It was during our stay in Awassa that we spotted some outlandish hats – just right to decorate for the Bingham ‘Crazy Hat’ day. They were being sold by boys at the roadside who have hats and baskets in piles to tempt the traveller.

Several important events have happened recently; a couple of them we noticed much more than in previous years as we now have a panoramic view of the local area from our new second floor flat. The birds changed – the vultures suddenly vanished (hooray!) and dozens of yellow-billed kites returned, circling and swooping around outside our window. (What do all these big birds of prey eat we wondered? Hopefully the local rat population.)