Freetown Fun!

Yeah right! It has been about a week and a half since we returned from our last trip to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone where we go about every 4-6 weeks to restock on provisions. If you are a FB friend you have read more than one post on how we really don’t like Freetown. It is full of congested streets, craziness, and noise, but it is also one of those necessary places we must go.

Our goal this trip was to finally get our Driver’s Licenses. We filled out the paperwork and gave the money to our intermediary our previous trip and were awaiting our residency permits before being able to get our actual license. The trip to Freetown takes about 5 ½ hours with the first 1 ½ hours over dirt/gravel roads through small villages before hitting actual pavement. The next 3 hours is pretty smooth sailing over decently paved roads before hitting the outskirts of Freetown and the horrendous Freetown traffic. It can literally take an hour or more to get from the outer limits of Freetown to the central area where we stay and most of the shops that we frequent are.

Kissy Road is the main road into and out of Freetown. Lucky for us the Sierra Leone Road Authority is located on Kissy Road toward the city limits. So OUR plan was to just stop by there on our way into the city and get our licenses done and out of the way. We phoned our intermediary and he said no problem. We roll into the congested parking lot only to find out that they just ran out of printer ribbon to print the license! And no spare ribbon?!?! We did convince the guy to give us our paperwork so that Jeneson could drive within the city until the next morning when we would return and pray that they had found some printer ribbon. Back onto Kissy Road. On Kissy Road your vehicle can be at a standstill for literally 5-10 minutes before moving another 10 yards or so. It is a two lane road with enough room on either side of traffic flow for motorbikes to squeeze past. One of the good things about Kissy Road is the shops on either side. You are moving so slowly that you can really find almost anything that you are looking for, jump out of the vehicle, make your purchase and not have to walk too far to get back into the truck!

We made the crawl back and forth on Kissy Road the next morning and finally received our Driver’s Licenses. A big thank you to our intermediary, Joe, who made it possible to do all this without standing in one single line! And by the way, Driver’s Licenses photos are horrible the world over!

The rest of the trip consisted mostly of Jeneson staying in the truck with the kids while I ran into various shops and stores to make purchases. We restocked on our food supplies, made some medical and supply purchases for the clinic, bought some household goods on Ecowas Street (big street market), and even bought a computer printer. I’m not sure who had the worse end of the deal: Jeneson in a parked truck with 3 small children or myself running around in the heat and sun, in and out of various shops and haggling with vendors.

We stay at a Catholic guest house near the downtown area that has reasonable rates, but spotty electricity and water supply. We are ever grateful to get back to our quiet African village with our reliable solar power and well water!

Freetown – one of those necessary evils in the life of a Mokanji missionary.

Goodbyes and the start of our adventure

     With conflicting feelings we said goodbye to many friends and family on Feb 23^rd as we departed for Sierra Leone. While we were sad to leave our family and friends, we were excited to start on this journey that God had started us on 2 ½ years ago. I know that my parents and sister were sad to see us (OK, mostly the kids) go off to a country far, far away with staggeringly poor health statistics and a history of violence and atrocities during the civil war that ended almost 10 years ago. Our friends and church family were sad to see us go, yet proud to be sending off their friends as missionaries. We were blessed with the prayers of many and felt them covering and protecting us as we embarked on our journey.

     You already read about my packing struggles in the previous post. We encountered some misunderstanding regarding our luggage at the airport that succeeded in frustrating us and wasting a bit of time, but eventually got beyond the ticket agent, through security and boarded our first flight. We first flew to Newark. Considering our previous flights to India, this 2 ½ hour flight was a breeze. Once in Newark we quickly found our gate and did not have to wait too long before boarding our second flight. We flew from Newark to London and since this one did not depart until 10pm, once the meal was served and lights turned out on the plane we all fell asleep. Thank God for non-full flights as we were able to spread out a bit and get some rest. Heathrow is a lovely airport, but fortunately we did not have to spend too much time there, just enough to stretch our legs and get ready for our third and final flight. While not any longer than the previous flight, this one seemed a bit longer because the kids did not sleep as much during this flight, but we arrived in Freetown without trouble.

     We travelled much heavier than we have ever had in the past. Previously we tried to limit our carry ons to just a few and our checked baggage to less than our allowance. It was very different this time; we had 5 carry ons (2 rolling suitcases and 3 backpacks) in addition to 2 car seats for the airplane and a gate checked car seat. I knew from my trip to Sierra Leone in the fall that the kids would need car seats once outside of Freetown and this was the best way to get them there. My Dad and I jerry rigged a way that we could hook the two airplane car seats to our rolling suitcases and get through the airports easier. We still had to unhook them to get through security and get onto the plane (too wide for the aisles), but it certainly made transporting them easier. We also took our maximum amount of check baggage plus two more bags.

