Life in Mwanza starts and ends with eating fish head and banana

Fish delicacy served with ugali and kale. [iStockphoto]

I'm writing from the shores of Lake Victoria, in Mwanza, Tanzania, hemmed in on the third floor of a swanky hotel room with a buzzing air conditioning, instead of the cool breeze from the world's second largest fresh-water lake.

The lake is hardly visible from the hotel; what assails my sight are ugly air conditioners jutting from a nearby building. On the ground floor sits a casino, a late-night chemist and a prayer house.