The Office

After emigrating to Dar es Salaam in February 1999. Our first quest was to find mobile phones amid a mobile phone revolution in East Africa. I hovered at the open doorway of our room, hoping for a breath of air in the heavy heat while Ben rearranged the cushions on the two-seater sofa, making it…

Heading to Dar

  Seated on a suitcase at the port, at the end of our honeymoon in Zanzibar, filling in departure forms, I puzzled over what to write under 'occupation'. “Housewife?” I asked. “Tourist, or Resident?” “Just write tourist for now.” Ben said, scrabbling to find another pen. “We’re not residents yet.” While I sipped water, keeping…

Exploring Stone Town

First days of honeymoon in Zanzibar “Chai for you madam?” The waiter asked. I’d foolishly chosen a central table on the terrace of the Tembo Hotel to have breakfast while the sun was behind a cloud. Now that the sun had come out in full force, light and heat were reflecting aggressively off the terrace…

The Wedding

Getting married and leaving for Africa in one go Choosing items for our wedding list seemed like a bizarre ritual, in our case, undertaken on one rainy Saturday afternoon in John Lewis. “This cutlery or that one?” I asked browsing displays of stainless steel knives and forks that all looked the same. Ben barely feigned…

Preparing to Leave

“Would you be Mother?” Jonathan said with an obsequious smile. He raised his eyebrows beneath a wide, forehead that creased into waves across speckled skin, long exposed to equatorial sun. Jonathan was visiting from Kenya to help his London colleague recruit for a regional job in East Africa. My hackles rose at the request. Barring…