Around twice a week Chris and I head off to the gym. We joined last summer and bought a six month membership. the promised membership cards never turned up (despite our photo being taken and several promises) so I had no real idea when we needed to renew. Our gym in Hatfield would remind us by email – Chris and I had smiled at the thought that we might get a reminder here.

• When passing a yellow crayon to a child who was drawing a beach the child said “No Mrs Griffin, sand is grey I need this one.” (Ethiopian sand is grey).
• When using fruit and vegetables for printing this week a child asked “Did you bleach them?”
• When going to see what a group of children were doing in the corner of the grass they said “We’re building a trap for termites.”
• When asking a child if I would see their Mum or Dad at the end of the morning they reply “No my driver’s picking me up.”
• When going to look at children engrossed in the sand pit I find small sand cakes with a fruit from the overhanging trees carefully placed on each one, “Would you like peach or avocado?” they enquired.
• When doing a traffic survey “Who has been on a bus?” no one. “Who has been on a train?” one child. “Who has been on a boat?” two children. “Who has been on a plane?” everyone!

Resigning/retiring from our respective professions in the UK and moving to Ethiopia took Chris and me away from the increasingly burdensome bureaucracy in the education and medical systems. Chris doesn’t miss “Ofsted”, and I don’t miss the CQC (the Care Quality Commission). We both think these august bodies do a great deal of good but under rather oppressive political pressure and sometimes go perhaps a little further in their relentless pursuit of ever tightening “standards” than is absolutely necessary.

Our plan was to attend our church in Addis Ababa prior to travelling down to a holiday resort by a lake 3-4 hours drive out of the city. After the service we had an unexpected meeting with Gary and Peggy Ifft. We had first met them in 2007 (when they and Phil worked at the Korean Hospital in Addis). A chat over coffee in a nearby cafe led to us travelling behind them to their home in Ziway - a small rural town on our route. We left with a promise to call in on our return. We learnt that they arrived in Ziway through contact with an elder of the local Miserete Kristos Church in Ziway. A subsequent meeting with the church elders confirmed that there were various development needs in the area, ideal for a visionary couple who were experienced in working on a range of projects within Ethiopia.