Internet and wi-fi problems ...

.... and when I do manage to get on line, I find I'm typing in ?? Hebrew ??   Something weird has happened with the 'net so friends will have to assume I'll write up the trip when I get home.   Sorry about that.


Have a few photos (if they load !) to be going on with !

The 'Fiftieth Year' trip starts here ....

.... remember ?     I had a strong desire to return to Kenya this year in September, on the 50th anniversary of my first arriving in Kenya .... but it wasn't to be  😞  so I'm going on a pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem instead. 
  

Two days later ......

Here I am, in Bethlehem, in Palestine.   We are staying in a Francisan monastery right next to Manger Square, and the Church of the Nativity.   Food good, rest of the tour members nice people.   But no kettle in the rooms for midnight tea !!   

Manger Square Christmas Tree ...

 ... and the Church of the Nativity.   

 See the tiny door in the far distance ?   That's the door of humility ...

people have to bend right down to enter it.   Its about 4 ft tall. 

I'm going to bed now; have brought a filthy cold with me and need to catch up on sleep.   Its 9.30 p.m. here ..... so must be about 7.30 in the UK.

I haven't forgotten my blog !

I'm off in a few days on my substitute trip ** to Israel, so although what I might write won't be about Africa, I suppose in a blog anything is possible ! 

I'm going on a pilgrimage tour, very similar to one I did with a group from this diocese about six years ago, led by our former/retired Bishop who is so knowledgeable about the Holy Land, that he is able to impart information with great skill.   The Dean from the cathedral is co-leader.   Wendy, whom I took to Kenya to work on the workshop building in Kisumu about four or five years ago, is also going on the tour.

So we fly B.A. from Heathrow to Tel Aviv, and our first few days will be spent in Bethlehem, in Palestine.   I shall continue ....

 **     http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2018/05/update-on-forty-ninth-year-and-diagnosis.html  

The picture is of Euphobia milii, or the crown of thorns bush, which seems appropriate ...

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow ..... "

I doubt there were poppies blowing in Kenya in World War 1, and there, it is a forgotten war.  Ask anyone in Britain, and facts they know about WW1 are the Somme, the trenches, the mile upon mile of war graves in countless cemeteries.  But in 1914, Kenya was a British colony, and the next country was the then Tanganyika, (now Tanzania), a German colony.  Anyone who saw the film 'Out of Africa' will remember the camp of white civilians ... Lord Delamere and friends ... who were camped near Lake Natron, on the border with Tanganyika, acting as scouts and mercenaries .... and that's all people know.

But it certainly shouldn't be unknown. Probably a million and a half Africans and Asians were involved in the war in one way or another.  It was the longest war in East Africa, and continued after armistice in Europe.  Many Africans were recruited as soldiers, but the majority worked as porters carrying ammunition, food and other supplies for both sides.  One area of Nairobi where the Carrier Corps were based is to this day called 'Kariakor'. 

African soldiers being taught how to shoot a rifle

On 8 August 1914 the British bombed Dar es Salaam, which was then the capital of German East Africa (Tanganyika), and 11 days after the start of the war in Europe, the first shots were fired in Kenya and over the border in Tanganyika.  Much of the fighting took place along the border, mainly in the Kilimanjaro area and Taveta, with incursions back and forth.

Kings African Rifles troops arriving at Tsavo en route for the fighting at Taveta

Place names tell the story ..... Salaita Hill (a Swahili corruption of 'Slaughter Hill') and Mwashoti = more shots.  Longido Hill in Tanganyika, west of Kilimanjaro, was another famous battle of WW1.  The Germans were trying to disrupt and destroy the railway from Mombasa via Nairobi to Port Florence (now Kisumu) which was a vital link up-country for war supplies and food.  They also had influence in Ethiopia, and Somaliland, and so attacked Kenya from the north, in the Northern Frontier District (the NFD).  

The German army continued to make advances after the peace deal was signed in France - German commander Lt-Col Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck didn't receive a telegram with news of the German defeat until 14 November 1918 and took another nine days to march his troops to meet British troops and formally surrender himself.  

It is thought that around one and a half million Africans and Asians living in Kenya and other parts of 'British' Africa, were involved in the war; thousands died in the service of a 'mother' country they knew hardly anything about, and which has up to now done little to commemorate their part in the 'war to end all wars'. 

