The Tower room was traditionally and is said to be currently haunted by a poltergeist. They seem to be rather innocuous beings, though they may play with your make-up at times. More than one guest has reported that their make-up was mysteriously messed with during the night. Jennifer, my junior partner in the hotel, originally resided in this room. Although she is basically a level-headed individual

Within the first six months of opening this hotel, the Tower Room was visited by a flamboyant woman from San Francisco, an unregenerated flower child from Haight Ashbury. She made a three day reservation but wound up staying here for weeks. Investigating the phenomenal spiritual activity of the building, she moved from room to room. One of her favorites was room Blue Two. It is occupied, she said, by a very benevolent female spirit.

Occasionally on Thursdays, some local Indians insist on lighting incense for the spirit at the downstairs fountain. Thursday, for some reason, is a special day to her, and though she spends most of her time in Room Blue Two, from time to time, she pays a social visit to the fountain.

After a while, the psychic tried the Tower Room. She was hooked. She communed with the Spirits of the Tower for a solid week and has returned twice in the intervening six years to visit. Three to four times a year, when our reception receives a reservation from San Francisco, specifically requesting the Tower Room, we know to expect a visit from the psychic or a member of her fine cult.

The furniture in this room has been touched by tragedy. I purchased it on Pemba Island seven years ago in a small village called Vitongoji. In those days, Pemba had almost no roads. There were maybe a dozen vehicles on the island, so our furniture expeditions into the bush were conducted by ox-cart.

When the ox cart arrived in Vitongoji, the residents were most eager to sell. It was and remains a very poor village at some distance from the sea, with largely infertile soil and severe water problems. I made several friends in Vitongoji, and some of the employees here are from that village.

In 1995 Vitongoji suffered a horrible tragedy. One of the villagers purchased a sea turtle at the market in Chake Chake. Sea turtle is not a preferred delicacy in Zanzibar, but sustenance for the very poor. The sea turtle was huge and was shared among most households in the village to make sauce for their ugali or rice. The animal, it fumed out, had eaten red algae and had been found dead on the beach and hauled to the market.