My chosen place is NDOLA, N-D-O-L-A. Ndola is situated near to the centre of sub-Saharan Africa - it is some hundreds of miles from the ocean in all directions and sits approximately 4,300 feet above sea level. It is closer to the equator than Tring in Hertfordshire and so the length of the days and the nights are more even and much more consistent throughout the year. The changeover between night and day is much quicker than in England.
The climate is governed by the country’s landlocked situation and height above sea level such that the weather is not extreme with temperatures varying between 10 and 40 degrees centigrade. It is dry for eight months of each year and has a rainy season of four months. During the rainy season it experiences “showers” so intense that it is difficult to see through them; but an hour or so after the rain stops everything again looks as dry as if no rain had fallen. There is a distinct “greenhouse” feel to the gardens with fruit such as bananas, mangoes, watermelons, avocados and pawpaws growing abundantly. Tomatoes, when ripe, will fall to the ground and regrow to provide, without attention, two full crops each year. Ornamental trees and plants flourish everywhere and are fully a part of every street scene and roadside.
Ndola sits over large underground reserves of copper ore (malachite) and this, combined with its height above sea level, draws large electrically charged clouds above itself. This gives rise to fantastic dry electric storms with lightning displays illuminating the sky completely and keeping the ground as bright as day for minutes at a time.
The wildlife is plentiful. During the rainy season winged flies and a large insects gather around streetlights and similar and, flying too close, scorch their wings and fall to the ground where frogs noisily await them. All part of natures cycle.
The better-quality residential areas have wide, straight streets lined with Jacaranda trees on both sides - providing a colourful setting for several styles of ex-colonial houses. One such is Kabinga Avenue – where number 26 is a large bungalow set in about 1 acre of garden with walls around a patio area, a swimming pool, a large double garage a 4-metre-high disused ant hill and many fruit trees.
In the early years of the 1980s this was home to my wife and myself and our three young daughters. Ndola provided us with amazement, amusement, education, a social life, togetherness, and experiences which we shall never forget. It was also a centre for us to take advantage of our time there for family holidays x beside the great river Zambezi at Victoria Falls, on the shores of Lake Kariba at Kariba Dam, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanganyika, in the beautiful mountains of the Easter Heights in Zimbabwe, in Johannesburg at the centre of South Africa and in Cape Town at the point where the two mighty oceans meet.
My favourite photograph shows our three daughters sitting together at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. From there we drove along the fabulous coastal Garden Route, following the southern coast of South Africa, before flying back to our home in Ndola.
It was not all roses and there were times of difficulty, consternation and even fear. Ndola is in Zambia which is a third-world country and only recently independent at that time - it was formerly Northern Rhodesia. It was still suffering the growing pains of independence - particularly regarding supply difficulties and security issues with which we were previously unfamiliar.
There were aspects we would have preferred not to have experienced and, in retrospect, some situations which could have turned out badly. That is true of all life but some from our time abroad were more exotic or differently hazardous than we would have experienced in England.
We remember that this was before the immediate worldwide communication which so dominates our lives today. No mobile phones, no internet, no social media, and no WhatsApp.
Communication was by posted letter, urgent communication was by telegraph and teletext machines, but only via the office. A telephone call to England had to be pre-booked days in advance and, even then, was often cancelled or failed partway through. Such, much anticipated “calls home” were often a disappointment.
We had a holiday also in the fantastic game park of the Luangwa Valley, for which Maureen‘s mother joined us. We saw animals living together in their natural grassland habitats and along the riverside in a way which no European zoo can ever replicate.
On our way, as a family, from England to Ndola at the start and end of our time there and as stopovers on our annual leaves and travels, we spent time also in Amsterdam, Nairobi, Harare, Lusaka and Cyprus.
Our daughters took 747s in their stride but were so excited when, during one leave, my parents took them onto the top deck of a double-decker bus.
When choosing a place, one has also, even if by default, to choose a time. My choice is Ndola and our remarkable three years in the 1980s.
