To Zanzibar...for work unfortunately

I’m in the Nairobi airport with a long layover. I’m headed to Zanzibar for meetings. Since they’ve built a new terminal, it’s actually quite nice. It used to be one of the more horrible airports on earth. It was hot. There wasn’t room to walk, particularly with people lying about here and there. It was designed for a different era – maybe one before airplanes existed.

I’m in the new lounge with a colleague. The TV is on with the sound off. One show you often see, including on the airplanes sometimes, is the equivalent of the old Candid Camera. Some sort of version of the show is done in many different countries as I have witnessed in my many travels. They have a hidden camera and they film people they have intentionally put in some sort of awkward situation. It can be funny in sort of funny though I get tired of it pretty quickly. The Kenyan version has a slightly different take on it than what I’ve seen elsewhere. In between emails I glanced up at the TV, not hard to do since it’s the size of a wall-mounted door. One scene had two guys in a tree, apparently in a Nairobi park. One had a knife to the neck of the other. As the victim looked panicked and was yelling for help, people were filmed walking on the path below them to see their reactions to what was allegedly happening in the tree. 

contrasting reactions generated by our pet turtle

I looked at my colleague and we shared a look of astonishment. I turned to my right to see a Kenyan waiter who had taken a break in his day to watch for a few minutes. He was cracking up – clearly a different sense of humor. Too bad he didn’t stick around to see the next sketch where they messed with a disabled guy.  

I was chatting the other day with one of my Burundian finance staff. We were talking about business continuity during crisis. While we have no idea if things will spin out of control over the next few weeks and months, the possibility is very real. We have the obligation to make sure that we are prepared for whatever happens.

the flower of a tree in our garden

The purpose of the discussion was to think through each of our critical tasks and make sure that in case of crisis we can accomplish what we need to do. She said that she was a child during the beginning of the war. It was apparently quite nasty. It was not uncommon to see slain bodies by the roadside. All through the war, however, life went on. Businesses continued to operate. Banks, the primary focus of my question, did too. It was not necessarily business as usual. Inflation was terrible. Goods were frequently unavailable since importation (by land) was challenging. But generally people plugged on and the people are resilient. It was a sad yet comforting conversation. I’d like to think that things will stay calm but there are many indicators pointed to unrest. As I often say, I don’t get paid to be an optimist.

More later from Zanzibar.