Jill Appleby/Petra McMahon: I remember you well! My father was also PWD but in Dar and we met in Tanga whe I was on my way back from my first term at Arusha and you were about to be a new person the next. I can't remember the advice I gave you but I'm sure it would have been helpful like "Don't go there!" as I hadnt much enjoyed the first term though life improved after that. As we had met before you arrived it was assumed by the unsympathetic boys of Junior Block North dorm that you were "my dame" and I was instructed to tell you to be more respectful of them,- advice which I remember never passing on!

  Nigel Birch:
  Nick Cashin's father was George Cashin and spent many years with the PWD in Arusha covering especially the roads -tar to the border at Namanga to the north and as far as Moshi is the east and the mainly murrham/earth main north/south one from Arusha via Babati and Kondoa to Dodoma. His reach probably extended out to the Seregenti via Manyara and Ngorongoro.I think the Arusha region stretched almost to Kondoa from where there was a little used road/track across the southern Maasai Steppe to Handeni where it met the Korogwe/Mziha/Morogoro road so well known to Arusha School veterans of the train and bus "safari" to and from Dar. The question of whether to build a modern high capacity road from Dar to Mwanza is still very much alive and may now happen. The problem has always been that the only viable route would take it across the Serengeti which is enormous value to the safari industry so has been opposed ever since at least the 1950s. It is thought the only way to knit together the infrastructure of Tanzania as relying only on the railway and air connections leaves a big gap.
  Dr Katie McPhillips, husband and family had been in Dar so maybe moved to Arusha when jobs there were increasingly localised in the early /mid 60s?

 Hartmut Schaale : A fascinating posting by you last year. The history of German East Africa pre-1914 would be very interesting too. There were I understand considerable German plans for development, including much more use of hydro-electric power. It is also fascinating to consider what would have happened  right across Africa if the outcome of WW1 had been different. Germany was outstanding at infrastructure projects and would very likely have built a proper west-east road, a real Trans Africa Highway, between at least Nigeria/Cameroon and Kenya/Tanganyika. That would have profoundly affected the political and economic shape of African now,-almost certainly for the better. A useful thought for your book?

In the early 50s the takki (frequently) or cane (much less so and usually only by Hamshere) were for disciplinary things, often very small with talking during afternoon rest being the most common. When I went to the UK (Junior King's , Canterbury) it was much worse. No takki. Just the cane for everything from the trivial to being late 3 times, being cheeky to a house captain but above all for work deficiencies. At the senior school even low marks in a test could get you a beating. In comparaison Arusha looked like a humane bed of roses and the children there were certainly much more free without a plethora of often absurd rules and generally free ranging. Catering for both boys and girls was a big plus and did much to humanise it. At segregated  UK prep schools girls were seldom mentioned and King's Canterbury ,contact-termed "wenching" by the Headmaster,- was discouraged right through to the top of the senior school.Awful! Generally speaking we were lucky to be at Arusha and experience something very different. that picture on the original postings of children walking round the overturned EAR bus says it all. Those safaris to and from school were a great adventure,- and we were actually all very small at the time.

 Alec: Did you get my reply to yours earlier this month? If not e-mail me on peterhwoodrow@hotmail.com. If Mike or Rae are tuned in to this too I'd be delighted to hear from them.
All the best, Peter

   
Those award slips bring back memories.  They were rather like a tear- off receipt .I think they were dished out fortnightly at morning assemblies as well as termly. In Coronation year (1953) they were accompanied by small booklets about the coronation and the regalia. The Coronation itself was memorable with a parade on the Arusha  sports ground, mugs and badges for all children and a firework display on the playing field between the school gates and the junior block in the evening.I digress a bit but remember chanting "Into the gates of misery" on the bus on the way in at the beginning of term and "Out of the gates of misery" as it sped out en route to Dodoma at the end?

   In 1952-3 the de Beer sisters, assistant matrons in the junior block were enthusiastic takki-wielders. Talking during rest guaranteed a hiding and Nellie had a pretty muscular arm. It did nothing for pupil/staff relationships.