Between two continents: the best of both worlds

This week we're following the enchanting story of a Shropshire woman's life between two continents.

Maureen Davies from Telford moved to Nanyuki in Kenya last year to care for her husband as he recovered from a life-saving operation.

In April, she will return to Shropshire alone to start her own business and be close to her family.

"My husband was born in Kenya and came back to the UK when he was about 30, but I don't think he ever really settled," says Maureen.

"His father had gone there as a pioneer in 1910 to build a coffee farm, so he grew up there.

"About six years ago, we went to Kenya together for the first time and met a lot of his old friends, who encouraged him to come back and help them with safaris.

"He was already 65 by then and bored out of his mind whilst I was working, so I let him go and he's been as happy as Larry ever since."

After a pioneering operation in India to remove a rare heart tumour, Maureen's husband has made a gradual recovery and is now enjoying life in Kenya.

While Maureen loves Nanyuki, she has close friends and family in Shropshire and doesn't want to spend all her time in Africa.

"It was always my intention to live between Shropshire and Kenya," she explains. "I'll have the best of both worlds!"

In Nanyuki, the couple live on the slopes of Mount Kenya and can see the striking mountains from their garden.

"The scenery is like Scotland with elephants, zebra's and giraffes!" she says. "The climate's warm with warm tropical rain, and there's wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables.

"Most people speak English so I don't have to battle with Swahili. They're wonderfully smiley and the children are incredibly well-mannered, even though they have relatively little."

A typical day is spent caring for her husband, gardening and cooking food from scratch as there is no convenience food and few stores.

In her spare time, Maureen volunteers in local schools and libraries, and was delighted to become godmother to two African children whose families she's helped.

"Daily life in Nanyuki is relatively safe; healthcare is of a good standard, there's a cottage hospital nearby where the doctor treats everything from snake bits to delivering babies, and most of the animals are in patrolled game parks.

"There are occasional accidents but they're usually caused by an over zealous tourist thinking they can go and pat a rhino on the head like in the zoo!"

But there are downsides, too.

"You can't really drive around after dark and women don't usually go out on their own, but they're not encouraged to do much of anything here unless they're charitable workers or wives of game lodge owners - hence my desire to return to the UK."

Maureen doesn't miss the cold English weather, but has missed everything about Shropshire.

"I've missed my grandsons, my son and my daughter-in-law, BBC Radio Shropshire, farm shops, decent pub lunches and amazing Shropshire sunsets, which I've never seen equalled anywhere – including here."

When she returns to the UK, Maureen hopes to set up a consultancy specialising in SME's who are trading on the internet and need advice on buying and selling stock, pricing policies, customer services and staff training – "everything that makes a business tick on a daily basis!"

"I was responsible for setting up Amazon's UK Marketplace platform in 2002 - I don't want to go back into something that big again, but I'm certainly not ready to take my pension and bus pass and give up just yet!"

Follow Maureen on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MaureenMDavies

By Lara Page