Home Coming

Casting my mind back to the beginning of 2009; where was I and what was I doing? Of course I remember the start of 2009 like it was yesterday. A very eventful time for me and my family. We had just arrived in Lusaka on 31st December 2008 at 21:00hrs on a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka - we arrived to a thunderous welcome at the airport from friends and relatives, all very dear to us, some of whom I had not seen for eight years! Yes, I arrived home eight long years after my previous visit and it felt so good to be back home. So much had changed and yet so much remained so familiar - at some level it felt like I had never left at all. Familiar places, people and familiar smells, the ease with which I was able to switch into the everyday Lusaka language - I surprised even myself!
On the other hand change was all around, nieces and nephews had grown, some even with their own children. Brothers, sisters and cousins all grown a little bit older but still in my eyes same familiar faces I always knew and cherish.


Special friends like the Dakas and the Mwilas - it was so good to just be together again.

Then it was time to go out and see how Zambians celebrate or usher in the new year! We drove past the Arcade which was packed with excited young people, down to Northmead where another throng was in full swing celebrating. When the clock struck midnight, there was a spontaneous roar of celebration with fire works going off sporadically from all over different venues. Police cars driving around keeping the peace also joined in with their flashing lights and sirens! It was indeed a spectacle.

Memories of the new year celebrations we had become so used to in Australia - the Sydney bridge spectacle, the Newcastle foreshore fireworks and the Brisbane Southbank extravaganza where a distant past. We were indeed home and it felt so good!