Maggie from Kapani in Zambia - Trip to the UK

"A Villager in London"

My trip to the UK 2nd Feb to 4rd March 2008.

After a week of a hundred imaginations, emails back and fourth it was finally time to say my goodbyes to Zambia. Oh my word! Nine hours on the plane! Will I manage? I have never sat in one place for that long. What will I do? Will I survive this? Is the flight smoother or same as the smaller ones I am very familiar with? My mind was racing with questions.

After a week of a hundred imaginations, emails back and fourth it was finally time to say my goodbyes to Zambia. Oh my word! Nine hours on the plane! Will I manage? I have never sat in one place for that long. What will I do? Will I survive this? Is the flight smoother or same as the smaller ones I am very familiar with? My mind was racing with questions.

It's amazing how technology has put peoples lives at ease, I couldn't envision watching TV "movies" in the air - in the middle of no where and yet there I was with a screen in front of me. I made sure I watched as much as I could with the attitude of "it may not be here when getting back home" (typical of a Zambian living in the bush). I constantly watched "your journey" on the screen to see where we were.... It's the sand! Is that the Sahara? Is that real? Unbelievable!!!! I was getting excited and just wanted to get there. After nine hours I could finally see bright lights everywhere I looked. Ooooh my God! What is this place? The captain spoke at that moment, "Ladies and gentlemen we welcome you to London Heathrow." "I am here! Somebody, please pinch me." Just this morning I was home and now I am in the land where the Queen lives! I was speechless and wished at every moment I could pick up the phone and tell my mum. May her soul rest in peace! So many lights, I have never seen anything like this in my life. I cried silently in my seat. I knew I would be here some day and now was the some day I dreamed about.

London Heathrow is big and I had no idea where to go. "Where do I go from here? My bag, how do I find it? Oh God, everyone will just notice there is a villager in town! Phew! I am done with immigration! I pick up my bags and find myself in an open area. I could feel the difference in the weather instantly and in my heart I spoke "Maggie welcome to the grey weather." My eyes were roaming around tying to catch everything around and finally "wow, I see two familiar faces!" Zoe and Graham! "Hello! I am here! I MADE it!"

"Maggie," Zoe called my name, "this is it. This is London. We have to get on a tube from here to Graham's flat in High Street Kensington." At the mention of tube my mind raced back to home. Is this the same tube my two colleagues, William and Raphael who had visited earlier, referred to as " the place for the dead" and refused to get on it?" "This is my time to fall in the category of the dead. Someone give me a phone please! I want to phone Raphael and tell him "Zoe and Graham are about to put me on the tube." That was me speaking to myself. By then I was used to speaking to myself. We got to the flat and oh my word! Is this where the queen sleeps? The bed was welcoming. Flat screen TV hurray! I can watch the English TV. I looked through the window and could see a lovely garden. By then the excitement had got the best of me such that I refused to eat anything but Zoe was there to play mummy and made me have a taste of the pizza in London.

Its 9am and we got ready to meet David and Sam at 11am at Liverpool Street. After having my bath, I was introduced to "proper dressing" in the cold weather which felt very strange having a thousand clothes on me. We headed for the tube again. I had not seen David in two years and the thought of him in the UK, dressed in 'proper' clothes and not his bush safari gear that I vividly remembered and was familiar with kept my mind busy while on the tube. We got to Liverpool station and I saw David. "Hello madam," David ran to me and gave me a big hug. Looking at me with a big smile, "here is something for you; I thought it might be too cold for you." -A fleece from Berghaus and walking shoes. "I am being spoiled here, I may decide not to go back home," I spoke in a low voice as I gave Dave another hug.

A walk to Brick Lane was interesting ...got us to the "Columbia flower market ". It was quite a busy day at the market. There were lots of people, each buying different things. There were many different types of flowers. We took our time and tried by all means to explore as much as we could. From the market we got on the bus (my first time on the London bus, I was still very blank about travel cards and bus numbers and tube stations, a bit of a mission to be honest for first timers and especially a villager like me). Here we are, this is the River Thames, "its freezing" is there nowhere warmer...........everyone was laughing. My eyes could see as far as the London eye. We headed to convent garden for afternoon tea and there was lots of performance going on which kept most people entertained as well as the children. In the evening we went to a cinema to see Sweeney and Todd that David vaguely mentioned to me on email and had some take away from McDonalds, first time having McDonalds.

The one thing that I found most strange was the pleasure to walk miles and miles without meeting the elephants. I have lived in the bush long enough that I am always alert and careful in case of meeting wild animals. Did I expect to see some there? I don't! But I guess it would have been nice combining my bush life with the amazing lights of London. The long walk from Kensington to the Albert/Victoria Park through to Sloane square was incredible. The one thing I fell in love with are the buildings. I was tremendously fascinated by the buildings. I couldn't help but ponder about the people that designed and built them. My favourite by far though had be St Paul's Cathedral. Nearly all the buildings were built over a 100 years ago that made me wonder why we don't have such back home. Is it the material used or luck of care?

We had ice cream in the famous Harrods. "Zoe is this a shop or what ?" I was speechless and remembered why Adrian Carr insisted I must see Harrods. Absolutely amazing and beautifully decorated inside!

