a Sudanese man, a Kenyan man and an Ethiopian man go to a hotel...

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Thursday morning armed guards entered the hotel with the biggest guns I have ever seen, it sent shivers down my spine at first - then I thought well I am sure its ok, this is probably the norm. John Kiiri (my colleague) then rang me from the road - he had been refused access to the hotel because he was carrying gas canisters for his home, would I mind walking out to the road.... this was not a problem

it turned out that there was to be a state visit of the varoius presidents of Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia, I arrived back at the hotel after work and it was coming to my time to leave the hotel and I noticed outside that the roads were closed off all around the hotel... How would a taxi get me to the airport I wondered?

I spoke to reception and they arranged the taxi and said not to worry we will ensure that you get in a taxi somehow... and somehow it was.

The reception area looked fancy with red carpets all around, media crew were in waiting for the big visit and everyone was dressed smarter than usual. I checked out and the consierge advised me that we would have to exit the hotel via the rear... what he failed to tell me and what we actually did was run, looking very shifty, I passed a brass band that were getting themselves ready I told them all how smart they were and the consierge said "come on my dear" the taxi flew up beside us and I was shoved in like a quick getaway, like a criminal... I laughed and told the taxi driver at which point he played the game as he found it funny too "yes we must not be seen by the presidents"

The airport was the usual nightmare of getting your bags checked several times and the duty free shops? more like duty added! so I relaxed in the lounge and was told Nairobi was losing the internet connection for the next 2 weeks seems I was leaving at the right time!

On the plane the pilot seemed to be in a hurry, he obviously put his foot down and we arrived 45 minutes early through some pretty hairy turbulance, and when we landed we bounced so hard that the oxygen masks fell out...

have a lovely weekend

Lisa

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