Interviewer: [00:00:02] Right, what happened next?
Humphrey: [00:00:05] Well, I then left the hotel I trained in, I went to another hotel in Watamu, in which is the cost as well in Malindi, is called, it was called Turtle Bay Hotel. And there I got a chance to see, to meet an Englishman who was then the general manager. I joined Turtle Bay Hotel as a receptionist reservation. And then this gentleman came. I don’t know which part of England he came from, but he thought I was a very good man. I was very focused and I was very intelligent. And he said out of you, I’m going to make a very good manager. And true to his word he took me on as a, as a trainee manager. Eventually it became the reserve manager. Then he moved on to our next hotel, which is nearby, which was nearby to Watamu, went to Hemingway’s Hotel. I worked in Hemingway’s, I think for ten years.
And then this one day, an English lady came as a, as a tourist, stayed there, because I was the manager I met and greeted everybody that came in, took their rooms, told them stuff about the hotel. And she gave me a business card. She said, “Oh, by the way, I’m a hotel owner as well”. Gave me a business card. So I was intrigued. I always wanted to come to visit this Great Britain, to see how it’s like and what its people are like. So that was in my mind all along when I was growing up.
And this lady comes up and says, oh, I have a business, I run a hotel. The woman, my manager is running it now but I’m here on holiday. Shall we talk later? Said fine. She was very friendly. Name is Leslie Rhodes. She used to run the, the Bridge Inn before. And, the second day she asked me, she was struggling for staff. Yeah. It was a very busy spot there and I think busier than it is now. And she was struggling to get staff to run, not to run, but staff to to work for her, in that busy spot. And she had a lot of events running back to back. And she wanted somebody who can work on a permanent basis, regardless of the hours. And I said, yep, I work like that here, I work a permanent role, and I get up and work every day. Doesn’t bother me. Said, OK, we will er sort that out.
And then eventually when she came over here, she lost her manager, a bar manager, and she got back to me, would you fancy? And I said, of course, yes. So she got in touch with the Home Office here, got me a work permit, and then sent me the work permit in Kenya to get a visa, got my visa done. I’m here.