time! I really want to catch up with people - see if you have all aged as much as I think I have!

In the volunteers room at the VSO office in Addis! Very severe haircut - and this was after trying the salon at the Hilton! Hideously expensive - about 70 birr (£5). Normally we pay about 20 birr.

Don’t know how long it is since I last blogged. I think the government is blocking blogs as we haven’t been able to get access for some time.

Feeling quite positive at the moment – just got back from a busy few days in Addis. Usually I hate Addis but I enjoyed it this time. We arrived at Gondar airport on Tuesday just in time to watch Ian Paisley and the rest make their power sharing speeches. It was quite a bizarre experience as the whole thing seemed to come out of the blue. Although we get the Guardian Weekly newspaper and listen to the World Service on the radio we are quite cut off from events in the UK. Very moving speeches really and gives some hope for the future. We had just re-watched Hotel Rwanda the night before so bloody conflict was in our minds!

The weaver birds are tapping at the window. It really isn’t possible to sleep in here at the weekends – if you aren’t woken by the church or next doors cockerel then the birds will knock and wake you! The church is the worst though, they start at 5 am, sometimes earlier.

Finally I have a new programme manager at VSO and I managed to meet him and discuss the difficulties with my placement. I think I have just begun to make progress with management at college but it is all a bit like tightrope walking. To keep sane I have been busy re-writing the Action Research module of the Higher Diploma and starting to change the assessment process and that work will keep me busy until July. I’ve told VSO they need to find me something more challenging! So I am quite optimistic and if they can’t find anything then I will look for a short term placement elsewhere. Mike is keen to stay on here until February.

We will definitely be back in the UK in July, I just need to work the dates out around a workshop in Addis. I am looking forward to catching up with people and also with exploring possibilities for work when I return longer term. We attended a leavers workshop in Addis this week – started thinking about all the things to do to prepare for going back. I think this seems more daunting than it was preparing to come out here in the first place.

The OU course is going well. I am really enjoying all the research, both reading accounts of other people’s research and beginning my own. We are definitely technically challenged here tho – I am interested in exploring further the links between geometrical constructions and proof and obviously all the research talks about using dynamic geometry software to do this. Here it is a challenge to get pencils and compasses! I probably could get some access to IT for some students but they won’t be able to use it where they end up teaching. When only 50% of the population get primary schooling it isn’t really a priority. The Open University library is fabulous, I didn’t realise there were so many education journals out there, all accessible over the internet. We have also made use of it to find research on best practice in teacher CPD as well as initial teacher training. Anyhow, I better get on now – there are two assignments to do before I return to the UK and a big project to think about!