Britain had ‘recruited’ over a million African ‘carriers’ during the war from within its own colonies. Of these no fewer than 95,000 died from all causes including malnutrition, disease and overwork – almost twice the number of Australian or Canadian troops who died during the War.  Among East and West African carriers the death rate was 20% – almost double the 11.5% death rate for British soldiers.   One un-named Colonial Office official after the war was reported to say that the East Africa campaign "only stopped short of a scandal because the people who suffered most were the carriers – and after all, who cares about native carriers?" 

During its East Africa campaign British forces maintained themselves partly or sometimes wholly by the routine pillage of peasant settlements in their path. To deny sustenance to ravenous German units operating in the vicinity, African villages were blasted and burned, leaving fields torched and livestock scattered .... and thus the Africans with no means of supporting themselves and their families.

"Man's inhumanity to man ...  

Makes countless thousands mourn ..."

Moreover, a majority of the adult African men in the British territories bordering German East Africa (Tanganyika) had been coerced into manning Britain’s supply lines.  This produced a manpower drain unparalleled since the 1870's, when Arab slavers had transported tens of thousands of Africans to the Middle East.  The result was a ‘severe impairment of the capacity for survival of those left behind’, and the failure of the rains in late 1917 and early 1918 compounded this dire situation, leading to famine conditions.

John Chilembwe, an African pastor in 1915 in what was then (British) Nyasaland, wrote:-   "Let the rich men, bankers, titled men, storekeepers, farmers and landlords go to this war and get shot. Instead, we the poor Africans, who have nothing to own in this present world, who in death, leave only a long line of widows and orphans in utter want and dire distress, are invited to die for a cause which is not ours."

~   ~   ~   ~   ~ 

(Sources:  www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28836752   

                 Old Africa magazine

                 various Wikipedia pages)

News update ..... 'ex Africa semper aliquid novi'

('Out of Africa, a new liquid' .... !! )






Fanta Zero is about to be produced in Kenya !    No-sugar drinks are popular in most of Europe and the US, but Kenyan Fanta has always been a real sugar-hit drink !     I love it !!!

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

And something I'd never heard of, a new AIDS/HIV preventative, which can only be good news in countries where HIV is such a problem:-

"Speaking yesterday at the third International HIV Research for Prevention Conference in Madrid, Spain, various experts gave presentations on the performance of selected countries.

Dr Linda Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town, and immediate president of the International Aids Society, said Kenya's response to HIV prevention should be supported.

"Kenya's response and approach to HIV prevention is the best in Africa. It is the first on the continent to put its prevention road map together, which is something we can't fail to mention," Dr Bekker said.

She said that despite resource constraints, Kenya had ensured that pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs were available.

"There is a lot we can learn from Kenya. It has taken the hotspot mapping approach to ensure that those who need the drugs are not left out," she said.

Kenya is the second African country, after South Africa, to have pre-exposure prophylaxis guidelines.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs join other prevention and treatment methods already in use. Other strategies include giving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to people who are not infected with HIV, but are at high risk of infection. These drugs reduce the chances of HIV infection.  (I suppose for negative women married to positive men, as well as others.)

In 2014, the World Health Organisation recommended offering PrEP to men who have sex with men, and in September broadened its recommendation to include all people at substantial risk of HIV infection as an additional prevention choice.

PrEP was first approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012 before other countries followed suit.

The Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board approved use of oral PreP in December 2015.

In April last year, oral PrEP, the anti-retroviral drug Truvada, which is a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine, was approved by the drug regulatory authority for use in the country.

When taken daily and consistently, the drug reduces new infections by 95 per cent.

According to data from PrEP Watch, the number of PrEP users in Kenya stands at 26,000 against 37,000, which is the overall target from all projects (planned and ongoing) being carried out in the country.

(From The Daily Nation)

What good news !    Anything which can halt the spread of this dreadful disease is wonderful; I have had friends die from HIV, and have friends who are managing to live with it, thanks to ARV's.   But in many parts of Africa, ARV's are freely available, but they have to be taken regularly, and with food; what happens if you are so poor that regular food intake is a luxury, not as in the west, something we consume (often to excess) without a thought.   And supposing you live 100 miles from the nearest clinic where free ARV's can be supplied ?   

  

                      Pretty, but deadly ... the HIV virus.

