Where Have They Gone?

Where have all the children gone, the ones I knew so long ago when, as a boy, I lived in East Africa?

They have spread across the world as, with the peripatetic lifestyle that was common to so many of them in their upbringing, I think I would have expected. So they are in Australia, in the US, in South Africa and Zimbabwe as well as in the UK and other European countries. They have scattered in the winds of change. 

Yet, despite the decades that have passed, I am still in touch, on a regular basis, with three of them, and on a more occasional basis with two more.

Of the many others, I know where some are but do not hear from or of them, and some - more and more - I know have died.

Wherever they are, and whether they are alive or dead, I am deeply indebted to them because many had such a strong influence in moulding my life; and I do hope, therefore, that they all lived long, happy and fulfilling lives.