Janet's memories as told to Jan Cornwell
Jardini Beach, coast south of Mombasa
How many of us have made a huge life changing decision in a pub on a Sunday afternoon? That’s exactly what Janet and Trevor Sullivan did in 1974!
On that day in the pub, feeling pretty fed up having just received a £27 electricity bill that they didn’t have the money to pay, they were looking at job adverts in the newspaper. One job in particular really appealed and, on a whim, they decided Trevor would apply for it. Within a week he had an interview and was offered the job. In less than a month they were moving.
This job was a good position for Trevor. He would be working for a utilities company, a firm called Power and Light. Nothing out of the ordinary you might think. However, ordinary could not be further from the truth because this job was based in Nairobi, Kenya.
It was only when they were on the plane, with their dog, Czar, in a crate in the hold, that they stopped to wonder what on earth they were doing. At just 23 and 25 years old, they had been married for only two years and here they were setting off into the unknown. Their honeymoon in the USA and the several European road trips they had taken up until this point had seemed exotic and trail blazing at the time but this new and very sudden adventure was the big one!
Just two months from that fateful day in the pub, they moved into their new house in Nairobi to begin a very different life.
Czar sitting outside Janet & Trevor's house in Nairobi
On arrival they were met by a new colleague who brought his wife and children to meet them. This couple subsequently became their good friends, helping them in their first days in a foreign country and generally introducing them to life in Nairobi.
To begin with, Janet & Trevor stayed in a beautiful grand colonial hotel – The Norfolk Hotel - until their new house was ready for them to move into. Once there, Janet discovered that she was required to have a house boy and a gardener. This felt strange and uncomfortable to her, but was essential, as servants were needed to keep unwanted callers to a minimum and also for security.
Having settled in their new home, their social life was full and varied. They joined a club for ex-pats and spent time playing tennis, squash and enjoying life in Nairobi. As part of the ex-pat community, they were invited to social events and even went to the Hungarian Ambassador’s residence for a party!
Walking down from Mount Kenya
This felt literally a world away from worrying about every penny spent back in the UK. Janet didn’t work during this time and, after a few months, she found, to both her and Trevor’s delight, that she had fallen pregnant. Luckily, the level of pre-natal care available locally was excellent.
At this point, Trevor’s job was transferred to Mombasa and, again, they were on the move. Once more they stayed at a luxurious hotel – the Nyali Beach - for a month until their house was ready for them. Janet found that in Mombasa their house was much more isolated than in Nairobi and in Mombasa, most of the social life was centred around the hotel.
They moved into their new house just as the May rains started. This brought a plague of flies that invaded their home and there were many other encounters with the local ‘wildlife’ - snakes, bugs, beetles, millipedes and centipedes, monitor lizards - certainly not for the faint hearted!! Janet will never forget the time she went to hang out the washing on the veranda and came face to face with a beetle larger than the size of her hand! She had learned by this point not to scream quite so often, although she never got used to the mosquitoes.
Trevor with Czar at their new house in Mombasa. Mbwa Kali means 'fierce dog'!
Trevor’s new job began to take him away from home more than before and although Janet had a house boy and gardener in the new house and their dog to keep her company, she spent a lot of time at the Nyali Beach hotel in the company of other ex-pats. Due to the political climate in Mombasa at that time, Trevor’s company had provided them with security guards who patrolled outside their new house every night to deter local bandits who often caused havoc in and around Mombasa. The local police also held road checks which Janet and Trevor would regularly encounter when out driving, which could be an unnerving and unsettling experience for the ex-pat community.
It came time for the baby to be born and Janet was happy to go into Mombasa’s Katherine Bibi Hospital where, once more, she found the level of care to be very good. Kenyan hospitals in the seventies didn’t generally allow husbands into the delivery room but Trevor insisted and so was able to support Janet during the birth of their first son, Daniel.
Janet, Dan (6 weeks old) & Czar in Mombasa
Janet and Daniel had an eight day stay in hospital and enjoyed spectacular views over the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, not even the amazing scenery could keep the baby blues away and Janet began to feel increasingly isolated, missing her Mum and sisters terribly. In those days, international telephone calls were difficult and expensive to make and letters took such a long time to get through.
Janet and Trevor had occasional visitors from the UK but although they had become great friends with an older couple, who became their surrogate parents and were a great comfort to them, Janet was feeling more and more homesick and desperate to get home so that Daniel could grow up amongst his family. So, two years after moving to Kenya, Janet and Trevor made the decision to come back to the UK, this time with their baby boy, having left Czar to spend his last years with their good friends in Mombasa.
Over 40 years later, Janet recalls the time she and Trevor spent in Kenya as a truly amazing and wonderful adventure but, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, she agrees that, in the end, ‘there’s no place like home’!!
View from Treetops at night
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