Architect Darling

By Walter John Trowbridge

This is a romantic suspense novel involving an American Architect who arrived in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania, East Africa, to be the Site Architect for the construction of the University College in Tanzania. He falls in love with a beautiful Goan girl from the former Portuguese colony of Goa in Indian, but their love is forbidden as it violates social custom and is vigorously resisted by the girls father. Their affair evolves through various secret meetings, visits to historic sites, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the rise of terrorism in East Africa, and safaris through some of worlds greatest big game animal parks. It reaches a climax in their attempt to get married in a Catholic Church in the old Portuguese city of Mombasa in Kenya with the girls father in hot pursuit, and the couples struggle to escape amid the mans malaria attack and the bombing of the US Embassy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477107065

Walter John Trowbridge

NA

Book preview

1

STEPHEN TOWNSEND AWOKE abruptly as the airplane suddenly dropped most violently! He was not wearing a seat belt, as he should have been, and he was almost thrown out of his seat. He automatically grabbed hold of the seat arms to hold himself in his seat.

Stephen panicked as he looked out the window and saw that they were just shimming right over the tops of palm trees!

Oh no! he uttered aloud! We are going to crash!

But then the palms just vanished! Instead, a runway suddenly appeared almost as if by a miracle! He fell back in his seat, greatly relieved as the airliner touched down on the runway and began to break almost to a stop!

Suddenly, however, the plane veered sharply to the right! It swung off the runway and into a drainage ditch! A large thump vibrated throughout the craft and everyone start screaming! The plane skidded and twisted about until it finally came to a stop! It was tilted to one side, indicating that probably one of the landing gears had collapsed!

It was then that Stephen could see out his portside window that a large animal was standing on the runway!

My God! he shouted in panic! There’s an elephant on the runway!

Evacuate the aircraft! came the urgent announcement over the loudspeakers! Use all the exit slides!

Chaos broke out as everyone unbelted themselves and started to lunge towards the exits. A few strong males were there first, but most of the other men helped the women and children out ahead of them! Nobly, Stephen was one of the latter! They all had to slide down the chute from the plane to the ground!

Once they all had exited successively, it appeared that no one was really injured seriously. There were a lot of bruises, but no real causalities. The crew quickly led the passengers away from the plane in case a fire might erupt, causing an explosion to occur.

Safely away from the plane, the passengers had to wait endlessly while the aircraft crew insured that the plane was fully evacuated, and for the emergency vehicles to come out! Finally, Stephen could hear sirens wailing as fire trucks, ambulances, and buses started coming to the scene of the disabled aircraft.

While waiting there in the sun, Stephen was almost overwhelmed by the tropical heat. It was so radically different from the relatively cool English summer weather he had just left the previous day! Indeed, he was quite groggy from the very long BOAC flight. From London, it had touched down briefly in Rome, and then he had deplaned for an hour in Nairobi. Now the flight had finally reached Dar-es-Salam, the capital of Tanzania in East Africa.

The emergency vehicles finally arrived! The ambulances took on the few bruised people, while the rest of the passengers were bused to the terminal! The fire trucks, meanwhile, sprayed the aircraft with foam to insure no fire broke out!

The passengers were taken to a special room separate from the rest of the terminal. Soon a number of airport officials arrived to address them. The authorities first apologized profusely to the passengers for the near-tragic incident. They insisted that the whole airport complex was surrounded by a high electric fence to prevent any animals from entering into it. They had no idea how a large elephant managed to get through that protection, but they assured the passengers that they would find out. A snicker passed among the passengers that it would be a little late.

The airport officials then announced that all passengers would be taken to a special passport control section for clearing them into Tanzania. At that time every passengers should give notice where they could be contacted when their luggage would be ready to be retrieved. As a special provision, custom clearance would not be required. Someone smirked that it was a wonderful benefit for almost being killed.

Finally, Stephen cleared passports and exited to the public area where a man was waiting for him with a name-sign.

Welcome to Dar-es-Salam! Fred Stolburger greeted him and extended in hand in a shake. I am glad that you were not hurt.

Only my dignity! Stephen assured him with a chuckle, as he accepted Fred’s handshake.

We thought that the elephant was a little added introduction to Africa! Fred added with a laugh. It probably will be the only elephant you’ll see around here.

As Stephen had already been told in London, Fred was the British company’s manager here in the Tanzanian office. He was quite a pleasant and friendly man. He drove Stephen through the narrow and dusty streets of Dar-es-Salam to a hotel on the beach just north of the city.

The two of them sat out on the veranda of the hotel as they got acquainted while sipping on a few gin-and tonics. They watched the wind whip up a few whitecaps on the gentle waves of the Indian Ocean directly in front of them.

They talked about the accident at the airport, and Fred mentioned that animal intrusions on runways was one of the hazards of living in Africa. He stated, however, that it had never happened at the Dar-es-Salam airport for a long, long time! Indeed, he had no idea how an elephant even got into this part of the country, let alone breaking through the electric barrier guarding the runway.

Stephen then asked about the country itself since he was not too knowledgeable about it. He was a little confused about its name!

Didn’t it used to be called Tanganyika?

Yes, Tanganyika was the old German colony that Britain acquired following the First World War, Fred advised. Now, however, after independence from Britain several years ago, it joined with its neighboring island country of Zanzibar to form the new country of Tanzania, with Dar-es-Salam as its capital.

