As we arrived at the station I realised I had forgotten my glasses. Mum had to rush home to get them before the train due to carry me to London and, more importantly, to my first ever “date” with Chris, departed.

After that initial hiccup the weekend went well – I met Chris's family, stayed in her home, attended her church, and – exactly 40 years ago today – we went to see “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Palace Theatre in the West End of London. The weekend must have been a success; look at us now – 40 years, four children, three grandchildren, nine houses and about 20 cars later, we’re living and working together in Addis Ababa.

Apart from my first nervous date with Chris, this weekend marks several significant anniversaries. 22nd November 1963 saw the assassination of President Kennedy, the death of Aldous Huxley, but more important than both of these, the sad death aged 65 of the remarkable CS Lewis. However most significantly of all it marks the second anniversary of our arrival in Addis Ababa. Goodbyes all said, our stuff all in storage, our home of 20 years rented out, our life packed into six suitcases we landed here into a new life full of new challenges, new friends, and endless new experiences.

Tolerance and patience have been virtues we’ve needed to foster. This was amply illustrated yesterday as we drove across town to the Hilton Hotel for a brief moment of “western”peace and quiet, as well as a couple of haircuts.  I barely noticed the newly purchased sheep, its owner dragging it along the street by one front leg, except that Chris muttered a faint word of sympathy for the wretched animal. And neither of us baulked much as we passes a parked rather battered Toyota pick-up into the back of which a reluctant sharp-horned ox was being coaxed by several young men. Earlier that day we’d hardly noticed a guy with no legs propelling himself in his wheelchair, all alone, the wrong way down a dual carriageway. The light rail system that wasn’t here two years ago is now complete with many of the roads that were impassable when we arrived now smoothly finished. Meskel Square, subject of a terrifying YouTube video that went viral a few years ago is now completely redone with white lines, modern traffic lights, a railway station and traffic flow that’s almost sensible. We drove through and past all of this, barely remembering how stressful it all was two years ago.

For me, adapting to Ethiopian attitudes to illness and medical care, rooted in centuries of tradition and decades of substandard doctoring, is still a daily challenge. Cold air causes innumerable medical problems. The onset of a fever demands immediate medical attention for fear of all sorts of horrendous consequences (most of which are treatable with amoxicillin). For a fever many clinics will immediately do useless blood tests invented 100 years ago and tell people they have been simultaneously infected with typhoid and typhus when it is totally obvious to me they have neither. And then there’s bad smells. Exposure to a bad smell is universally regarded as the main aetiological factor for colds and flu, and people will assiduously avoid bad smells, although in a city with so many open sewers this is quite challenging. Recently one of Bingham’s guards came to me with a cold, blaming it on the horrible smell from all the rubbish dumped next to the back gate of the compound that he had to police during the morning school run. A long consultation followed as I attempted to explain to him that, nasty as the smell is, it doesn’t transmit rhinoviruses. I obviously failed – a few days later as Haile drove me into the compound there was a horrendous smell of sewage as a tanker was pumping out one of the school’s septic tanks. The same guard let us in – sporting two large rolls of tissue,one stuffed up each nostril. I sighed. Sometimes I feel like Canute by the seashore.

With the help of some amazing people here we have again triumphed over Ethiopian bureaucracy. Not only is my clinic licence in place, we now have our residency cards and our work permits renewed for another year, and this week Haile helped us go through the painfully incomprehensible process of renewing our drivers' licences for another two years.

So everything is in place for at least another year. Despite the challenges of simply surviving here we are grateful for the opportunities we have been given and it’s a huge privilege to live and work with people whose entire motivation is to share the good news about Jesus with those who have never heard it before. We are especially grateful to all those of you who have prayed for us regularly. Thank you! God is faithful - 2 Corinthians 1:11