Illiteracy

About 758 million people around the world are illiterate, according to data from the U.N. education agency, UNESCO. Of these, two thirds are women. Of all the regions in Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest level of illiteracy compared to other regions.

So its good to read about an initiative in Narok County, in southern Kenya.   In the Narok area, illiteracy may be partly related to cultural reasons, as among the Maasai community in Kenya, where until recently, most girls were denied an opportunity to go to school, as they would undergo FGM (female genital mutilation) and be married off.

In August last year, Action Africa Help-International, an NGO working in the area, introduced the women to basic literacy skills, opening them up to the world of reading and writing so they could run their businesses and be economically independent.  

Girl circumcision led to the feeling that they had become adults, leading to early marriage, and thus barred them from getting an education. Adult education of the women is effective in ensuring that abuse and domestic violence against them reduces and, as a result, helps them be part of decision-making on matters involving themselves and their families.

(Based on an article in The Epoch Times)

Google 'street view' arrives in Kisumu !

So of course, I had a 'walk' along Achieng' Oneko Road, the walk I used to do most days into town from the Mill Hill guest House ! 

The first thing I noticed, with some sadness, was that the huge pots of ferns and orchids outside the front door of the house have gone .... 

(Two of my photos from 2017 below)

There appears to be building work going on; I had heard the place (now all the Catholic fathers have left) was going to be turned into a hotel ?

(Notice pots gone ...)

(Two screen shots from Google street view)

I wonder what the obviously new unfinished building just to the left of the gates is going to be ?

But I see that the trees outside the front of the building are still there, and that the one I helped Patrick plant about five years ago, is thriving and getting quite big !

The economic goldmine in the 'Happy Valley' legacy

(Report from 'Standard Digital')

Kenya’s Happy Valley — popularised through books and movies, and better known as Wanjohi Valley in Nyandarua County — was the playground for English and some not-so-English aristocrats in the 1920s and 1930s. The key players included Idina Sackville, Lord Errol and a host of other less-known characters who took drugs and died prematurely, either through suicide or were killed. Lord Errol’s death has remained a mystery and there is no sign it will ever be resolved. Enough has been written about the Happy Valley, but what about its edges, the hills around it? 

 After reading 'The Ghosts of Happy Valley', I contacted the writer, Juliet Barnes, and Solomon Gitau, her guide, and we ventured beyond Happy Valley. We took a newly gravelled road from Ol Kalou past the former home of Happy Valley member Morgan Glenville, which is by Malewa River, the main feeder of Lake Naivasha, and up the escarpment. The view of Happy Valley to the south as you climb the escarpment and Lake Ol Bollosat to the north is simply breathtaking.  We were in Shamata, which in the Maa language means ‘high place’. This cold place is to the east of Happy Valley. Here, other pioneer settlers, who were not as well known as the Happy Valley lot, built elegant colonial houses.

The first house we visited was formerly owned by Nigel Trent and is next to Aberdare Forest. It offers a scenic view of the Laikipia plains, and the Rift Valley and its lakes. The house looks modest by Happy Valley standards. The new owner of the house has done a good job maintaining it, 50 years after Nigel’s departure. 

The next house was in Kaheho town, about four kilometres from Nigel’s. Another big colonial house nearby has been partly demolished, and is part of a secondary school. The original owner was probably called Penrose, but was nicknamed Kihuko, loosely translated as ‘mole’s place’. A kilometre away on the gravelled road to Nyahururu is another colonial house, which is now used by the assistant chief. It has remnants of a sheep dip and fuel pumps, and broken glass panes have been replaced with wood. The owner was called Muhuhu, a gossip. His real name is not known. About five kilometres east is another colonial house, with a roof made with wood shingles. It looks abandoned. The owner was called Dyer, and from the design, it looks like the house was for his workers. 

Yet another three kilometres further east we found a well-maintained house formerly owned by Michael Hooper. The house has a wood and mabati roof. The current occupant told us that Hooper descendants have visited the house. Another five kilometres to the north is the home of General Wainwright; his sister’s house is nearby. We were told he sold land to all the other wazungus. The house veranda faces the Aberdares, and the back of it, the Laikipia plains. If there’s something these settlers knew well, it was choosing locations. The house is now public property and is used as a dispensary and village polytechnic.  It is not well maintained. 

