ALL PICS BY URBAN PULSE...
It was a cold
evening in London; as chilly as can be during this blistering winter; but here
she was smiling and raising a toast to Tanzania. In a few weeks she will not
only be breathing the hot air of Dar es Salaam, she will be representing her
country in the equatorial towns Tanzania: land of Kilimanjaro, Serengeti,
Sunshine and Zanzibar.
To Dianna
Melrose (pictured, addressing the London dinner), being an envoy in warm tropics is nothing new; she was UK ambassador
to Cuba from 2008 to 2012; in fact she was born in Zimbabwe (told me she
respected Mwalimu Nyerere’s stand against the racism of those years) went to
school in the UK studying languages at King’s College where she graduated with
Honours in Spanish and French. Translating job evolved to a stint with British
Council then Oxfam the international organisation slogging away in
approximately 90 countries. This was in 1980, a minor but significant detail in
a chain of exciting vocations and positions.
Ambassador Melrose signs the visitors book watched by her hostess, Mrs Joyce Kallaghe last week.
In her globe
trotting life Ambassador Melrose has been involved in all manner of progress
and nation building. Most times as a team’s leader- policy head, and so on...You
get the picture? Who better suited to work in far unknown Tanzania?
“Lucky me,” she
confessed at the end of her humbling speech, during a small dinner hosted by
our man in London, His Excellency Peter Kallaghe and his equally regal wife,
Joyce. The word “luck” was uttered in a context. Rather than thinking she is
going to a continent of problems (wild Africa, crammed with elephant poachers,
religious extremists, starving children, you see what I am getting at?) She is thinking positively. High Commissioner
Kallaghe had a good word to describe the sentiment. Challenges. Tanzania and the
continent “shall present challenges.” But taking into account this is a lady of
many experiences- Dianna regards the new posting as an opportunity.
Ambassador Melrose flanked by HE Peter Kallaghe.
