Your memories are wonderful to read as I have pretty much the very same memories - playing for hours in those beautiful trees by the sports fields, the fancy dress events that were always happy because it meant you were going home too!! I remember Ms Swift extremely well as she was a favourite teacher, very kind to me and I loved her classes. How marvellous someone else remembers her. Have photos of us on the airstrip about to board the Dakotas to fly home, my Dad was Embakasi Airport Manager, in those days you were almost in touching distance of the planes on the tarmac ! I still remember the smell of the spray in the plane as you entered, always made me feel so sick. I was in Wallington and so remember being hit with the tacki by some horrible matrons. My sister was in the choir and had a blue overdress. Mr Morgan was headmaster when I was there, I remember being shown films in the big hall on a Saturday evening. So so many memories but I absolutely hated going as a boarder, also remember banana fluff as a favourite in the dining room!

Authors Jeannette Hanby and David Bygott visited the Mangola area of northern Tanzania for the first time in 1984, and were amazed at the diverse human cultures, wildlife and scenic beauty of the Lake Eyasi basin. From house-sitting an onion farm they progressed to building their own home and creative studio in the bush, and forging relationships with the farmers, pastoralists, foragers and other neighbors who lived nearby. Each book is a collection of stories about village life, wildlife interactions, visiting researchers, and journeys of exploration. The stories are illustrated with drawings, photos and maps.
You can learn more about the books and how to buy them at: www.hanby-bygott-books.com

I am glad to be able to get into this Forum at last; for months/years there was no reaction to my registration.  About the Dodoma European School there have been all kinds of misnomers and misapprehensions over the years.  It was actually founded by my father, John Henry Harris, who was the Research Metallurgist (the only metallurgist in fact) at the Geological Survey Dept in Dodoma 1935-1955, when I became of an age to need schooling.  In 1950 there was no primary school for the growing number of European children in Dodoma, so when we came back from leave in that year (I was 5 years old) my father started applying to the Education Department for a school to be built.  The funding for the building came from the Government. The school itself was run, like so many others in Tanganyika at the time, as a private enterprise.  It was a fee-paying school.  My father was himself the Manager for the first two years of the school's existence and he hired the teachers that were around at the time, i.e. the New Zealand missionaries, and paid them out of the school fees. While the school was being built, Valerie and myself and a handful of other 5-year-olds did indeed sit in a store cupboard in the Dodoma Club in front of a blackboard and learn to read THE CAT SAT ON THE MAT.  I think Valerie is right about the year the school opened (1951) but not about the funding.  It would not have been possible from a party at the Club to pay for a school building!  (The show Valerie remembers was also organised by my father, who loved music and conjuring, but it was the following year 1952 and was in aid of the Red Cross, not any educational project.  That show was called Midnight Blues.  My father stayed up and wrote the whole show in one night, songs, dances, jokes, conjuring tricks, and it had just one performance, as Valerie remembers, at the Club. I still have the original script and recording). The fact that the European School was fee-paying and staffed by missionaries gave it its character from the very beginning.  My father ran the school for 2 years and then when we were due to go on leave again in 1953 he handed the management over to the Anglican Diocese in the person of Archdeacon Cordell and that is why the school has an Anglican character to this day.  Canon Andrea Mwaka must have taken over this responsibility but he was certainly not the founder as he took office more than a decade later. The standard of teaching in those first years was not very high: just as in the mission schools the teachers concentrated on crafts and Bible study but were not well-trained to impart the 3Rs.  I suffered all my life from a poor Maths foundation and I can see that spelling remained a problem for some pupils!  My father must have recognised this as he took me away from the Dodoma European School in 1954 and sent me to the Southern Highlands School at Sao Hill, where my elder brother already was. In 1985 I was able to return to Dodoma with my parents.  By then I was a higher education lecturer myself in the UK and JH Harris was a world expert on mining and metallurgy working for the United Nations and he was charged with the mission requested by the Tanzanian Government to assess the mineral wealth of Tanzania and its economic potential.  We stayed for one month in Dodoma and I was able to revisit the school.  The teachers, still mostly New Zealanders, were very welcoming and showed me the early records where my name as a pupil and my father's name as manager featured.  In the classrooms the pupils were amazed to meet an original student!  The school was officially called the International School at that moment but it was popularly known as the Stockley School.  Gordon Stockley was a geologist who had been at the Geological Survey in Dodoma since the 1920s.  He stayed on after Independence and had a road named after him.  What had been the Golf Course Road where the European School was built became the Stockley Road, and so people started to associate the road with their memories of a chap from the Geological Survey and (mistakenly) the school was nicknamed the Stockley School.  They got the wrong man!  Anyway, it is wonderful to see that the school my father founded and where I spent my early years still flourishes and is to all appearances a prestige school in Tanzania!

Some photos of me - Bhavnesh and my brother MukeshYou cannot see attachments on this board.
I think these were taken in 1972-1973.

Hi All
this is me on "Humpty" (1972 possibly?)- I am sure that was the horse's name. Not sure who the other kid is - sorry.
Used to love riding all the horses and helping clean out the stables on weekends!

Hi Simon
Just logged in at random and noticed your post. Will get some photos uploaded.
Regards
Bhav

Hi Bhav,

Sorry for the delay in replying.I had almost given up looking for activity as you can see in my last post of July last year!! Photos a good idea! Over the years quite a few "Arusharites" have used this Forum and some photos may wake them up to get their fingers back onto the Keyboard!? I was in Moshi and Arusha several times in the middle to late 60's.Cricket for the Twigas,(the Tanganyika Touring Team) and after an exhausting climb of Kilimanjaro.Lovely air then.Don't know about now? Good luck with the photos.Maybe it will get some reaction....Best..Simon.

Hi Simon
Have recently joined this forum being an ex pupil at Arusha School back in the early 70's. Its a shame there is much more activity on the site. I am going to upload some photos I have hopefully might kick things off.
Its possible that members have not switched on notifications therefore unless they keep coming back to the site regularly (which is easy to forget!) they won't receive notice of any activity?

Hi
Is anyone still active on this forum?

Quote from: david saunders on 28 December, 2010, 06:35Hi Barry, Are u Jacks Son,currently in Botswana?  My Dad was the pilot in Chunya for WEstern Rift exploration. My brother Ken and i  both  attended Mbeya school. I remember visiting you, your sister and folks at Lake Rukwa. I remember swimming in the ponds inthe river and hippos and crocs in the lake.

Hi David, Just revisited the sight after many moons. Yep I'm Jack's son but unfortunately he died after a plane crash in 92. His plane. Of course, I remember you, your brother, your folks and your Dad's plane. I'm in Hong Kong these days and get back to Africa from time to time. Am a Grandpa 4 times over now. If you ever read this post get back to me at barry.bousfield@gmail.com. Cheers and best regards. Barry