Time did not allow further exploration, but there are other colonial houses scattered on the edges of the Happy Valley in the former ‘white highlands’, including that built by Lord Egerton. Curiously, while Australia was started by prostitutes and convicts, Kenya attracted Eton-educated aristocrats !  

It seems that for over 50 years, no one has realised that these houses are goldmines. If well packaged, they could bring Nyandarua County and other counties lots of money through tourism. Many Kenyans and the descendants of the original owners would love to visit these houses, at a fee. But they need to be repaired. I recall paying a few dollars to visit a palatial home built around 1750 on the shores of the Mississippi river.  Nyandarua and other counties with colonial homes have been sitting on a goldmine. 

The distance from Nairobi is another asset — a two-hour drive and you are at Wainwright’s house, admiring nature. Why can’t we create narratives around Happy Valley and its edges? I am very surprised that though Lord Errol is buried in Kiambu, no one talks about it. We seem not to realise that history can be packaged and sold handsomely. In the US, both Illinois and Kentucky claim Abraham Lincoln was born there. How else do you attract tourists?

More importantly is that with time, Kenya will have a critical mass of people who can appreciate nature and history. Such houses will come in handy. And whether we hate colonialism or not, it is part of our history. Maybe one way to reduce the anger against colonialism is to make money from it. I kept wondering where the owners of such great houses went. Some are still around in Kenya. I wonder how they felt when it became clear that they would have to leave their homes, built in the middle of nowhere, long after they had sold their land in England. One of the Happy Valley lot sold a home in the U.K.owned by his family since 1611. 

The ghosts of Happy Valley may never be put to rest, and we may never know who killed Lord Errol. But it makes a lot economic sense to make money from history. It is always there and can be counted as one of our renewable resources. Don’t 10 million people a year go to see pyramids, which are actually graves, in Egypt? Nyandarua and other counties in the former white highlands are sitting on a goldmine that just needs extraction.

(The writer is X.N. Iraki,  senior lecturer, University of Nairobi School of Business)

The Mountains of Kong .... again !!

I was throwing out the newspapers from the last week, and look what I found !   I'd been too busy to read through them properly, and just did the crosswords.

The Mountains of Kong !!

(Regular readers of my blog will recall I was fascinated by this mysterious ... and probably imaginary ... range of west African mountains, south of the Sahara.   Goodness, I see it was over a year ago !)

See http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-mountains-of-kong.html 

The article in the Telegraph magazine is actually about old maps, or even maps of imaginery places.    I love old maps, whether they be of the UK or Africa, or Wainwrights guides to the Lake District fells.  Sandi Toksvig writes part of the article, wherein she says:   "How about the non-existent Mountains of Kong, which were falsely created when Major James Rennell charted them on a map in 1798 and that survived for almost a century ?  Based on reports by explorers, he believed that such a chain of mountains could explain the watershed between the Niger basin and the Gulf of Guinea.  In fact, he believed it so much that he invented them."

Fascinating stuff !

Still here ...

... computer/internet problems.   

Next instalment coming very soon !

Meanwhile, have a few pictures ...............

                              I love his wooliness !    

Omieri the snake !!

Well this is different !    (And something I'd never heard of ....)

"After three decades of anxious waiting, Kisumu residents will finally have a glimpse of the legendary snake, Omieri, which has been associated with several cultural beliefs in Nyanza.  The snake, which died on July 9, 1987, will be the highlight of the 3rd edition of the Kenya National Cultural Celebration for Unesco (Knatcom), which will take place in Kisumu beginning Wednesday to Sunday.

HUGE CROWDS

On Tuesday, a team of workers from the Nairobi National Museum, that has been the 'resting' place of the snake since it died, were busy installing a grass-thatched mud hut at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground for viewing by the locals, attracting a huge crowd.

Residents could not hide the joy of finally seeing the snake that they had all heard mysterious stories about, since most of them were born after the snake had died.  "We hear it was the biggest snake to have ever been seen in this (western) region, I was born when it had died so I never saw it. I am happy it has been brought back home and we will see it," beamed Mr Erick Omondi, a local.

An autopsy done on the reptile revealed that it had died of a gastro-intestinal tract infection. Prior to its death, National Wildlife Conservation, the now Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) did all they could in attempts to keep it alive.  It is reported that in February 27, 1987, some villagers in Nyakach set fire at Omieri’s abode causing the snake severe burns, before KWS  moved to its rescue.

