has only just arrived herself, and everything is grey, rain streaks the sky as if it is perpetually crying. I walk straight through to Arrivals - I've no luggage to collect - and Mr and Mrs Robinson, and their daughter, Emily, are there to meet me. They look happy, relieved that I am there. In the car ride home the rain pelts the windscreen, they listen to the radio - they have one in their car! - music pumping softly into me from all directions, the beats less simple, less one. They ask me where I come from. 'Afar Region,' I say. 'Yes, that is far - Ethiopia,' they say. I think I know what they mean. My English is not so good. I am here on a scholarship to learn English at college. Some people look at me funny here, I'm not sure why. We get in and 'dinner' is soon ready - chicken, potatoes and vegetables. I am hungry, they look surprised at me, beastly. I go to bed. The next day they take me to a swimming pool. Now get this, mama! They have big rooms full of water! It rains all day and all night here, and yet they have big rooms full of water! I thought of the children dying in the desert, and the mothers waterless, too weak to breastfeed their babies, and then I see these people, splashing around as carefree as monkeys! We go to get something to eat in the caf.