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The World According to William No.1

The World According to William
Saturday 5th November 2007

Extracts from William's diary when he visited the UK.

09:45hrs, we taxi and finally take off.  My first long flight.  I say goodbye to mother Zambia.  I will be back in 10 days, please take care of our people. 

13:54hrs The little TV screen in front of me tells me we are flying above the Darfur mountains.  I pull up the blind on my window (I have a window seat!) and what meets my eyes?  The unmistakable Sahara.  Oh my word, is this true?  The land stretching miles and miles away as far as my eyes can see is bare, bare, bare!  The Sahara is harsh....  I am looking down hard and squinting hoping to see Kofi Anan and his troops maintaining order and handing out food and clothes to my displaced brothers.  I cannot imagine anyone living here; the place looks lifeless.

17:12hrs, we are leaving Tunis behind.  Beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea and coast line.  What a contrast to the sombre Sahara! We are heading towards Cagliari, a town on a small island in Italy.  Wow, beautiful blue Mediterranean garnished with white clouds and dotted vessels sparkling in the light!  This is really exquisite to the eye; a beautiful island.  Here I come Europe, bye Mama Africa.  Two hours and six minutes before we see Tony Blair; I am excited.

18:11hrs, first view of the Alps.  Wow, golden jutting rocks.  What an amazing sight in this soft setting sunlight.  An hour 25 minutes to touch down.  My wife is feeding the kids at home and I am flying above the Alps. 

Oh my word!  It is lights, lights, lights everywhere as far as the eye can see.  Look at that snaking path of lights, I am told they are street lights.  London at night, I am speechless.  I have never seen so many lights before, lights of all colours.  Most of the land beneath us is all lit and it reminds me of simmering embers after a wild African bush fire.  I am mesmerised to say the least.

We drive on the M25 towards Cobham, Surrey my home for the first night in England. Traffic, traffic, traffic! I am always amazed with traffic during rush hour in our Lusaka's Cairo road, but nothing matches this traffic - by far.

After the Travel Show I had five days to explore London, Surrey and Droitwich and the first three days I was joined by Raphael Banda, our Workshop Manager. We share the same family name but there is no relation (Banda in Zambia, Eastern Zambia in particular is like Smith in the UK. If you went to a public place and shouted "Mr Banda" you will have a dozen faces looking behind their shoulders).

One of the things that struck me is how everything is scheduled and timed. Midday at Waterloo Train Station; it is people rushing towards various platforms trying to catch their trains; people peering up the TV screens above searching for departure times, people criss-crossing going into different directions. Why the rush?! How so stressing! Back at home we are so laid back on time. When I think about it I laugh out loud as each time I meet a morning drive I am asked what time brunch will be; I would simply answer "now now" or "soonish, just listen for the drum". ...but how ‘soonish' is soon William, soon can be a couple hours later. Time.

When in London we did the usual tourist things; Tower Of London, London Eye - I can write a whole book about the "eye" experience, Parliament buildings, Harrods all lit up in the night, Nelson's Column, Trafalgar square, Regent street lit with Christmas lights, Buckingham Palace, boat trip on the Thames river, etc, etc.

 

Not the highlight, but one of the many highlights, was the live English Premiership match between Arsenal and Liverpool.  Tingles of excitement, joy and disbelief crept down my spine.  I am a soccer fan and a die-hard supporter of Arsenal and sitting in the new Emirates stadium watching a live game was just unbelievable.  I will carry the memories with me for many years to come til age catches up with me.  Liverpool went down three nil this afternoon.

 

The tour of Warwick Castle took me back to the medieval times.  England has history. 
Walking on the Malvern Hills was spectacular, one does not need an armed scout to walk!  The views of rolling farms below were breath taking...  The autumn colours; it is beautiful in the country.

It is time to go back home to reality. I have lived a fantasy life, a dream world for a while.

Am I sad? Of course yes, I am.

Regrets? Yes so many; time has been too short for my rural mind to absorb every detail in this sophisticated world. Yes, our world back at home in the country is the real world. The world where the sun rises and sets after twelve beautiful hours of sunshine. The world where the smells of the wild are still in their infancy since God created them millions of years ago. As a country boy I have to return to my home, South Luangwa, the unspoilt, Africa's remaining paradise.

My other regret was my not experiencing the London underground. I missed out on the tube, because Raphael my partner defied the underground world. He says the underground is the world of the dead.

My extensive research on the internet reading about tourist sites in London and England in general had 'kind of' prepared me for the trip, but what one reads about is different from what one sees on the ground. I was dazed by little everyday things like automatic entrance doors - they open as one approaches and close as you walk away, swiping and touching for gates to open.  It is like a first time traveller to Africa, everything one sees intrigues him/her. Things that others take for granted.  I guess it cuts both ways.

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