Phil and Chris in Ethiopia

This week has been my first with the new timetable. I have taught KG1 (Foundation) to Grade 5 (Year 6). The children have been very responsive and I love KG PE. I also set up a couple of meetings about how I might develop library sessions across the Elementary school.

As we all live together on the compound, I meet my pupils, wherever I go outside our front door. Of course they all know my name, even if I can’t yet remember who they are or which family they belong to. I even heard my name and a friendly greeting from up a tree as I walked beside the sports field.

As we walked back to our flat from the car park in the dark up the hill past the speed bump I always trip over, I asked Chris if she had a key. "Stop here" she said under a lamp post, and opening her small back pack added: "I'll get it out now where I can see because I don't want to put my hand into all these bits of sheep". I bet I've got your attention now!

The sun is up, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and red kites are circling overhead, as I walk out of our front door and next door but one to the teacher’s lounge. It’s filling up with staff from Elementary and High school. We meet to consider why we are here, to be encouraged and pray for the school day and specific pupils. Each day begins like this.

It wasn't a Dreamliner; it was a 767. Somewhat disappointing but at least no 767 has suffered from spontaneous combustion. At least Boeing haven't admitted it. A standard and uneventful 8 hour flight shortened by 20 minutes by a tailwind preceded a non-standard and quite eventful hour in the baggage collection area. And it was those oil filters.

I might be eating my words in a few hours, but things have gone remarkably smoothly so far. Even the M25 was well behaved. None of the bags were over 23 Kg, our hand luggage weighed in legally (good job I didn’t pack any hand grenades), security didn’t do any body cavity searches and we didn’t set off any buzzers. They paused a bit over my laptop when they x-rayed it. Probably wondering why it is so big. The looming problem could be the Ethiopian custom officer who will x-ray our luggage out of the terminal in Addis Ababa.

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