Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Juliet to Nanny & Grandad 2 Feb 1976 –

I am now in Form IIA but it doesn’t seem any different. At school we now do Home Economics with Pam Kinshott who lives here at Alliance so we travel to school with her. I do a lot of tennis at school now and enjoy it too. I have two lots of exams a year – one in the second term and one in the third term.

Letter from Graham to Grandma & Grandad 1 Mar 1976 –

Today we had the school Speech Day and also it was the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the school. It ended with a tea for guests and staff – the most interesting part for me. Juliet and Helen were back from school in time to help demolish some food and they helped a little with the clearing and replenishing the tables.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 4 Mar 1976 –

We have had a busy week as Monday was Speech Day and the 50th Anniversary at Alliance so all the bigwigs were present and we spent the morning cutting what seemed like millions of sandwiches.

Letter from Helen to Grandma & Grandad 12 Mar 1976 –

In my French test I got 73.5%, history test 13 out of 20 and13.5 out of 20. I was 4th in the cross country race.

Letter from Judy to Valerie & Graham 14 Mar 1976 –

Graham is enjoying teaching this term – Form 5 don’t arrive until after Easter and he is continuing with all the classes he got to know last year. We have also been provided with an extra physicist so Graham has thankfully handed over his physics teaching. He now spends some periods teaching Industrial Arts which is being expanded so that now 1st, 2nd and some 3rd year boys do it. They have been given several thousand pounds by Norway to spend on equipment which is a bit of a headache – both Graham and Thomas (the Industrial Arts teacher) feel it is far too much money which could be better spent elsewhere. When many expatriates are not having their contracts renewed at other schools because of lack of money, Alliance goes on with its 20 or so.

Letter from Fiona to Nanny & Grandad 14 Mar 1976 –

We are going to get a new teacher soon. I am doing book 2 of maths. I am on page 100. I am doing Standard 2 work. Today in school I rote about a girraffe. I rote this O Mister girraffe you make me laugh. You seem to be made wrong. Your head is so high up there in the sky and your neck is so very long. I am having hot lunches at school now. Next Monday we are going to do a show.

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 24 Mar 1976 –

Life continues as usual at Alliance with everyone rushing around doing end of term tests, reports etc. Martin and Caroline are still battling to be allowed to leave the country – still have no prospect of being given a flight home and seem to run into difficulties at every turn. The whole thing seems so ridiculous that I am quite unable to concentrate on it enough to remember the day to day details but I gather things couldn’t be much worse. Still at least the sun is shining and Caroline can take her mind off her troubles by riding, swimming etc.

Letter from Graham to Diane & Sydney 28 Mar 1976 –

This term I did not have to teach on Saturday mornings so we have been going out more at weekends. Hence our weekday spare time has been used up with routine things. I have enjoyed myself very much this term, partly because of free weekends I presume and also because the teaching was pleasant.

Letter from Graham to Grandma & Grandad 3 Apr 1976 –

In the last week of the Easter holiday I will be at school helping to make the timetable. Unfortunately it needs doing every term here. Two of our friends are leaving for Britain at the end of next week so there should be two new teachers next term.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma and Grandad 4 Apr 1976 –

It is now our Easter holidays. Helen and I broke up on 2nd April and go back on 9th May so we get a lovely long holiday. Fiona is still at school and daddy is still teaching. They both finish on 9th April. On April Fools Day we were at school so had a lovely day playing tricks. We had nine lessons that day and played a trick in all the lessons but two. There are three Form 2 classes II, IIA and IIp – I am in IIA. Our first lesson was Religion, Form II had History with Sister Lucy and Form IIp had Physics in the physics lab so we all swapped classes. We went to Physics, Form IIp’s went to History and Form II went to Religion. The physics teacher didn’t realise that we were the wrong class. When she started to do an experiment we all shouted ‘April Fool!’. I am glad she took it well because she has a terrible temper. In Maths class we got a stink bomb but we had a maths test so had to sit through it while the teacher went outside. Each answer to the questions was a letter then at the end we had to put the letters together to make words – the words spelled April Fools ! What a cheek – it was us that should play the tricks, not the teachers ! We also had another trick played on us. Our Home Economics teacher gave us a recipe to copy down and then make. It was called Flan de Scarabes and little did we know but Scarabes meant beetles. We weighed out our ingredients. We were told to put bicarbonate of soda in some white vinegar to make a fizzing mixture. Then we were told to go to the teacher to see what filling we would like. She showed us some pickled bats, beetles and crickets. Some people believed her then she told us ‘April Fools!’. We did feel silly.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 15 Apr 1976 –

I am very proud to have a Grandma who won two silver medals ! I haven’t got any. We don’t do gymnastics at school now which is a pity because I enjoy it.