Independent? Then does that mean that Africans now run the country Stephen asked.

Yes, to some extent! They certainly dominate the political scene, but economically most of Africans are still farmers. Here in the city and in all other bigger towns, they are generally confined to manual labor. Asians, however, mainly Indians, actually run the commerce of the country while Europeans, mainly British, still dominate the overall economy.

You say that Indians run the commerce?

Yes, just about every store or shop throughout the whole country is owned and operated by Indians. But the Indians are not a monolithic group.

They are divided into very ridge caste-like groups that do not intermingle. The vast majority of Indians are Hindus who own most of the shops. Then there are the more affluent Goans. They come from the old Portuguese colony of Goa in India that India overran just a few years ago. They are mainly professional people or managers. Then there are the turbaned Sheiks, many who are contractors with whom you will be working. Finally, the Ismailis are a Moslem group from India who view the Aga Khan as their spiritual leader.

What about the White?

Both Germany and Britain, Fred continued, discouraged European settlers, so unlike Kenya next door, there are few Europeans here. Those that are here, the colonists or old ‘African Hands’ are on top of the social scene and are often the owners of the successful large businesses that the Indians run.

Finally, Fred got down to more business matters. He outlined the role of the British architectural-engineering firm in Tanzania. Its headquarters was in London, where Stephen had been hired, and where it was a very prominent company. It also has a few overseas branches, the one in Tanzania being the most prominent.

In East Africa, the company was mainly responsible for the design and construction supervision of the Tanzanian branch of the University of East Africa. Or, it was simply called the University College of Dar-es-Salam. It was located some six miles north of the capital.

The company had an office in the city and another one at the university. Fred advised Stephen that he would spend a week or so in the town office to get acquainted with the projects before being relocated permanently to the site office at the university. Stephen’s role was to be the chief Site Architect at the university.

After Fred left, Stephen picked up a few toiletries for himself since his suitcase was still at the airport. Then he had a simple supper, and afterwards dropped right off to sleep. Indeed, he was dead-tired after such a long flight from London – and the near tragedy at the airport.

2

THE NEXT MORNING after breakfast he was met by a sullen Arab office driver, and he was shocked by the man’s greeting:

Are you an American Jew?

Why, no, Stephen responded almost without thinking. Why do you ask?

I am a Palestinian, and we were pushed off our lands by Jews.

Well, I am sorry to hear that! Stephen responded weakly. Actually, he did not know how to address the issue since he was brand new in the country and did not know the driver.

Don’t worry! We’ll get our revenge!

Stephen did not respond.

Indeed, the recent Six Day War between Israel and various Arab countries several months back had been a complete disaster for the Arabs, and Stephen certainly did not want to get involved discussing it with the Palestinian driver. Instead, he just sat back quietly as the driver took him into Dar and to the firm’s office in the downtown portion of the city.

When Stephen arrived in the Dar town office, three secretaries greeted him. They were anxious to see the new American Architect that was going to work for the firm. Indeed, there were very few Americans in the country, and most people knew them only from Hollywood movies.

The fact that Stephen stood over six-feet tall, had reddish-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and had a ruggedly handsome face made him look to the girls like he just stepped out of the American Western movies.

Are you a movie star? One of the secretaries asked him with a big smile.

Oh, of course not, Stephen responded with a laugh, I don’t even know how to ride a horse.

One of the secretaries was a Chinese girl and other two were Indian. One of these latter was a Hindu, whereas the other one was a particularly pretty Goan girl.

Fred then took Stephen into the back office and introduced him to the Chief Engineer, who was an Hindu. Under him were several Indian junior engineers. There were also some six draftsmen, mostly Indian, but one who oddly enough was English, an old African Hand, that was still lingering around Dar-es-Salam. There were several African office boys, and finally the one Arab driver, Ali Akil, whom Stephen had already met.

Later that day Stephen was able finally to pick up his luggage from the airport. He only had to properly identify his large suitcase, and then as promised, he did not have to open the suitcase and clear customs – not that it would really made any difference to him anyway.

Stephen spent the next number of days getting acquainted with the university project that was already about one-third complete and now had some two thousand students and staff in residence. More importantly, he had to become familiar with the new buildings to be constructed for which he would be directly responsible. At the same time, he had to learn the differences between the British and American procedures of professional practice.

The main difference between the American and British systems of architectural practice and construction was the British use of Quantity Surveyors. In the British system a professional Quantity Surveyor is a fully licensed individual similar to an Architect or an Engineer. Based upon the Architect’s drawings and some generalized specifications, a Quantity Surveyor produces a Bill of Quantities. This describes and measures all the work to be performed, and it is the document upon which contractors submit their bids, or tenders.

During these first days Stephen became good friends with most of the Dar staff. They seemed to like Americans generally, and Stephen himself was an easy person to work with.

Of course, he was especially nice to the secretaries since they in turn were fascinated with the ruggedly handsome American. Indeed, he was especially attracted to Mara, the very pretty Goan secretary. She laughed and talked quite a lot, and despite being married, she seemed to like Stephen very much.

The Chinese secretary, however, was not overly friendly, as she was leaving and had other things on her mind. Stephen, nevertheless, bought her little