Addis traffic

We've both started driving in Addis Ababa. Compared with the UK it is a little crazy, but compared with Freetown it is a piece of cake driving here. People generally stay off the roads, the policemen don't stop you for bribes and the traffic generally moves, even if busy in places.

The blue mini-bus taxis are everywhere, they also have blue taxi cars for private hire and buses that go out of town.

School has started

The new school year started at Bingham today, it feels good to finally be getting into what we came here for and also to be able to get into a routine and work out what normal life looks like!

Tommy is the Grade 12 mentor teacher, he is teaching A level Maths, AS Business Studies and Grade 12 Bible.

Tom has gone into Grade 3 in a class of 25 children, 10 of which are boys. His classroom overlooks the football field, so once the weather gets better they will have their breaks out there.

Josh has started in KG2. He was not too happy about coming home for the afternoon with all the bigger kids still at school as he has been at school all day in the UK, but otherwise enjoyed his first morning. The Kindergarten classes have their own play area.

Steps to getting your driving licence

Getting your Ethiopian driving license is an activity where your patience may be stretched, but as long as you go into it with the expectation that 'this is Africa' and things take time and many fees will need to be paid along the way then you'll probably come out of it ok! Here's how it worked out for us:

Getting SIM cards

It is slow getting things set up here, but yesterday's accomplishment was that we managed to get SIM cards for our phones. SIM cards are regulated much more than in the UK, so we had to provide copies of our passports and get passport photos taken before we could get one. We managed it with a short stop at Kaldi's (the Ethiopian equivalent of Starbucks) while we waited for the photos to be printed :-)

The photos cost 28birr for 6 - we will buy a Kaldi's coffee for the first person who leaves a comment with the correct equivalent price in pounds (or dollars for our US readers).

In Ethiopia

We arrived Thursday night and the last couple of days have been a bit of a blur, but we are all feeling very happy to be here and the boys have very positive first impressions of their new home and school.

We have been well looked after by our buddy family who took us shopping to the supermarket, bakery and fruit stalls, gave us practical lessons in how to get cash and filtered water, how to bleach our fruit and vegetables and also had us for dinner on Friday.

The boys were unwell traveling and Tom has continued to not be very well, so we had a quiet weekend unpacking and visited some new friends for dinner on Saturday. Josh has been playing in the sports hall with his new friends and enjoyed walking around the running track.

We have a lovely quiet (well apart from us being in it!), spacious apartment and are looking forward to this being our home. We'll try and take some photos soon.