With the help of Kisumu National Museum, KWS immediately took the snake to Nairobi National Museum for treatment and special care then returned it  in May 21, 1987, with the hope that its condition would improve due to the warm climate in the region.  At Kisumu National Museum, Omieri was occasionally fed on chicken before it developed an oral infection and was unable to feed, which saw the snake quarantined for close observation but was attacked by a fungal infection that led to mouth rot.  Animal experts says that if snakes are held captive for a long time, they suffer fungal infection and many usually die of mouth rot.

Dr Purity Kiora, the Director of Antiquity Sites and Monuments at the Kenya National Museums, told reporters in Kisumu that the snake might not be kept for long at the exhibitions due to complications in preserving it.  "We can only have the public view it for just a short period of time because to preserve it for people to see, it has to be in a conducive environment. It has to be in a place with little light and air tight,” said Dr Kiora.

She said the snake will be at the site till Sunday after which they will take it to Kisumu Museum where it will stay for about a month, then its homeland Nyakach and back to the laboratory in Nairobi.  A ceremony will be held for the snake with Nyakach elders invited to tell its story. The snake measured 5.3m and weighed 58kg and was always associated with long rains in Nyanza region.

Other activities at the festival themed “Enhancing National Cohesion, Identity and Pridewill” include multicultural performances from different counties, a food fair dubbed “Fish-fiesta”, performances by Benga musicians, public talks and a fashion show.  There will also be excursions at Kit Mikayi shrine, Weeping Stone, Kisumu Museum, Got Ramogi Hills, Hippo Point, Dunga and Lwanga Beaches.

Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o lauded Knatcom and the National Museums of Kenya for staging the event in the lakeside town and promised the visitors  a good time during their stay.  On her part, the Kenya National Commission for Unesco, Dr Angeline Njoka, heaped praises on Kisumu County for the great partnership towards staging of the celebration.  "We are grateful to Governor Nyong'o for agreeing to host us in Kisumu, the county boasts of a rich cultural heritage that we wanted to plug into, we expect great performances,” she said.

(News from The Daily Nation)

I know all the places mentioned towards the end of this article, but not the Weeping Stone - this is obviously something I have to find out more about.

Watch this space !

Birds, bugs, and bats that go bump in the night !

I think in reading back over the first letters we wrote home I tended to exaggerate and go for the startling, like stories about cockroaches, and how the chickens we bought to eat arrive live, with one leg tied to string, which is then tied to a bush ... "... we have to buy chickens live as they keep fresh that way !"

The cockroaches, which I'd never seen before, were enormous ... nearly two inches in length, and they scurried out from under the cupboard and stove in the kitchen at night .... not one or two or them, but dozens !   

By the end of our first week, we were employing Joseph Adhiambo (photo on right) as a 'house-boy'.  I had thought not to have 'staff' but it was soon obvious that he would be useful for doing our market shopping, as he could bargain in the local language.   He arrived one day, brought along to us by a (white) missionary who explained that Joseph had no father and an elderly mother, and needed to earn money to save for school fees.  He assured us Joseph would work hard and as a mission boy, was honest.   He was about 14 or 15 (he didn't know how old he was) and dressed in ragged clothes, with patches and tears.  He had on his feet a pair of cut down wellies, which had had pieces of rubber sewn over the holes.  He was to be paid two shillings for five hours work, which was more than the government rate, and 'perks' .... usually spare food.  In 1968, an English pound, was 17 Kenya shillings, so about half a crown or so for his wages ?  

The house we lived in at first, was about 30 or 40 years old, with a corrugated iron roof.  The ceilings were nailed directly onto the roof rafters, and were made of some sort of compressed straw board, which mice (rats ?) had gnawed in places.   Electricity for lighting from dusk (about 6.30) until 9.30, when the school generator was switched off and we had to use a paraffin lamp.  It was often easier to go to bed early and get up just before dawn.  One night there was a terrific storm, with wind blowing and whistling through under the mabati (iron sheets) and there was a tremendous crash, and half the bedroom ceiling descended onto us in our beds .... complete with years of bat droppings, dead mice, and goodness knows what else !  The bats which were in the roof sheltering from the storm, fluttered around us in the dark; then by the light of our torches and ultimately the paraffin lamp, we could see what a mess there was !   I didn't write about it in the letters home, but seem to remember we spent the remainder of the night dozing in the sitting room chairs, flapping at the mozzies .... and the bats !

