Mon 25 Apr

On the BBC World Service Network Africa programme this morning the proverb has been contributed by a listener in Arua, my birth town in Uganda and someone sends in a topical comment by SMS from Kitwe, where I grew up, in Zambia.

At college there is no power, and there are no students – maybe they think it's a public holiday? Consolation comes in the very comfortable form of another coffee with Einas and her mate Hadeel. I do like these girls but what can I do? Where can it go?

At the end of the afternoon I teach the Na'faj group and then on the way home I go and check-out the Coptic cathedral. The area around feels very Christian and very different. The shop across the road is selling a twin pack of [Coptic?] toilet paper for SDD700 (it was only SDD200 from our local shop before we bought it all).