Safari Park Hotel

The guy who is responsible for making my travel arrangements at NAMRU-3 messes them up all the time. Usually it's really frustrating - he books the wrong flight, forgets to get clearance from the U.S. Embassy, buys two travel insurance policies - but this time, I was ok with it!

After my time in Kisumu, I came back to Nairobi to visit the IEIP site here. I found out less than a couple hours before my plane left from Kisumu that the hotel in which I was booked to stay was not on the list of hotels that are approved by the U.S. Embassy. Since I was already at the airport, I had to scramble to make phone calls back to Cairo to try to figure out what I needed to do, whether I needed to change hotels or if I could stay at the same one. I was scrambling, and apparently several people back at NAMRU-3 were too, but finally they sent me the name of a hotel and told me I had a reservation. As it turns out, they had a really difficult time finding a hotel for me because there were several trainings and conferences going on in Nairobi at the same time. The hotel they finally found that both had an empty room and was approved by the U.S. Embassy was called the Safari Park Hotel.

I think it's the only time I've been thankful for an error in travel arrangements! The hotel was absolutely beautiful and so much nicer than anywhere else I would have stayed. I actually found myself silently thanking the travel office for their error, the U.S. Embassy for their strict (if ridiculous) hotel standards and the hotel for the discounts they give to people traveling on official government business!