Uncle Travelling Mack

It just happens that over the last month, my wife has resorted to calling me Uncle Travelling Mack. Not that I look like gobo fraggle (of fraggle rock fame) but because I have been on the road a lot - visiting sales reps across the UK. And what a great experience that has been!

First, it was great to learn about the UK geography. Like most people back in Nigeria (or maybe just the people I know!) I thought England and the UK are synonymous so I have used them interchangeably. And that was better than some of my mates that felt London was synonymous with the entire British Isles (lol!) Anyway, I've been to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Bolton, Manchester, Bristol, Hull & travel next to Cardiff. So that has been really fun!

It still baffles me though that people on this small island see themselves as different and yet the same. There was a large debate last week during the Rugby World Cup final whether the British Prime Minister should wear an English jersey. In the end, Mr Brown (being a Scot) decided it was not appropriate dressing anyway (I wish Nigerian politicians would learn to skilfully manage conflict this way!). Scots would get very upset if you called them Englishmen; people in Edinburgh think Glasgow is not very nice; and I have been warned not to call Wales a part of Englan

Well, as much different as these countries/cities are, it is really interesting to see how they still coexist without major issues (beyond jerseys for the PM). And that just heightens the challenge for Africa in my mind. How do we see that the benefits of existing together outweigh the problems and thus focus on being fair to each other?

Will talk about my experience meeting UK surgeons and seeing live surgeries soon!