In the latter part of 1949 or early in 1950 we moved from the old bungalow in Upanga Road to a new house which my father's company leased in Oyster Bay, an area which was being developed along the coast to the north of Dar-es-Salaam. My mother was obviously very pleased with the house but, having been used to the shaded garden and lush vegetation of Upanga Road, I found the rocky area which served as a 'garden' very bare and unfriendly. I remember spending a great deal of time collecting lumps of the coral rock on which the house was built and piling them up to make homes for the local lizards.
The firm provided my father with a very smart new car, a Ford Mercury, so he could travel round Tanganyika promoting the company's interests. The African Mercantile, as well as being a shipping agency, was the agent for a large number of commercial goods. My father's interests were, and always continued to be, his work as a ship's agent, so he disliked this part of his job. Fortunately, it didn't last long because later in 1950 he was transferred to Mombasa.
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