After 3 busy and incredible days in London, Zoe and I got on the train to Leeds where I spent 5 lovely days with her family. I had heard so much about them but I was going to be meeting them for the very first time and that made me very nervous. I had no idea what to expect but I told myself I would be fine. I mean Zoe is a nice person so I guess the people who raised her should even be better. I will just pretend I am British.

I had the chance to see another side of the UK. I went to Church on Sunday "first week of Lent" and after church we went bowling and had the traditional Sunday lunch. By now I had already upgraded my bags to two. I spent a lot of time in Premark and Marks and Spencer. Amazing! I hope they can come to Zambia. I could have brought the whole shop home if I had a private jet. In Leeds I became famous for having cooked English breakfast without an egg which everyone thought was hilarious.

Zoe and I caught up with David again in Newcastle, went to the English pub and tasted a variety of beer and explored the town, the Newcastle stadium and Chinese town to mention but a few. An evening couldn't get any better with a meal in a Japanese restaurant. Tasting prawns for the very first time and using chop sticks to eat was just awesome.

Time to say my goodbyes, clueless of my next place let alone what to expect. Nonetheless I was very excited about seeing John and Diane, whom I met in Zambia in 2006. I had so much fun with Zoe's family and it was really hard to say good bye. That morning the weather was foggy and could hardly see where we were going. Zoe and I had to drive for about 2 to 3 hours to get to John and Diane's place in Droitwich. The drive was spectacular, amazing views of the countryside, farm with sheep, really interesting!

John and Diane welcomed me to Droitwich with a lovely walk on the MALVERN HILLS; fantastic view from the top. Watching the sun go down drove me back home sitting on the Luangwa watching the sun going down with a bottle of MOSI (for those that have been will know what am talking about). It felt rather weird for a bush, wild girl as I imagined an elephant or lion will show up from somewhere. John and Diana tried to show me as much as they could in the few days I was with them. We spent a whole day at Lyme Regis, close to Dorset. I was seeing the sea for the first time and I couldn't leave the sea without socking my feet in the cold water for at least 30 minutes. It was one way to just reassure myself that I was really there. It was here again that I first had fish and chips as a meal which I considered a funny combination but amazing that it is an English thing. Don't we learn every day! I was doing really well with turning myself into an English newly born baby.

The Warwick Castle was another highlight of my visit in the country. Touring the whole place took me back to my old days in class behind a desk learning about the world wars and Hitler. The country is so rich with history making it easy for students that can make use of such places as well as the museums for research. A walk around Droitwich spa and Worctershire was interesting too. We visited a Catholic Church and I fell in love with the architecture and design of the ceiling. I was falling in loving quite often don't you think? Just couldn't help it! If I moved to the UK and found a man, I would love to wed under the ceiling of SACRED HEART St. Catherine of Alexandria Church.

How time flies, back in the busy and multi- culture town, it's so amazing to just stand there and watch everyone move from left to right, north to east and south to the west. The only one station I knew even in my sleep "Nottinghill gate", I had a funny experience one day, tried to be bravo and bought a travel card through the machine and didn't know where to place the notes. I felt embarrassed but reminded myself that it was not home and needed to ask. I found London very busy, making my whole experience of being away from home seem so real but also a challenge for a villager having to deal with all the travel card business, underground trains, stations and bus numbers.

While in London I made use of my time and saw quite a lot, playing a "tourist". I went on the duck tour, very interesting; just from the history of the vehicle itself and did a lot of walking in the quest of exploring the town. I visited St. Paul's Cathedral and attended the service with Ian, the British museum, the Natural History museum and National gallery, Trafalgar square (Nelson on the back of his horse, a second legend in my books; loved his story of him fighting in the war with one arm), the Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, River Thames, St, James park, Holland park, Battersea park, Green park, St Margaret, the London Eye special lift to better views and the London Aquarium (seeing the sharks live for the first time). I also had a chance to catch up with what's happening in the Savoy theatre. I saw "Fiddler on the Roof" on one evening. It was superb and I would definitely put my money on it again. The Royal festive hall lovely views of the Houses of Parliament and seeing the town getting into the night for the top floor, lights coming to life, absolutely stunning views of the city. I also got a chance to go to another famous market "PORTOBELLO Road Market", close to Shepard bush.

Having had many pictures of the UK in my own imaginary world before and putting my dreams to sleep was a big achievement. I had no idea what it would be like; always laughed about the million lights and never thought it would be something that could make me emotional. Sometimes we don't value the things around us. I now believe in the famous saying that goes like this, "The importance of water is never appreciated until the well runs dry." On many occasions I have witnessed our guests get so excited to be in the bush. They are excited even by the smallest insect and I used to think to myself "is this something someone should really be excited about?" Life can put us to trials and challenge us at the same time in many ways than we can imagine.

On my last day, Zelda took me for a lovely meal. I had my greens and a glass of apple cider. Sitting there and knowing I'll be back in a number of hours I realized how much I had fallen in love with the place and wished I could have stayed longer. Awesome place, lovely people, amazing weather, good food (I had different types of food, from Thai to Italians, Chinese, Japanese etc), fantastic entertainment places, good and friendly pubs, good road networks and transport - though I had a hard time remembering bus numbers! My only regret is not having seen snow but that will be the next excuse to come out and more shopping in M&S.

My times of listening to stories about London are over! I have graduated from Listener to Storyteller!

To turn the tables, and see Maggie's world in the Luangwa valley in Zambia - click here.