Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 29 Jan 1975 – You wouldn’t recognise the children – they are already beautifully tanned and healthy looking – the result of being out in the sun and wind all day. The climate is perfect at this time of year – there is always a lovely cool breeze… Continue reading A pleasant climate.

Letter from Judy to Lisbeth & Peter 29 Jan 1975 – Our three bedroom bungalow has a big garden back and front. As it hadn’t been touched for 4 months one of our first jobs was to find a ‘garden boy’ to work for us. In three days he’s already done a great deal. He… Continue reading Our garden.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 3 Feb 1975 – We have got a very nice girl helping me in the house – Hannah has never worked before but is a very good worker and the children like her. Fiona stays with her quite happily when I go shopping. She speaks good English as… Continue reading Employing servants.

Diary entry by Juliet 30 Jan 1975 – Caroline Trent took me to her friend’s house and they gave us a lovely black kitten. We named her Cheza because she is usually very playful. Kucheza is the verb for playful in Kiswahili, but we thought that was a bit long so Cheza is shorter. Stills… Continue reading Little kitten.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 4 Feb 1975 – Graham is much enjoying teaching and already has become involved in quite a few things – all talents are welcome here and indeed one is expected to use them. Graham will be doing ‘industrial arts’ – car mechanics, power mechanics and electronics in his… Continue reading Graham’s teaching job.

From Juliet’s diary 28 Jan 1975 – This morning mummy took me to Loreto school (Loreto Convent Msongari) to see if she could get me a place there. The headmistress is called Sister Pauline. I like her very much. I had to do a maths test – some of it was quite easy. Then we… Continue reading Starting school.

Letter from Graham to Tom & Mary 28 Jan 1975 – Our first impressions are very favourable – for three days all our meals were provided by other teachers. Partly to help us out and partly to speed up introductions. There were no spirits in evidence at all ! Only twice did we see alcohol… Continue reading Getting to know people.

Juliet’s diary entry 24th January 1975 – We were taken from the airport to Alliance Boys High School at Kikuyu. We were taken to our house which is a lovely big bungalow. It’s white with a tiled roof and a small verandah. Our garden is huge but needs quite a lot of clearing. We have… Continue reading Our new home at Alliance.

Diary entry by Juliet 24 January 1975 – Nairobi airport was not quite as hot as Entebbe but it still seemed very hot. The buildings seemed much the same as Entebbe Airport’s buidings. We waited for about 4 hours with our luggage because of something. We sat on a verandah sweating and ate stale sandwiches… Continue reading Arrival in Kenya.

Diary entry by Juliet 23 Jan 1975 – At 1:30pm Simon put all our luggage in his car and drove it down to Temple Meads. He took us down afterwards (luckily we only lived about a mile and a half from the station). At 2:15pm we got on the train to Reading. We then got… Continue reading Flying to Kenya.