another mundane posting

Two weeks into work and we’re starting to settle into it. I’m still feeling a bit new but it’s getting better. We both start at eight and work very close to each other in Ministry of Education buildings. It takes about 20 minutes to walk. Half an hour’s break at ten and two hours at twelve. Long enough to walk home and relax. We both finish at six. Dinner is usually vegetables in some form, haven’t got round to buying meat yet, often have it if we eat out. Butchers shops are quite off-putting, rows of carcases hanging up and I’m not sure if I’ve got enough language to buy it yet.
Traditional food is “injera. The real traditional is everyone at the table sharing from a huge plate in the middle of but in restaurants you usually have your own or a half injera. It is eaten regularly, not just for special occasions, had a workshop yesterday and that was lunch. There’s also a variety of burgers, pizzas and pasta and some good fish.
We’ve been living in pretty bare rooms for the last couple of weeks but have just got some furniture from the landlord which makes the place feel a bit more homely. It had been shut up in the garage and it’s just taken all morning to clean it up and get rid of many years accummulatio n of dirt and dead insects, lovely. We’ve a spare bed so we’re now officially open for visitors, I don’t think there is a best time to come, I keep being given different views by people, there are a couple of rainy seasons in May and July/August but like most rainy seasons it doesn’t rain all day, just a few hours and then the sun comes out. The only thing is that the summer is too hot for the lowlands, Massawa which is a big port and the nearest thing to a beach resort gets up to the mid 40’s and isn’t really recommended then. We’re going to try and get there for a weekend before the end of March.
Biggest talking point amongst volunteers at the moment is the absence of beer, the beer factory has closed down due to lack of something (hops?) and most bars have none or will only let you buy one bottle. Only the local wine left.

C