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Your Stories |
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Peter Ryall. A couple of months ago now I did a Google search on TEA and was delighted when I found Ed's wonderful newsletter. A couple of emails later and I had made contact with three of my colleagues from forty years ago at Kapsabet! This is a great network! After Kapsabet I married my wife Chris, whom I had met in a duka in Eldoret, and we took up a posting at Shanzu Teachers College in Mombasa, where we spent five happy years. From there the wanderlust struck again, and after a brief stay in the UK we headed off for Perth in Western Australia. It must be a great place, because we are still here! Both Chris and I have enjoyed careers teaching in Western Australian state schools and have now retired down to Dunsborough, about 250 kms southwest of Perth. Dunsborough is on a north facing bay in the heart of the Margaret River wine region. We still enjoy sailing and are very much involved in Rotary. In March Chris is off to Dharamsala in India for three months as a volunteer to teach English to Tibetan refugees. Should any TEAA's feel the urge to have a look at Oz they would always be welcome at Dunsborough! pryall@netserv.net.au> David Court. Ed: Thanks and congratulations to you for the production of the newsletter. It is very encouraging and impressive to see the record of those who passed through TEA. I myself finished at Cambridge University and joined the Makerere TEA in 1962. I found it an inspiring and valuable experience which led me to a lifetime of work in Africa. After TEA I spent four years teaching History, English and Economics at Old Moshi School Tanzania where the O and A level students were outstanding scholars, several of long term contact. Among other things to teaching while I was there, I climbed Kilimanjaro twice, traveled widely, became a life time lover of TZ, appreciated the work of the Peace Corps teachers and later married one from the US (Elsbeth) who had taught at Machame. Completing my stay in Moshi, I moved to Stanford University in California USA and completed a Ph.D. degree there, which included a research study of students in Tanzania. On completion of my degree, I took up an academic position at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. An initial one year appointment led to positions in Kenya lasting 30 years under the leadership of the Rockefeller Foundation. This gradually moved me from the university to management of the Foundation itself, where I ended up as the East African Representative of the RF. The Foundation project in East Africa and other parts of the continent focused on university development built around academic fellowships, research, and general support for excellence in the fields of education, social science, agriculture and health 30 years working for the RF in Nairobi was followed by a 5 years secondment in a joint position based at the World Bank in Washington but continuing to deal with the development of higher education in East Africe. During this period, while working for the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation, I was part of the Partnership committee of four Foundations. As a contribution to their support for higher education institutions, we supported a series of studies by national scholars showing extensive reform in higher education in various countries, including Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Mozambique. I reached retirement age in 2002 and returned from Washington to Kenya where I have continued to work for the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank and various national institutions. I live in central Nairobi, where I have a home with my second wife Nancy Kagondu. My two sons were born in Kenya and attended primary school here. Julius is now working for ODI in London and traveling and writing widely on development issues, while Ben is senior editor to "Men's Journal" in New York, where he leads and writes and also travels professionally in and around the USA. Our daughter Wairimu is doing the last stage of her qualification as a lawyer in Kenya. My letter address now is PO Box 63252-00619, Muthaiga, Kenya, cell phone number 0722-941-780 and email davidcourt@iconnect.co.ke A variety of TEA friends have been generous professional colleagues including David Evans and Peter Moock. The latest forms of thinking about relevant priorities and forms of appropriate aid to quality education in Africa might usefully be expressed, but not here and now. It is undoubted that TEA took a bold and valuable step that I and others greatly appreciate. Thanks again for your own contribution. |