Changes

|title=Refugee Boy

|author=Benjamin Zephaniah

|date=August 2001

|isbn=0747550867

}}

Alem is beginning the holiday of a lifetime. With his much-respected, much-beloved father he arrives in England ready to see the sights. He's bright, interested, excited, but above all he feels very privileged to be alone with his father on a trip of this magnitude. They make their way from Heathrow to nearby Datchet and a quiet, friendly, family hotel which will be their base while they're away. On their first full day they get the train into London and explore. Alem is blown away by the crowds, by the glamour, by the traffic. But above all he loves that juxtaposition of old and new so peculiar to London. Alem would like to be an architect when he grows up and he spends his day dreaming of what he'd build where and how he'd incorporate old, traditional themes into his modern designs. After sharing a happy meal the two holidaymakers return to the hotel for a much-needed nights sleep. With barely time to wonder why it is his father keeps insisting so strongly that he must speak in English and not his native tongue, Alem sinks into bed a happy child.