Sat 28
Being a Saturday, and having "suffered" several days without running water I thought I would mark the weekend by taking a shower and breakfast at the Kiponda Hotel. It was a pleasant change with views of the sea and a refreshing breeze. I took time to read and not rush; I suspected things would get more and more frantic as the day went on.

The day of the festival finally upon us; someone in the office bellowed that there would be an all staff meeting in the amphitheatre in 10 minutes. Seemed a cheek given it was a Saturday… but then I supposed it was worth everyone hearing the same message. The news of the morning was that the main projector had arrived but when they switched it on the bulb blew. At least it came with a spare so all was fine till they tried this and this blew as well. Now what? Due to show the opening film to an invited audience in less than 24 hours. What do we need? A bulb? A technician? Another projector? From where? South Africa? Kenya? We’d already used up considerable grey matter tracking down the projector in the first place… Oh, and if that wasn’t a set back then the other piece of information was that the local religious (Muslim) leaders had declared the festival ungodly and directed the local people not to attend.

We were told we’d come this far, we’d begged and borrowed and found warmth and encouragement, we wouldn’t let these challenges spoil the festival; the show must go on.

Needless to say we "borrowed" the projector from the other venue, which bought us another day and subsequently a technician and projector arrived from Nairobi.