by admin | Sep 29, 2012 | Dick Hedges
The phrase ‘from rags to riches’ has stood the test of time since it was coined in the Georgian days of the English speaking world to describe the one in ten thousand fortunate working class person who had overcome all the barriers the ruling class had thought out to...
by Christine Nicholls | Sep 21, 2012 | Christine Nicholls
Last Sunday I went to lunch with ex-DCs Peter Fullerton and John Golds. There was talk of old times in the Tana River area, and of Kenya’s Governors Sir Evelyn Baring and Sir Patrick Renison. As ever, the eccentricities of early pioneers were in our minds. I am...
by admin | Sep 19, 2012 | Dick Hedges
Once upon a time, a few years after WWII, when Socialist Britain had got its act together, supermarkets had already begun their war on the English village post office and shop. Halfway around the world in Kenya, the colony still depended on the efficient, hardworking...
by Jon Arensen | Sep 17, 2012 | Jon Arensen
I grew up in East Africa speaking a local language and associating with a large variety of African people. Since attending college I have spent 40 years working in Africa in many different roles including teaching, translating and administration. For many years I...
by admin | Sep 9, 2012 | Dick Hedges
When my wife and I turned up in Kenya in the mid-1950s overland from the UK, it had been arranged that our best friend and his wife also from the UK should follow us out. My best friend duly arrived but without his wife. An annulment was arranged and he soon became...
by Jon Arensen | Sep 3, 2012 | Jon Arensen
The wind blew off Lake Tanganyika causing the coconut palms to whisper in the gentle breeze. I was sitting on a hard wooden chair in the courtyard of an elderly man named Musa. As the sun slowly set over the lake in a fantasy of red, I watched Musa’s family as...
by admin | Aug 31, 2012 | Dick Hedges
Before Africa had television sets, people entertained by holding dinner parties. To most white settlers in Kenya, missionaries were socially unacceptable whereas White Hunters were highly sought after for these dinner parties. This social scale was a serious...
by Christine Nicholls | Aug 27, 2012 | Christine Nicholls
I watched the Olympic Games 800 metres final when Kenya’s Rudisha beat the world record and won the race in spectacular fashion. Everyone, including Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, who really know how to run that distance, said it was the best race of the Olympics. The...
by admin | Aug 26, 2012 | Elaine Barnett
As a little girl at Katangulu, Tanganyika Territory in the late 1940s visits from snakes of various sizes and shapes seemed to be part of our daily routine, especially during the hot months of the seasonal dry time. These periods of drought and sometimes famine...
by Jon Arensen | Aug 16, 2012 | Jon Arensen
In the early 70s my wife and I were teachers at the Rift Valley Academy – a school located in the highlands of Kenya. Our students came from all over East Africa so during one of the vacations periods we decided to visit some of the parents who were located in eastern...
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