Our first steps in Sierra Leone

After skipping around Europe, Amsterdam to Frankfurt to London to, finally, Freetown, Sierra Leone, we were ready to arrive, which we did, on time at 8 pm. Freetown's airport is refreshingly small and surprisingly located on an island near Freetown. Freetown is hilly, whereas that island is flat. The island then, would be a much lower cost place to build a budget international airport. Once inside the building, you see everything at once, Customs, the waiting room, the baggage belt, etc. All went efficiently and quickly and we found ourselves outside greeting Lisa, Kai and Haven along with Hawa who came along to help. Hawa found us two small taxis that took us to the ferry. The ferry ride was about a half an hour with perhaps a one hour wait for the ship to load with cars and passengers. Landing ashore, another taxi needed to be found, this time we found one large enough for all of us to fit in, arriving together at St. Edward's on the outskirts of the city. By the time we had disembarked into our room and readied for bed, the time was midnight, the hot air stirred lazily by a ceiling fan.

The alarm signalled the start of our day for 430. We wanted to be at the bus station by 530, still before light and before any of the generators started around town to be first in line to buy bus tickets to Kabala. We were at the bus station to be in line, watch the employees start the generators, create some light inside the building, bring benches out upon which to sit, to wait, to wait. The ticket window opened... But no tickets available for Kabala! These buses were low cost busses sponsored by the government; there was only one per day to Kabala and held about 30 people. However, there was the next most expensive way to get there, and that was the privately run bus lines. Hawa found us one heading to Makeni, a 'big' town on the way to Kabala, which would be our intermediate destination. The bus was crowded, but nothing like Guatemalan standards. In fact, compared to our Guate bus travel experience, this was luxury, only one person per seat. However, there was no accomodation for luggage, so that was in our laps and in the aisle, making the ride feel crowded.

At Makeni, our next ride was a taxi, a Renault three seat station wagon. There the model is called a Nevada. It is a station wagon, not a van or SUV. This Renault wagon seems to be the standard vehicle for Sierra Leonian taxis. Nominally an 8 person vehicle, 'full' status was 11, 10 passengers plus the driver. 4 to the back seat, 4 to the middle seat and two to the single bucket seat on the passenger side in the front. Of course, the driver enjoyed his own space. The paved road to Makeni was relatively good. Leaving Makeni, the road was still paved, mostly. The parts missing the pavement did have a feature to them which the driver avoided: holes. The last 25 miles to Kabala took perhaps 1.5 hours to negotiate. Our taxi driver was a good driver; we liked him and hope to find him for our return trip. He showed us his finger, shut in a door a couple of months ago. I'll not describe it here, but suffice a summary to note that he must not have seen a doctor about this problem.

We encountered some enterprising youth along the way; about 5 or 6 times we had to stop for 'roadblocks' where kids had freshly filled a few nearby pot holes and wanted a toll for their service. The driver would give them 1000 Leones, the equivalent of about 25 cents, the road block removed and on our way we would go.

We arrived, getting our first glimpses of Kabala, its dusty main street a buzz with many people on foot, some motorcycles, store fronts, and more dust. This has to feel much like a western U.S. town of the 1880's, except there was none of the horses in sight. Arriving at the Nar Sarah clinic guest house we were reunited with Michael and Ahmae, our party now complete!