- Name: Hotel DestefanosWhere: Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaDouble: 20,000 Tanzania Shilling (16,5 USD) bed and breakfast6 December 2006. 'Do you like it?" My wife Mariam is smiling very wide above a bowl of hoof soup. She"s laughing when I describe the stuff as a rubber based compound with the taste of tyre solution. We"re in Destefanos Hotel in Dar es Salaam, in the middle of Kariokoo estate. We came here by foot, like you discover most good things in life on foot, and not knowing where you are going. It happened when my wife Mariam and me left the Durban Hotel in Dar es Salaam (Kariokoo as well). Their service was not too good, the room too small, and too humid. Maybe it was because we arrived…

-  21 October 2006, by Ruud Elmendorp. 'You always sleep in hotels like this?" Lyse asks. We are sitting in the Plantation Bar in the Inter-Continental in Nairobi. She takes a sip of her Fanta, and she smiles to her cousin Floribert who is sitting next to me at the marble table. It"s around midnight, and we just did an interview in the room. Lyse is a refugee from Burundi, and for some time she is living in Nairobi, with support of Floribert. Lyse is seventeen-years-old. Her hair is plaited with a ponytail. She has a generous smile, and eyes that shine on the words she speaks. French that is, her English is not yet mature.We are here because of the Dutch television program 'TROS Ve…

-  16 October 2006, by Ruud Elmendorp. The eternal question in every city I come is: Where do I swim? Taking a dip in the pool and making some 30 odd rows is an undispensable part of my work out. That is when I am not filming. Then my training is a direct result of having a heavy camera stand. I can assure you, carrying that thing the whole day really keeps you fit, and reassures you of a really solid sleep (even without beer). I remember when I was shooting a documentary on a child soldier in Southern Sudan, I asked the boy to carry it (I told him that becoming a television journalist starts with taking care of the tripod). When we walked for a few hours, he realised something. 'You kn…

-  Tuesday 10 October 2006, by Ruud Elmendorp. 'What would you like for breakfast, sir?" The eyes of the lady at the reception are peeking seriously behind the bars of the counter. It is ten in the evening, and my stomach is full from the beef stew, or rather the few Tuskers I enjoyed with it in Trendz Bar. 'How can I think of eating when I just have eaten?" I gently ask her. She lifts her shoulders a bit.'It"s okay," she says and wants to take back the form she just handed out.'Okay," I said, and started to make a choice for the next morning. Toast, fried eggs for me. Boiled eggs for my beautiful wife. So I was ticking the options, and returned the paper. The lady studied my choices.'W…