"The view from the house, on a slight hill, is wonderful, looking west towards Uganda, 20 miles away.  We look out over African farms, which at first glance look like scrub land, but I suppose are more like English small-holdings or allotments, with strange crops growing all mixed up in small plots.  There are banana and paw-paw trees, cassava plants, maize and millet.  And mango trees ... which reminds me; can you find a recipe for mango chutney please ?  

The people in this area mostly don't speak Swahili, but Dholuo, which is totally different to Swahili, so we are having to learn another language, as well as continuing with Swahili, which is used in town and the country further east."

We spent most of our spare time bird watching, and had taken out mist nets in order to catch and ring the birds we captured.  Catching them helped us to identify all the many new and wonderful birds we were seeing; having the bird in the hand and the books on the table, made an impossible task a little easier, but at first we had to let birds go that we couldn't identify, but it got easier.   This is the first ever bird we caught at Ng'iya ... the incredibly coloured pygmy kingfisher.   

This is the wildlife we had come to Kenya hoping to see !!

Being moved around !

"13th September, 1968   

Dear Mum .... we reached Kisumu today about 2 p.m., only to be told we weren't going to be posted to Maseno School (which the Min of Ed. had told us yesterday) but to Maranda Secondary School (which had been the second school they offered yesterday) but that the house being built for us wasn't finished, SO we are to live at this school (Ng'iya Girls School) and teach here temporarily .... note the latest address on the back !  IF we are moved again, the head-mistress here will know where we are and will forward any mail !  "

We were obviously thrown into what we were to become used to during the next eleven years .... chaos in governmental organisation !   Welcome to Africa !!

"The house we have been given to live in has sitting room, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen of sorts, outside earth toilet  ***   and a wood store (wood for the kitchen stove).  Its about 30 years old, bungalow type with corrugated iron roof, so it has rather a lot of cockroaches which appear after dark, and also 3" long centipedes, but we have found some geckos and brought them into the house as we believe they eat cockroaches.  We've also got bats in the roof, and monkeys and parrots in the trees just outside.  Poinsettia's grow like weeds here and there are jacaranda trees and bougainvillea's everywhere." 


 ***      http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2017/06/only-in-africa-2.html

12th September, 1968 .... fifty years ago today !!

Today (actually typing this on 12th September, 2018 !) is the fifty year anniversary of when I first arrived in Kenya. 

I've found two letters describing our journey;  "... we left from Norwich station and took the train to Liverpool Street, where we took a taxi all the way to Heathrow ... "   (must have cost a fortune !) ... "we had about 90 lbs of luggage each, so really the bus and tube were out of the question ..."   We met up with two friends, fellow bird enthusiasts, who were also going out to the Kisumu area, and saw that they too, were each carrying a volume of Praed and Grant for their 'light' reading on the plane !  Each volume weighed in at around 4 lbs, so couldn't be packed when we considered they weighed as much as two pairs of shoes, the iron and a transistor radio !

"We left Heathrow on time, in a Super VC10, no less !  Its a very sumptuous plane"   (Notice my excitement in this letter to my mother I started writing from Entebbe !)  "We came down in Rome for re-fuelling at 10.30 at night, and then flew on above the clouds, through the night, passing over a fantastic thunderstorm with lightning flashes below us, and landed at Entebbe in Uganda at dawn for breakfast.  It was a bit humid at Entebbe which is near Lake Victoria, but only 68⁰F.  Some passengers left the plane at Entebbe, while the rest of us flew on to Nairobi."

" Just at the moment" (I continued the letter to my mother on the plane) ".. we can look down and see, through the gaps in the clouds, the Kavirondo Gulf, which is the bit of Lake Victoria near where we are being posted.   We have picked out the town of Homa Bay, but the clouds are drifting about, and we can't see more."

"(Later) ... we have now arrived at Embakasi, the Nairobi airport.   We had a long wait for our luggage to be taken off the plane; one handle had been ripped off a case, but nothing was lost, and there were no problems with the customs or health people.  We were met by an African from the Ministry of Education, who has now dumped us on seats and said we are to wait for a mini-bus, which will take us to Kisumu, we think, but that's not certain yet; we may have to stay in Nairobi for a day or so to get work permits, etc. sorted out.

"Must post this now at the airport, having bought some beautiful Kenyan stamps.  I'm sending your letter with an elephant stamp !"

