This postcard is dated slightly after the first time I went to Kenya. I first traveled to Kenya in 1964. It was rather a spur of the moment decision on my part. My mother was in Kenya as part of a vacation trip from Nepal where she was serving in the Peace Corps. I was in Berkeley California sort of at a loose end before starting graduate studies. My memory is beginning to blur as to the exact sequence of events here but anyhow I thought “why don’t I join my mother in her travels?” So I did just that. I flew from San Francisco to East Africa. I was booked to fly to Dar es Salaam but the plane stopped in Nairobi and I got off – sounds crazy now but such things were possible then. My suitcase went on to Dar es Salaam. Eventually my suitcase and I were reunited but that’s another story in itself.
So there I was in Nairobi. It was night time. My memory is a bit hazy here but I took some sort of official transport into town and booked into the New Stanley. I think by this point a friendly stranger come to my aid – a mother and son? This is really bizarre but I think she shared her room with me at the New Stanley Hotel. A couple of days later I was walking down Kenyatta Avenue and I spotted my mother and her friends on the opposite side of the street. Needless to say she was surprised to see me!
Janet's Thread 2 