Salem, the Institute director, gave me some photographs of old Benghazi this week. The differences with today's city are quite startling, mainly because the state of repair has been in a generally reverse direction. Here are a couple of pics of the Ottoman (not Italian as I thought) Town Hall:
Town Hall
Old Town Hall
and to refresh your memory, here's what the square looks like now:
Italian town hall
It's been a very busy weekend, getting ready for the end of term exams. Well, photocopying anyway. I've drawn up some rather smart graphs to test their knowledge of City jargon like dropping like a stone, crashing, collapsing - all very useful terms these days, at least in mainstream economies. Luckily I can use terms like boom, soar, and grow as well when talking about Libya.

On Friday I was invited round to Mohamed and Rajab's house for dinner - or break fast as it's called during Ramadhan. It was a very entertaining evening. Their father used to play in goal for the Libyan national football team, and was also captain, so inevitably the conversation turned to football. Father brought out his photograph albums of his playing years, showing many players whom I recognised, plus heads of state, and other luminaries. At one time the coach was an English chap called Bradley who, during Ramadan, derided the team's preferred training schedule, but, to see what was possible, he agreed to live with M&J's father and follow the same dietary and exercise routine. After experiencing this first hand, he modified the schedule - much like we've done at the Institute. Long periods without sustenance quickly slow the body down!

I was pleasantly surprised that my encyclopaedic knowledge of British football players didn't let me down - George Best, Bobby Charlton, Peter Shilton, Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore. I know them all.

The conversation moved on, as always, to politics - American, British, Middle Eastern, and local. Very enlightening. Hearing perspectives other than those relayed by the Western media are very interesting, particularly when you hear the views of people directly involved.

The following evening, I was invited to Akram's again. Another interesting evening, talking to his father about the Italian invasian, and, again, local politics. There's no shortage of opinions on Libya's place in the world, or its future direction. The British seem to have a special place in Libyan hearts as a result of freeing them from the Italian occupation.

Mohamed brought my car back in the early hours of Saturday morning - his clock is very different from mine - and it's perfect. I'll be out and about in the afternoons again before my break in England later this week.