Cats came after the Africa years - Dad was still there a lot, but my mother and I mostly stayed home. I never thought about it before but a lot changed all - we moved house, I changed school, and I stopped being pulled out of school to go to Africa all about the same time. I wonder if I was having trouble at school or something. I don't remember!
My Dad was an academic - an economist - his specialty was developing economies in particular in East Africa. He was employed by the Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian goverments to help them set up government institutions and trade treaties as they established themselves post independence from Britain.
He also did projects for the World Bank - I only remember one of them specifically because like all economists my Dad wasn't that comfortable with mathematics and he roped me in to calculate evaporation rates from paddy fields for some report about growing rice in East Africa!
After he died and I went through his papers it was quite lovely to see the letters of thanks from ministers of this and that from those countries as well as requests for advice over many years.
