The Balzac is a brilliant piece of equipment into which you can put a balloon, blow it up and then you have an instant fairly durable ball.

I’m hoping we can try to make these as well? Maybe in Ethiopian flag colours?

Bahir Dar is still recovering from the holiday and so this morning’s session was cancelled … So I decided to get out the notebook and see if I could manage to draw some plans for a post to support a Sitting Volleyball net.

Here are my ideas. As I was drawing it I wondered if we could make it as useful as possible by adding a hoop that could be used in target games like golf frisbee? I will discuss this with Mohammed and the man who makes the mobility tricycles at Mohammed’s base.

If anyone out there has better ideas, please e-mail me at david@davidhaskins.org!!

I’m beginning to learn of the extent of the Cheshire Foundation’s involvement here, as I met a person this morning who had worked for them here for 14 years. It is wonderful that International Inspiration with all its expertise has got involved, as everyone here wants this to become a sustainable programme that the Ethiopians themselves can begin to spread.

It is amazing to have instant reminders of the problems currently facing Africa. I had my temperature taken at Bahir Dar airport, testing for Ebola, and then when I opened a bedroom drawer it contained 20 condoms as HIV hasn’t yet gone away.

I had my first meal of injera. It is made from fermented teff flour. If you google Teff, you will see it has superfood qualities. The injera was wrapped around a delicious concoction of onion, pepper and spices … cost about £1!!

I saw my first taste of activity at 6:30 this morning. An group from a local school that integrates hearing impaired and non-disabled young people. What I saw was really encouraging as there was a lot of integration, as well as some appropriate separation, a nice example of Ken Black’s inclusion spectrum. It was also good to chat with the local coordinator and a teacher from the school.

I was up at 5 to join over 60 senior Ethiopians in a running and aerobics exercise class. They meet Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for a 90 minute session. The average BMI here is well below 25, and the attitude to exercise very positive. It felt a real privilege to be included.

It was wonderful to see young people playing Sitting Volleyball and some other games this morning. The children had special needs and several of the coordinators were leading them. There was real engagement and the interaction in the cool-down session was excellent with the young people genuinely understanding the activity.

I had a really good chat with Mohammed as he admired the lightness and versatility of the zsig net. We talked about how to make something similar in Ethiopia, and there is still a perception that “home made” is not quite as good. Anyway we are going to try to make one before I leave, and I was shown the workshop where it might happen today.

I’m really encouraged by what I see.

I always forget that Super Sport is transmitted all over Africa and that means free viewing of the Premier League for all. I was eating tonight while the Manchester Derby was on, and could hear cheers from the surrounding bars as Man Utd scored their four goals. I wish the Premier League took more responsibility and gave much more to international development, or players were more obviously supporting the small communities that all love them.

I found a common word in Amharic and Swahili today!! It is Hesabu. In Swahili it means maths, in Amharic it means “the bill” like l’addition in French.

Lots of love to all

It was a delight to see a Cormorant by the Thames at Tower Bridge recently, it matched with those I see in Anglesey, but to see one here on Lake Tana in Ethiopia was amazing!! I can walk to the lake from here and shall try running there tomorrow!!

I’m really excited to be going back to Africa as it’s a while since I have been there. I think the last time was 2012 when I travelled through Kenya to Tanzania to see my friends at the Baraza la Michezo la Taifa (National Sports Council), and then on to Lusaka by the wonderful TanZam railway. Previous to that it was 2010 when I had a wonderful year including trips to Brazil; Indonesia and Tanzania. That’s five years since I have done any work overseas … too long.

International Inspiration (IN) the NGO I am volunteering for, have been really supportive, and I fell really well prepared for the work in Bahir Dar. The staff at IN are really knowledgeable, and have been in the field, so their feel for the work and how I should proceed is excellent. Cath Sweet at UK Sport was the first to offer the chance to volunteer, and since the work has moved to IN, Dawn Goodwin has helped me considerably.

I land in Bahir Dar on Friday April 10th after a short diversion to Saudi Arabia and will meet the staff of Cheshire Foundation Action for Inclusion to have my work plan approved. Then I’ll be up and running and ready to eat injera again … I need some superfood!!

Lots of love to all.
David