VIPs

These two ladies would have played a very important part in my early years. I wish I knew their names. However I don't recall any of the ladies until the 60s and the amazing personality, cook and "Chief of Household", Alice Bourne who was to be very, very important in my life,

On the left was the cook, on the right, the nanny and almost certainly the washing & ironing lady. Back in those days, everything was washed by hand. They lived on site in their own sparse accommodation - two bedrooms and a bathroom and did their cooking in the main kitchen where there was also table and chairs for eating.

Also on the staff and "controlled" by the cook, was a so.called "Yard Boy" who did all the harder manual work around the house and garden. He would come up to the camp every day from the local village. Main jobs were the vacuuming in the house and sweeping under the house, watering and maintaining the garden as well as any handyman jobs.

Later on, one of these was to be a good friend when I was at home on holidays. One has to say "friends" in the context of those colonial days. He was expected to work but was just like the others part of the "family" in the wider sense. It was quite normal for all expats to have such a setup and always a bit of a "competition" to have the best staff on the estate.

Incidentally in this photo, one can see that when the shutters were down on the glassless windows, the air could still circulate from the bottom. Important in the very humid, often 100%, climate.

Naturally, that was me in the wagon!