Habari,
Well, looks like I will be camping out in Johannesburg until my papers are approved in Nairobi. I arrived last Wednesday morning after travelling for a day and a half. I left the US on Monday night and I didn’t reach Joburg until Wednesday morning. Needless to say I was exhausted. Unfortunately when I got the hotel, they didn’t have my room ready. Not only did they not have my room ready, but they didn’t have any record of my reservation.
Now you know I am usually the level-headed person who never loses her cool…not. LOL. The man behind the desk saw the eminent meltdown written all over my face. Before I could say a word, he instructed the bell hop to take me to the business lounge on the 6th floor. He assured me that they would straighten everything out. Now you know I didn’t believe a word he had to say, but I was tired, hungry and I hadn’t had a drop of coffee…the Starbucks withdrawal was in full swing.
I agreed to go to the business lounge to rest a little and regain my strength. After I reached the lounge, I was a little more hopeful. It was very nice and there was fresh fruit juice, coffee, cappuccino and espressos just waiting for my request. The women at the desk spoke in soft reassuring tones. I wondered if the guy downstairs called ahead to say, “There is a crazy b*!@% headed your way and she’s on the brink of a meltdown.
After the first cup of coffee and some really good mango juice, I started to feel a little more human, although I still had day and a half old clothing on. I wanted to just go to my room and take a shower. I decided I was going to try to resolve the issue myself. I reached out to the people, who handle my travel, but they were in London and it would be another 2 hours before they reached the office. My second instinct was to reach out to Master Pu by text and warn him of the meltdown at hand. He responded to my text with mild concern. I had this sneaky suspicion that his concern was for the people in the hotel and not me. LOL.
Before I could lose my mind, the soft spoken young lady came over to me to let me know she had straightened everything out. I was pleasantly surprised. I took back every bad thing I said about them up to that point. LOL. She gave me a room on the 17th floor and apologized for the delay. All I could think about was the shower and the bed and I wasn’t disappointed by either. Check out the pictures of my room. If I’m going to be stranded somewhere, I don’t mind it happening here. When I called Master Pu to tell him everything was okay, the first thing he said was, “Are you in jail? Do you need a lawyer?” LOL.
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| My actual room |
I tell myself every day, Johannesburg is no Nairobi. As you can see, I’m not suffering at all. I’m being further disillusioned by staying in South Africa. You see, South Africa is like a mini US. The roads are nice, leveled and clean. The mall shopping is wonderful; I’m talking Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Salvador Ferragamo. See, staying in South Africa can not only make me disillusioned, but broke as well. SMH.
So, I’m taking it day by day. I may write from here next week or it could be from good old Nairobi. Come check it out next week to see where I end up. Until then…
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| The Mall attached to hotel |
Asante Sana,
Della Rochelle
Copyright © 2012 by Della Rochelle Williams
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