Different Worlds

I have just returned from another short assignment in Tanzania, working again with the Finance Team of the German-funded development project.

Despite the number of times I have done it I am still amazed at how quickly modern air travel enables us to move between different worlds. On Friday morning I woke up in a remote region of southern Tanzania to the sounds of the cockerel crowing and the mullah's early morning call to prayer. Within a few hours I was at the nearby airstrip waiting for the MAF plane that was to take me on the first leg of my journey.

After a two hour flight in the small 12-seater light aircraft (a journey that would have taken at least 12 hours by road) we landed in Dar Es Salaam, where the warm sunny weather of the south had been replaced by the heat and humidity of this busy coastal city. Two hours after arriving in Dar I was boarding a Boeing 777, with 200+ other people and heading for Dubai.

For me Dubai Airport epitomizes opulence and excess with its modern architecture and endless shops. It is all designed to lure us into buying things we could easily live without  and as I walked through the airport to catch my next flight I wondered what the folk I have left behind in Tanzania would make of it all. I think it is a world they could barely imagine.

Seven hours later I arrived in Newcastle, where it was dull and drizzly and for the first time in nearly three weeks I needed to wear several layers of clothing to keep warm. In less than 24 hours I had been in three continents and encountered fellow travellers from many countries. Even after only a short time away, and despite its familiarity, it still takes a while to adjust to being home: to get used to living in this very different world.