A Bit About My Past-.....Living in Africa... What I Remember

A blog reader emailed me and asked what it was like growing up in Africa.  I have very few memories, but here are a few that stand out.

When we lived in Africa, my Grandparents had a good bit of land, and they owned a donkey called Semolina.

During the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya in the late 50's and early 60's, the Mau Mau would get quite close to thier house and my grandmother would have to fire a shot gun into the air to scare them off.  She was 5' tall and would never have really shot anyone or anything.

A snake killed my cat. I came home from school one day and our houseboy (sorry, I don't think that term is appropriate anymore) was burying it.

One night a pole snatcher (person with a long pole who grabs things with it through an open window) snatched my blanket while I was sleeping.

My father worked for East African Railways.  While we were waiting for a house to become available, they put us up (4 children 1, 2, 4, and 5 years) in a railway car.  It would get shunted in the night while we slept to another track. 

.Sometimes when driving in the country an elephant would be in the road and we would have to pull over and wait for them to move.

When we holiday'ed in Mombassa, the hotel would bring tea to our little villa every afternoon and they would set it in the garden.  If you didn't hurry out, the monkeys would take it and eat it.

So these are the things I remember of my childhood in Africa.  Pole snatchers, elephants in the road, snakes, living in a railway car and my little we granny firing warning shots at the uprisers, and of course her lovely donkey Semolina.  What are some of your early memories?