I'm back

I was away for exactly a month and the place looks completely different – all green and luxuriant everywhere. The maize which wasn't even planted when I left is now as tall as me.

And the mozzies are biting. They seem unconcerned by the “Deet”iest repellent, though I managed to remove a patch of varnish from my dressing table by putting the bottle down on the surface. They even bite through clothes, one layer anyway, so you have the choice of chemically dissolving your own skin or wrapping up well and drowning in your own sweat. Lovely. A quick word on the rest of my trip. Addis Ababa was a bit of an odd few days. I was adopted by a born-again Christian family when I mistakenly climbed into their family minibus thinking it was the local airport transport. It turned out that they had lived in Tanzania for 7 years. Jan 7th is Ethiopian Christmas (because they use a version of the Julian calendar) so I had Christmas dinner with them. Injera of course, followed by panettone, courtesy of Mussolini. Thence to Nairobi which I thought was a really nice friendly, lively city, nothing like I expected from its dodgy reputation. Being a regular user of Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum, I had to go on a pilgrimage to its original location (they're on their third tree) in the cafe of the New Stanley Hotel. And asante sana to Katie Donaldson for looking after me so well. Now it's back to the middle of nowhere for the next few months at least.