MEET BUSINESS LADY MERCY KITOMARI- PRACTICAL TANZANIAN DREAMER

I cannot remember the exact date; but, it was a sunny day.  Some sort of conference. Huge hall.  Smooth floor. Comfy chairs.  Everyone smartly dressed. Some more than others. We of the media slightly casual. It is a busy environment and as a reporter you need to move around a lot. Interviewing. Jotting down names...

 And somewhere along the throngs of participants, she sat. I noticed her because she kept smiling. Speaking to her was easy. No airs, no innuendos.   There are strangers you encounter and feel as though you knew them before. Mercy Kitomari (pictured above) sounded and looked familiar although I had never spoken to her in my life.  She was a young, clever lady and eyes did not miss her. But that caused no arrogance at all. Now I know what Kitomari’s modest manner meant.

 Charisma.

A DINNER FOR BUSINESS , PROFESSIONAL AND INVESTMENT CONCERNS...

If you were to enter the well furnished room you would be facing a bunch of well dressed people feeding on Indian food.  They might remind you of well off Third World executives in Europe. Photographs from the Holiday Inn last Wednesday might be dismissed as those typical casual hedonistic dinners.

 Holiday Inn is a world wide franchise with over 1,300 hotels catering to 100 million guests every night. This particular one in Brentford, West London a few kilometres from the international Heathrow Airport, however had a different twist.

Hon Kallaghe speaks, on his right is Chairman, Kamu Khaki- Pic by Rashid Dilunga 

Various professionals and the hosts, UK-Tanzania Business Group, gathered to hear guest speaker, Ambassador Peter Allan Kallaghe. He was once personal assistant on foreign affairs to the former President Benjamin Mkapa for six years then represented the country in Cuba and Canada till they brought him to London recently.

“London is dynamic and intense,” he told his audience, all sipping water or orange juice.  Most fled during the Ujamaa era. 

<--more!-->

MY DINNER WITH THE EGYPTIAN COUPLE

“Is it halal?”
“The meat or everything else?”
“The meat, my friend, the meat.”
Dr. Mohammed Kharib (not real name) is gingerly holding the delicious fried chicken. After assuring him it is halal and that I actually do not eat pork we continue dining in peace. An hour later we have all retired to the living room, drinking, chatting. We are waiting for Haifa to get ready to sing.
By the way this is not the famous singer, model and provocative Haifa Wehbe from Lebanon. Haifa is just an assumed nickname of Dr. Kharib’s wife, Wahida; an amateur musician.
She and her husband have been my friends for many years since the days I visited Cairo for the first time. I have always been fond of Egyptian people who I find warm hearted and sincere.
Long time ago I use to work in the Egyptian Embassy in Dar es Salaam as a translator and receptionist. I have memories of those wonderful Egyptians helping me stutter through Arabic greetings.