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This is a podcast of the version broadcast on BBC Radio 4, presented by Kate Adie.

Today we board a train at dawn and follow the Chinese to the heart of Africa.

The new generation of Afghans determined to play their part in bringing peace and stability to their country.

We meet a Kenyan, bitten by a black member, but still insisting that snakes are essential,

and the correspondent who's giving it all up to become a vicar.

Up until fairly recently, you couldn't even set out on what used to be one of Africa's greatest rail journeys.

The Bengela Line in Angola, built at great cost by the British in the last century,

was brought to a standstill by the country's civil war,

which lasted for more than two decades,

up until the early 1990s. But now, in its search for resources in Africa, China is helping

to restore the rail service, which was built to link the centre of the continent to its

Atlantic coast. Just in Rollat's just been for a ride. The passengers squatted beside the railway tracks.

It was impossible to tell how many there were.

In the darkness their bodies merged with great shapeless bundles of luggage,

but there were certainly hundreds.

Then, with the first flush of dawn and bang on time,

the bright beam of headlights appeared in the far distance.

The crowd immediately began to stir and jostle for position, even before the train had eased to a halt.

They threw up their boxes and bags into the open cattle trucks and scruffy passenger carriages.

Then they scrambled after them.

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