236 Hurumzi Street
I am writing today from my lovely, if slightly dusty room at 236 Hurumzi Street in Stone Town, formerly known as Emerson & Green. The décor is sultanic – big old carved wood bed and day bed, caned chairs, huge armoir, brass tables, and a swimming pool-sized stone tub. For a luxurious place, though, a few of the basics are missing. I got to my room last night at around 9 pm. The bed hadn’t been turned down and the mossy net hadn’t been closed, so there were already a few hungry mosquitos waiting for me, hiding in the folds of the net. And the young man who gave me the tour of my room forgot to tell me that I had to turn a switch to get hot water, so I had none for my bath. And I think I need a few more modern conveniences. A couple of outlets in reasonable places. I have two, one in a corner far from any kind of table, that’s meant for a standing fan, and the other behind the extremely high bed, that’s meant for the bed light. So if I wanted to charge my phone and use my computer, I would have to scrunch over to one corner and turn off the bed light.
On the other hand, the colors are lovely, the towels are big, fluffy turkish cotton and I have a panoramic view of the sea and the town.
Yesterday morning I flew here from Pemba to meet with Dr. Hikmany about planning and progress. It was the first time I had seen him since Ramadan and they made a big fuss over me in his office. It was the first time Ahmed and all the support people there had seen me in the baibui. They oohed and ahed over it and told me unapendeza, apparently a high compliment in Swahili. I never knew what it meant before but someone explained it to me at the hotel.
Anyway, Dr. Hikmany looked at Stephen Ngigi’s resume and seemed satisfied although not ecstatic. He was slightly more enthusiastic when I told him we were going to offer Ruaila the position of deputy. I also emphasized that KPMG had to be comfortable with the person and especially with their ability to manage a large sum of money without waste or any kind of corruption, and that KPMG had more or less final say.
