Laurence’s thoughts on returning home

“So I’ve just got back from four months living out of a backpack in a cockroach-infested spartan room in the African bush.

“Amid the barren surroundings, with TV and 24-hour internet access an entire continent away, imagination and spontaneity were more of a necessity than an attribute.

“As my venture neared its end I spoke increasingly fondly of the UK and looked forward to returning to a country filled with entertainment at every corner: music, film, theatre, engaging politics and endless summer days out.

“Alas, what I returned to was entirely different. These things were less entertainment and more of a distraction.

“What struck me, though, was the predictability, the lack of risk or danger. With regulations and rules for everything there is now no role for chance. How can a nation learn when they have no opportunity to lose? Everything insured, everything dictated, life just slow transit along a speed restricted safety padded slip resistant weather proofed conveyor belt.

“Last month a trip to town could take an hour or ten minutes, it could mean sharing the back of a bike with goats and chickens. Dust would whip into my sunburnt face, shrieks of children would meet my ears as I struggled to wave back while clinging desperately to the hot metal as we jolted over ripped up roads … and now it’s just a five minute trip in the car, strapped into comfy seats with extra leg room and reassuring airbags, passing slowly along endless grey tarmac, speed limited and full of warning signs and tutting back seat drivers when the needle nudges 30.

“No doubt this is progress in safety, but is it really progress in life? Is this really what we wanted, a safe world where we have to worry about terrorist threats and financial crises because all the small natural risks have been eliminated by paranoid pencil pushers? A world where the greatest choice of the day is split between voting off the annoying lesbian or the overbearing spiritualist in Big Brother, or whether to have one sugar or two in your mid morning cup of tea.

“Surely we need to lighten up and re-embrace the pioneering cave man in all of us. Two hundred years on wouldn’t Darwin be saddened to see that it wasn’t the fittest that survived but the meekest, tamest worriers!

“I’m sure that I will go back at some point in the future, the vibrance of life and the openess of people in Africa is really endearing. I’d love to go and explore more of the continent and also go back to Uganda and see what progress is being made.”