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!