This could arguably be the busiest week I’ve experienced here in Ethiopia. Not least because it’s been the week of the Christmas play. The children have worked hard and have had three opportunities to show off their talents. Performances to Middle and High school as well as Elementary and of course the parents. The stars, camels and sheep all fitted their part sporting smart themed headbands adorned with wool.

 However we did manage to select the most non-maternal Mary ever. As she became distracted, baby Jesus was held variously by a leg or arm or she even put him across her knees and used him as an elbow rest. Despite many demonstrations showing how to cradle a baby from adults and children alike, she just didn’t get it.

7.30 a.m. on the day of the first performance and there were several people staring up at the ceiling in my classroom as I entered. They were all looking at drips of water falling down into a bucket on the floor. This particular leak was in a different place from last time and the ceiling was bowing downwards placing tension on the strip light fitting. All of which added interest to the start of the day.

I used to enjoy going to the Gym at Herts Uni on my way home from work in the UK and was really happy that I could kind of replicate that experience here. There are a few differences though.

Take this week for example. On entering the building our back packs were searched and Phil was patted down. The female guard was busy greeting someone which always takes a while, so I could walk straight through. The Gym is part of a shopping complex that opened five or six years ago. Which is surprising, given its state of repair.

Once inside the gym we wrote our names on a piece of paper and the time of arrival (there is no requirement to sign out!) I was handed a greyish towel that had never seen the inside of a tumble dryer I’m sure. However, the Gym is very well equipped with machines and I selected one of the treadmills that had a display which was illuminated. I was a little curious that the diagram showing ideal weight/exercise goes up to the age of 100. Given that I’ve not seen any foreigners here anywhere near that age and the average lifespan of an Ethiopian currently stands at 62 this was a bit surprising.

One of the three wall mounted TVs was not working and one was missing. The working one was showing a western vampire B movie. There was no sound but there were Arabic sub titles. This didn’t distract me for long though and instead I turned my attention to the view outside the window of the construction taking place on a building next door. Four workmen were on top of wooden scaffolding constructing a ninth floor on what was currently little more than a concrete shell of a building. Two of the men had no hats at all and two were wearing straw sun hats. There was no protective fencing to be seen.

Having used a variety of machines and weights it was time to go. I wandered down to the changing room to deposit my towel. How did a plastic bin end up like that? The lockers stood at jaunty angles to each other and as none of the locks worked, an external padlock attachment had been fitted to each one. 

I was well-exercised by now and ready to enter some more reports onto the computer system back at school fun, fun, fun. I think I’m yearning for some ‘grandma time’ in the UK now!