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In the early times in Kenya there was a feeling of lifting and decompression. We went to live in Langata first. At that time it was in the wild. Dad had bought a small VW beatle and in the Beatle we travelled to our house on stilts. There were two people who looked after us David and Odouda. Odouda was the cook and famous for his creamed spinach.

You drove out of Nairobi and past Wilson airport. If it was during the day, you would see the little propeller planes flying in touching and bouncing along the grass as you clattered past in the Beatle. If it was night there would be red lights flashing. We always usually kept the windows open to catch the breeze, but at night it grew cold fast. Sunsets came in a glorious flash of orange and red. The road to the house was past a little quarry of red earth where we let our dog run riot. An Alsation, intelligent and old and protective, called Whizzy. Very definately our more senior and mature companion. He used to get into fights and win, marking out our territory. The house was on stilts and felt very isolated.

When we woke up many mornings the lawn was covered in dew. Once or twice a think line of dark moving red traced its path across the lawn and Daniel would pour petrol along its length and set fire to it. Sometimes, in the morning, we would see deer nibbling the flowers and at night there was the sound of howling. Daniel would scare us. Hyeanas, he said, who ate little boys. But it was very dark in that house at night and when mom and dad went out we were quite scared.

Once, for some reason, shortly after we arrived, I felt aggreived and walked off on my own into the forest. It was full of blue gum trees. We always associated Nairobi with frangipani, Jacaranda and blue gum. But soon I got scared. Then came home and gave a sugarlump to a neighbours horse which, after its soft lips had pursed and lifted the lump bit into my little finger.

Although the garden was surrounded by flower beds and bushes, there was always a sense of flow between us and the untamed land beyond.

Though we were small we went to see Dad's office and the typewriters and the hear the occasional banter and then see the typesetters work and watch the printing presses role.

and the

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