Tom Linton

My young brother, Dan, found your website somehow and sent me the link. I have found it fascinating.

My story is a bit different from most that I have seen so far:

My father was an American missionary, sent to restart a printing press for the mission in the aftermath of WWII.(1946). We lived at Vuga in the Usambara Mts. We lived in Tanganyika for two five year 'terms', leaving for the last time in 1957. My father had a heart condition that prevented him from returning to the work he loved and the people of the Usambaras.

I finished university in 1966 and returned that year as a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in an agricultural project in Morogoro Region(Kilombero) for two years.

Later, I moved to Kenya, to the sugar producing areas around Lake Victoria for another year. After further education, I returned to TZ in 1974 with my wife, Shirley, to teach at a secondary school just outside Arusha, called Enaboishu. I was an employee(missionary) of the Lutheran Church of America, but serving under the authority of the ELCT(the local Lutheran Church).

We had two children born in Nairobi during that time. Our oldest was a student at Arusha School from 1979 to 1982, the year we returned to USA. We have not been back since. However, we are planning a return safari for this November, especially to visit the area where my parents served from 1946 to 1957, with my two daughters and my two sisters and a brother�all with their spouses. We will be a group of ten or more. It will be a 'trip of a lifetime'�

I have made the acquaintance of a Tom Linton, an artist who is a representative of Dieter Czurn's safari company. He was a student at Arusha School and later, at secondary school in Nairobi. His father built the pryretheum factory in Arusha. He will know many of the names in your website! I'll make sure he is aware of your website� perhaps he already knows about it.

I have extensive knowledge of the American missionary family from the Arusha area and can answer questions or put people in contact with old friends from that community. Our neightbor from Ilboru, Dave Simonson, still lives in Arusha although he is in declining health these days. Many of his family are in the safari business and are, in fact, arranging our safari.

I knew Deiter Czurn's father well; my father depended on him for repairs to vehicles used in the pubslishing house. I hope to meet up with him some day.

I didn't see your background and history anywhere on the website�perhaps I didn't look in the right place. During our 8.5 years in the Arusha area we met many of the old time 'wazungus', although many of them have passed on.

One, 'Edward, the Polish butcher' is still there and very much alive and operating his business out of his house. I am interested in the history of Polish refugees and will try to visit the cemetary at Tengeru.

I have a brother-in-law who is Jewish and he is interested in any Jewish immigration and history. I would welcome any information anyone out there would know, especially if there were any Jewish immigrants from Poland among those refugees!

I'm sorry this is so long, but I am one of those who has been bitten by the Africa bug, more specifically the Tanzania variety. In total I have lived 22.5 years of my life there(I still speak Swahili fluently) and find that it will always pull me back�

Cheers, Paul Bolstad

The other man standing over the rhino looks very much like like Mr. Krokowski (polish refugee from Nazi occupied Poland). He owned a jewelry store around the corner from the grocery store on the corner of the town square/roundabout. He had mines around the country, was chief of police, and a big game hunter for many years (trading in ivory), and was eventually killed in his small aircraft on the slopes of Monduli hills. He got into a slip stream and couldn't pull out. His son Joseph survived and lives in London. I was supposed to go up with them that day, but my mother had a call from Mrs. Watts (who lived out past Lake Duluti) asking if I would take out her daughter Dawn, horseriding. After a heated argument, my mother won out, and I had to ride the six miles out there to take Dawn riding!

The picture of the horse. That's the Miller home which was on Themi [Temi] road just before you enter Themi coffee estate, on the way to the Pyrethrum factory built by my father Dr. John Linton, who passed away last year. When my horse arrived on the train from Nairobi, he was boarded in the Miller's paddock for a while. Mr. Miller left the country during the nationalization period (of socialism) with his wealth, in stones, and was sadly killed when the small plane he was absconding in crashed.

Cheers,

Tom Linton

p.s I last heard Jonn Boveniser is 'Down Under' farming.

I've only just now glanced at your site, so I'll give it another persusal and let you know what else I find.