(Posted 10.30 a.m., Nairobi time, 12th September)

~   ~   ~   ~   ~ 

(Continuing from a letter sent to parents-in-law):   "We were whisked off with our 90 lbs each of luggage, into town and taken to Brunners Hotel, on Muindu Mbingu Street, just off Kenyatta Avenue (do you know it ?)  (They has stayed in Nairobi a few times when on holiday from Aden).  There we had baths and lunch, and then the men were taken to the Ministry of Education for three hours.  We were booked in for the night at Brunners, which I would describe as a rather faded colonial sort of hotel.  High rooms, with lazily turning ceiling fans, and wide verandas opening onto an inner courtyard."

I remember that I went with H. (the other wife) for a walk along Kenyatta Avenue after lunch; a lovely wide avenue with very little traffic, and not many people about either.   Some Maasai strolled past, wearing just a red blanket (nothing else at all !) and carrying spears.  (Not a sight to be seen since the late1960's).   There were several 'colonial' type elderly European men, wearing those wide legged baggy khaki shorts, and veldskoen with no socks.   

This is Africa, I thought !    I'm HERE !!  

10th September, 1968 .... fifty years back.

"Only a day to go before we leave for Kenya.   We've said goodbye to my mother, and I feel a little sad at leaving her so soon after my fathers death just a few months ago.

All our luggage is packed; tomorrow we travel to Heathrow for the flight in the evening.  Quite exciting ... only the third flight in my life .... the first two having been to and back from Aden in 1966 in a DC-7-C, a propellor plane.  (Father-in-law was posted there, seconded to the R.A.F.)   Tomorrow we fly on a VC-10 .... the modern Jumbo Jet.   

I wonder what it will be like to set foot in Africa ?   It has been my ambition since a child, when my grandfather used to tell me about the early explorers in the 'dark' continent.   I'd read Livingstone, Elspeth Huxley, Gerald Durrell and of course, 'Out of Africa', and seen the 'Born Free' film recently ....as well as reading Joy Adamsons books.  I don't suppose for a minute it'll be like any of those books .... but one can hope."

September, 1968 ....yes, sixty-eight !

This is the month I had hoped to return to Kenya for a 'swan song' visit, but that's not to be.  It would have marked the fifty year anniversary of my first setting foot in Africa on 12th September 1968.

So what were we doing in the weeks before we left what a friend of mine so charmingly calls 'Blighty' ?   Well, we had been living in a two roomed rented flat on the second floor in a tower block in Selly Oak, Birmingham.   

   

(Goodness me, what a dreary looking building it was !)

We had given up our teaching jobs and were ready to go off on an adventure !!  Teaching contracts with the Kenyan Government were organised through the Ministry of Overseas Development; I vaguely remember that they organised a sort of induction weekend for new ex-pat teachers going out to Africa, somewhere in Surrey ?   We didn't go on it as we had already booked a camping trip to France before we left for Africa.

We had furniture, books, kitchen equipment, etc. etc. to dispose of before we left.  Some things we sold, and then took our furniture and 'stuff' to my mothers for her to store in a spare room in her Norfolk cottage, assuming we'd be back in 21 months and would need furniture, etc.  Then, we never assumed it would be nearly 11 years before we were back living in the UK.  We packed various things we thought would be useful to have in Kenya, to be shipped out.   (Here I need to check the archive of letters I've mentioned before, to see if we sent sea luggage in advance .... those letters are proving to be very useful !)   I know some things went air freight.  

During our last six weeks in Birmingham we had masses of 'jabs', against yellow fever, cholera, hepatitis of two types, tetanus, polio, typhoid, etc.   And then ordered anti-malarial tablets; we started our time in Kenya taking paludrine every day, but after a few years, it was thought to be no longer effective, so we switched to another anti-malarial.   

The UK government provided ex-pats going to the tropics with a little book called 'The Preservation of Personal Health in Warm Climates' .... with enough gory details to put anyone off actually going !   It came complete with photographs of tse-tse flies, anopheles mosquitoes, bed-bugs, jigger sores, head lice and ticks ... and diagrams as to the correct and incorrect way of hanging a mosquito net.    We read up on sleeping sickness, typhus, bilharzia and plague; leprosy, rabies and syphilis ... snake bites .... scorpions .......... 

But we went ...........  read on .........