Nairobi, Accra, Freetown

This is an extract from my African travel blog, where you can read all of my adventures in Sierra Leone.

View from helicopter window coming into
Freetown from Lungi Island.

Made it!

I was panicking a bit yesterday, as I was still totally out of whack from the food poisoning and a big fall out with VSO over the housing situation. I hadn't totally finished packing, but decided that, as we had to be at the airport for 2am, it wasn't really worth going to bed. I got everything packed up just in time. I was worrying about the baggage limit, I didn't remember my suitcase being that heavy! Mostly it's the metal and plastic casing, I think - adds on top of the content.

At 2am I get a text from Hirut, who's picking me up outside Ndoli's, saying she thinks she just woke the taxi driver up. He was supposed to be at hers but he fell asleep! So, she was running late. They finally beeped me at about 3am and I ran over to meet them.

Kanombe airport was quiet. We walked straight through check-in feeling dazed and slightly confused at being up at such an ungodly hour. Thankfully, we didn't have too long to wait in departure as our flight was at 4am.

I passed out immediately and slept straight through to Nairobi, which takes just over an hour to reach.

Nairobi was actually far more pleasant than I remembered it. Hirut enlightened me that not all of the toilets there are squat holes. I hadn't noticed the sit-downs tucked away to the side. There were also vastly more shops and cafés than I found the first time around. We only had three hours to kill there, so we amused ourselves in the jewellery shop. I bought a pretty turquoise charm in the shape of Africa, with a little gem of glass about where Rwanda is. It's to go on a charm bracelets my mother started when I was born. Everywhere I go, I get something for it.

The next leg of the journey was Nairobi to Freetown, which is about five or six hours. The plane went via Accra in Ghana, where we sat on the tarmac for an hour whilst the flight crew changed and passengers got off and on.

Accra is a massive city with great big squares of water where I think they grow something. It was kind of cool to stop off there, even if we didn't get off the plane, and nice to be travelling in daylight to see it all.

Eventually, we got back in the air for our final hour-and-a-half to Freetown. The flight took us over Benin, which is somewhere else I've always been interested in. It was exciting to be so close to these places I'd only read about.

The first thing I noticed about Sierra Leone is its thick, green, dense jungle. Trees everywhere, and a huge winding river through it all. Very beautiful. Then we came down to land and this river just opened up into a massive tropical estuary of golden-white sand, tiny bark carved canoes, numerous palm trees, islands, and little beach-side settlements. A very impressive descent.

At immigration, a woman approached. Hirut's dad had said this lady would take care of the visa, so I filled out a form, paid my $95, and my passport was stamped.

The main airport is situated on Lungi. To get from the airport to the mainland, you need to take a helicopter!

Sweating in the sudden tropical heat, all the worse for just having stepped off an over-air-conditioned flight, we battled our way to the exchange bureau to change $s into Leones. We bought our tickets, then walked to the air hanger next door and awaited our final flight.

The helicopter was quite an experience. A huge, I guess, military-style contraption with all our luggage piled up down the aisle, making it feel pretty cramped. Passengers buckled in on benches either side, facing each other. I was next to some Ghanaians on their way to Freetown for a wedding. We all looked a little nervous and wondered if we'd have to parachute out when we got there.

A lot of fun, though, and a beautiful way to meet Freetown. The photo above is from the window as you come in to land - so many heavenly beaches.

Hirut's dad, Herbert, was waiting at the pad with a big air-conditioned 4x4 to pick us up with our luggage. My initial fears of him being part of an elite Sierra Leonean mob, for managing to make my visa issue 'disappear', were set aside pretty quick. He's a retired economist for UNDP :op

The drive through Freetown was really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Kampala because there were street vendors and food sellers everywhere. A country coming out of a 10-year, devastating war; a non-functioning state, and still there's this whole enterprising sub-economy going on: bright coloured clothes, fruit and sweets stacks on huge platters on people's heads, children playing and laughing. So vibrant and alive. The key feature Rwanda is missing, really. For all Kigali's clean streets and immaculate public grass, its African soul is a little flat. Like you walked into the box office administrative department of a street carnival.

Having said that, the poverty was more visible, and the effects of war and neglect upon the buildings were clearly seen.

From Flickr

Taken by Hirut

Eventually, we turned off the main road (Wilkinson) and up a long winding hill to a very big house at the top :op

It was beautifully decorated with Christmas wreaths and ornaments, extremely tasteful. The house was in four tiers: Hirut's parents' quarters at the very top; a huge communal living room in the middle, with a balcony for eating breakfast on and from whence you had a distant sea view; the ground floor was the kitchen, TV room, office and dining room; then, as the house is on a slope, there was another ground level to the left of the garage, which opened into a large guest annex with kitchen area, large white leather sofas for sprawling on, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. We were completely self contained with our own fridge and TV, venturing up only for breakfast and dinner, which was prepared by Elizabeth, their cook. Extremely spoiled. The shower also had warm water when there was electricity, and the bed was a king-sized sprung mattress. Heaven.

Soon after arriving, we were served food: traditional Sierra Leonean dishes of new rice (red with the husk) and curry made from greens and fish. People eat lots of fish as SL is right on the coast. Greens are a type of leaf vegetable, like spinach, which is finely chopped. It was a mouth-wateringly spicy dish after so long eating the bland, flavourless melange of Rwanda, where everything is just boiled with a pinch of salt. Food in West Africa is hot, flavoursome and down-right wonderful :op~

Cutting greens SL style from SL Tourism Board DVD

[NB 2013: When I say the taxi 'beeped' me, I don't mean he sounded his horn outside my gate at that time in the morning. The practice of 'beeping' in Rwanda means calling someone and hanging up. They can see who called on the screen and know that it is time to act on whatever arrangement you have made - i.e. to say they have arrived at a venue or that they are waiting for you. It can also just mean 'I'm thinking of you'. It's a good way of saving credit as you are not charged for the call unless someone picks up the phone. However, sometimes people beep as a way of asking you to call them back because they've run out of credit. It's tricky to know what the meaning of a beep is, but you get there with practice. Also, for those who are curious, I think the helicopter was an Mi-8.]