I've been back at work now for a week, and it's so good to be teaching again. The students were all pleased to see me (I think), and the teacher who has been covering for me, Jamila, was probably pleased that her workload was reverting to only one, rather than two classes. Jamila is a local teacher who had planned to cover only the one class due to be taught by a new teacher from Manchester, so covering two was a bit of a shock.
There was a wonderful surprise at the end of the week - we now have the Internet! This means that once all PCs are connected up, the lessons can broaden out. What a step forward.
I flew off to Tripoli on Thursday to collect my car - it's been languishing in Salem's back yard since I returned from Tunisia, and has been sorely missed in Benghazi. I felt so isolated without it, so was most keen to recover it as soon as possible. On Friday I spent the day on the beach - only the second visit since I arrived, so I shall have to remedy that - with Salem and Nasser:
Other friends turned up later, the sun shone, we had a barbeque, and I spent about three hours in the water. Don't I know it now though - the coolness of the water masked the heat of the sun with inevitable results. Still, a very enjoyable day. My plan now, once the pain has subsided a little, is to drive out along the coast after work to prep my next day on the beach under a tree, and to have supper looking out over the crystal clear waters of this part of the Med. Pretty close to idyllic, I'd say.
On Saturday I collected my deposit from The Libyan Auto Club, and started on the long drive back to Benghazi, intending to stop frequently, and to take it slowly. My autopilot is still not configured for North Africa, so I headed west initially, until I realised what I'd done. Once I'd rebooted my compass, all went smoothly - I began to recognise some landmarks such as this bridge:
It looks like an old railway bridge to me. There are no railways in Libya at the moment, although in the past it was possible to get from Tunisia to Egypt by train. There are plans to rebuild this line, with some spurs going south into the desert, and on to South Africa, so watch this space.
I got to Benghazi in good time, all in one piece, and with no additional pain. My little car is absolutely wonderful - apparently very few people drive across Libya because a) it's a long way, b) a flight isn't very expensive, c) it's dangerous, and d) cars are not terribly reliable in the heat. Well, I have been extremely lucky, but twice is enough. I'll stay a little more local for a while.
One of my neighbours always writes on my back windscreen when it's a bit dusty; these are some of the likely culprits:
Fortunately it's never offensive - usually "English man". I'm tempted to help them with their English - they're obviously keen.
The new teacher arrived today - at last. There have been many false starts, but he, James, is actually in situ, and has his first day at the chalkface tomorrow. He's spent eight years in Saudi Arabia, so he'll be in clover here.
