Saturday morning is heralded in with four Rolls Royce jet engines pushing the British Airways 737 the final 10km of it’s 10,000km journey from London.
Turning a new leaf.
In exactly three weeks I will be sat at the airport waiting to board the same flight on it’s return journey back to blighty. Preparing to see my family again and to celebrate my daughter Kate’s birthday. This last year has flown by when I consider all that has happened, but when I think of time away from the family it seems like forever.
The big decision that has to be made whilst I am back in the UK is, whether and when do we make the plunge and haul the whole family out to Africa again to live forever. The whole idea of me coming out ten months ago was to set things up so that when the family came out everything would be in place so they could move seamlessly into their new environment without so much as a ripple on the water of their lives.
Well it has been for most parts successful, I have a place to live, I have security by way of a sound job and all is looking fairly rosy in the garden. There are however a few little trick points. The main one being that the salary that I am getting is one that is totally liveable and I am pleased I have it. However it is not what I was expecting to be earning by now and due to an oversight on my part, that I put down to an over-eagerness to land the job in the first place I have, I feel, rather sold myself short and boxed myself into a bit of a corner. The upshot of this being that whilst we will be able to live eat sleep and drink in comfort. School fees are going to be a bit of a struggle to start off with.
The private schooling system in Africa is, I must say, probably the best in the world. And I do not say this lightly. Over here not only do they teach the academia to a very high level, they also teach and instil discipline. The schools are not hobbled by do gooders who manage only to protect the rights of the stupid, lazy, violent and disrespectful.
In the majority of Private African Schools, rules are rules, they are laid out for all to see, they are simple straight forward and everyone understands them. Should these rules get broken there is a punishment, whether it be a beating or a detention or a task. It will be administered swiftly and without compromise. Nobody says that is unfair and you cannot do that. You can and they do. As a result there is a level of understanding and respect in the schools here that you seldom see elsewhere in the world. And the funny thing is that my children without exception are really looking forward to getting back into that system of education though they will sorely miss the school they are at now.
I must point out here that the school the boys attend in the UK is what I would consider to be one of, if not the best school in the country and it is run along as strict a line as can be. As a result the students that come from there are among the best equipped to lead the UK out of its current long drop. But they too have their work cut out to maintain their standards with all the red tape (it’s more like silly string than red tape these days) and bureaucracy that is vomited forth by the Muppets in government, in truck loads.
Sorry, please excuse me while I climb down off my soap box.
Oh yes affording schooling, the schooling is not cheap here either though I suppose it is comparable in relation to earnings with the UK, but even so it will still account for more than two thirds of my wages to put even three of the children into school here. Then there’s George who wants to stay in the UK to complete his A levels, so that too will be a challenge. Of course he wants his own place, car, food and all the other trappings that go with the lifestyle he is imagining himself in. Dream on.
The long and short of it is that by the time I return to Africa, we will have made our decision of whether to move lock stock and barrel to Africa and the chance of a lifetime where your children can grow up in an atmosphere more healthy, a work ethic all around them that shouts if you don’t work you die, and an environment that is stunning in its beauty and its harshness. Add to this the opportunity of helping many, many people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
We will also have to weigh up the fact that we would be leaving my parents who are becoming elderly and will, in a few years need to be looked after on a permanent basis. I have suggested that they come out and live with us in Africa, if my mother swore, I can imagine what she would have said.
There are also the good friends that we have in Cornwall and in the rest of the UK, but at least they are more likely to come out and visit.
We will of course be able to come home once or twice a year to catch up with family and friends, add to that when anyone comes out to visit, we may end up seeing some people more than we do now.
It’s not going to be an easy choice and I know that we will go over much ground many times before the final decision will be made. If it was just me making the choice it would have been made already, but I am a chancer and am prepared to take risks, make a plan, but that is not really fair on the rest of the family, it’s their future more than mine now and where in the world is going to best equip them with the tools they will need for a happy and long future in this world we are giving them.
It’s a tricky one but I think I already know the answer.
Denzil Bark. (Planning ahead)
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