Sorry I am posting this all so late in my trip. I’ve been up country in Sierra Leone since Wednesday and without Internet except for a brief few seconds that I used to e-mail my mama and tell her that I was okay.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Well, after three days of traveling I finally made it to Sierra Leone. So my plane out of Atlanta on Sunday was delayed by three hours which meant I missed my connecting flight in Newark and London and subsequently Freetown, Sierra Leone. Luckily I was able to finagle another flight which only made me a day late. Note to self- British Airways doesn’t fly to Sierra Leone on Tuesdays so I ended up taking a Brussels Air flight out of you guessed it, Brussels. Note to self- the Brussels airport sucks, avoid it if you can. Nevertheless, Brussels Air is wonderful (they even served us ice cream while making announcements in three languages). Even with all the delays and missing flights I apparently got the better end of the deal because the colleague I was supposed to be traveling with was put on this BMI flight to Sierra Leone and barely got served water let alone ice cream and the plane was making all sorts of noises it probably shouldn’t have been. So anyway, last Sunday night in Newark after begging and pleading with Delta to find my bag and not send it onto the Dark Continent without me I walked out the doors of the airport saw the Marriot essentially across the parking lot and hightailed it over there. I’ve never been a big fan of trying to sleep in the airport. Thankfully they had a room. The next day I was off to London on the 8 am flight which got me there around 8:00 pm. Since my flight out to Brussels wasn’t until 7 am the next morning I contacted the travel agency that CARE uses and made a reservation for a “cheap hotel close to the airport.” After hailing a cab I discovered the travel agent instead booked me at an expensive hotel in Central London near Trafalgar Square. On the upside I got to walk around London a bit but dang, Central London is not anywhere close to Heathrow and I spent a good amount of time just trying to get to my hotel and back. Oh well.
From just my short time in Sierra Leone so far I think it is safe to say that I am going to accumulate anecdotes aplenty on this trip. Nevertheless, I will only bless you with my high-rent gadabout tales. Like the adventure of taking the ferry from the airport to Freetown. You see, Freetown was settled on mountains and so there really is nowhere to land a 747 so Sierra Leone had to build their airport in the relatively flat mangroves across the bay. There is a road you can take but it is rough and can take up to five hours to reach Freetown. There are also helicopters (that crash all the time and that CARE staff are forbidden to take and a hovercraft (that is broken the majority of the time) and then there is the ferry. I took the ferry and I must say it was quite pleasant really, well, until you go to get off the thing but I will get to that. For just $1 you get a wonderful view of all of Freetown and the surrounding mountains, get to feel balmy breezes from the ocean on your face and even get entertained by a comedy troupe. Nevertheless, when the boat docks all hell breaks loose. You’ve never see a crowd of Africans in such a hurry to get off a boat! Honestly, it was like the thing was on fire or sinking. Thankfully neither was happening at least not this time around but yo! What happened to doing things on African time?
After a harrowing hour on muddy and congested streets of Freetown I finally reached my hotel. The Family Kingdom Motel in Freetown is a must stay. There are plenty of attractions for the kiddies, Dik Dik (dwarf deer) that beg you for food at breakfast and all sorts of interesting decorations (see photos).
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