A defining moment happened on Monday of Christmas week, as I was driving from Bingham Academy to the SIM HQ clinic for my first day doing the job I came here to do. It wasn't the unusually chaotic and gridlocked traffic at the bottom of the road from Bingham, although as a result I had to go a different way - a route I wasn't sure of. It wasn't the unexpected closure of a major road with no hint of a diversion or where to go (they've dug the road up to install a light railway system).

I don't have a lot to report on this week, although I'll blog about Christmas at some point. Anyway, to save me from getting bored I created a map on Google Maps that has some pins in it showing where a few significant places are. Top left is Bingham Academy; even more top left is Lemma's place which has been a focus of a lot of my blogging so far.

Supermarkets (think little independent places in small seaside towns in Britain) require a vehicle to reach them. I needed a few items so I shared a friend's regular taxi. The taxi was 40 years old and the driver looked double that. There was a wooden bench seat at the back and I slid in along with two Ethiopian ladies. The back doors just had a couple of ratchet stubs where the door handle and the window winder should have been, and our driver produced a winder from the glove box and leaned over to close the door and the window.

I'm in clinic today and I want to tell you about Haile. (It’s not his real name but a lot of people here are called Haile. I have also changed the details to preserve confidentiality.) He came to consult with me about a simple problem; nothing taxing for me as a hackneyed old British GP – I’ve seen tens of thousands of problems like his, literally! Haile is middle aged, and struggled into my room coping with a significant physical deformity. I dealt with his presenting problem and asked him about his deformity.