     Miracle of miracles, all 12 checked bags made it to Freetown. I have not unpacked them yet, so not sure if all the contents made it, but at least the bags did. That was a major worry with travelling with 2 different airlines, 3 flights, through 4 airports. We arrived safely in Freetown and with the help of Pastor Joseph made it safely and smoothly through the airport and to our hotel for our first night’s sleep as a family in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone Diary 2nd installment

Thursday & Friday September 22 & 23

After finally falling asleep, Josiah and I slept through our alarm and had to rush to get dressed and grab a few bananas and biscuits from the hotel breakfast area so that we could leave and get to the ferry on time.

Side note about Freetown geography - If you look at a map of Freetown you will see that it is situated on the coast of the Atlantic ocean as an offshoot of land, the middle of which is a hill. The airport is on another offshoot of land and therefore the quickest and best way to get from the airport to Freetown proper is either by water or air. Now a helicopter ride would be pretty cool, but expensive, so instead we spent about $2 US to ride in the first class section  on the ferry for the 45 minute ride to the main section of Freetown.
We met up with Charles and Petra (They are the Canadian couple who have been there since the beginning of the year. Charles is managing all the construction of the houses and hospital) who were gathering construction supplies in Freetown and loaded our suitcases into the back of the pickup truck. It is a 6-7 hour drive to Mokanji; the first 2/3 of the driving is adequately maintained paved roads, but then we turned and the road turned into a packed dirt road riddled with road engulfing, waterfilled pot holes!

We arrived in Mokanji in time to unload the truck and get back in for an hour drive to a local mining camp for dinner. Mokanji is situated about one hour away from Sierra Rutile Mine. An interesting fact about the mine is that the only reason that they were able to survive the war without major damage is because they hired mercinary soldiers to protect the mine property. In fact, some of those soldiers are still on staff with the mine as security! The mine is a nice escape to get a good meal and some uninterrupted time. Since our houses in Mokanji are literally steps from the community well, there are often visitors and requests for help that come throughout the day. After such a long day Josiah and I slept well.

After a good night sleep, Josiah barely wanted to stay on the porch long enough to eat breakfast before going out to play. The kids (and everybody else) thought him quite the novelty. Because of the mine (they employ quite a few Caucasian Europeans and Africans) and short-term mission teams they have seen Caucasian adults before, but most have never seen a little Caucasian boy. Josiah had such a great time playing with all the kids. I love how play is universal and language barriers do not inhibit friendships with children.

Sierra Leone Diary 1st installment

Tuesday and Wednesday, September 20th and 21st

Josiah and I arrived at the airport with a mix of emotions. While we were excited to be leaving for Sierra Leone, I wish that it were all of us going and not just Josiah and I.  Josiah was happy that he was able to get a window seat on the plane (it was what he talked about for the two weeks prior to the trip) and we gave lots of hugs and kisses to Jeneson, Lydia, and Sofia before heading toward security.

Let me just say now that travelling with a 5 year old by yourself is a breeze compared to travelling as a family of 5 with 3 small children! We sauntered through security and wandered around our terminal while waiting for boarding. The Virgin Atlantic flight to London was a breeze. Josiah and I watched a movie, ate our dinner then Josiah changed into his pjs so that he could sleep the rest of the flight.

We arrived at Heathrow International Airport in London for our loooong 6 hour layover (about twice as long as I like my layovers to be). Josiah had the most unusual birthday experience of celebrating his 5th birthday in the London airport, flying in airplanes and landing in Freetown. Josiah donned his birthday hat, I pinned his birthday ribbon to his shirt and we stretched our legs walking around terminal one. After a waffle and fruit smoothie breakfast, we colored a bit, played with the toys in one of the stores, played the card game War and went in search for lunch. Josiah chose a birthday lunch of a chocolate chip muffin with milk, topped off by 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream. (I DO let my kids indulge every once in a while!).

I was surprised on the flight down to Freetown how many Caucasian faces I saw on the plane. I suspect that many of them were miners returning to work in one of the numerous mines in Sierra Leone. I was a bit worried toward the end of the flight. Since we were travelling internationally we were required to fill out an immigration card for the government of Sierra Lone, stuff that I have done many times before. However, this time I had an anxiety provoking revelation that I did not have all the information required by the form. I knew that Rev. Joseph would be picking me up at the airport; I knew that I would be staying out in Mokanji with Charles and Petra, but I did not have any way to contact them! There there we stood in the line for the immigration booth, a very pale woman with her 5 year old son. Suddenly a face peaks out from around the other side of the booth asking me if I am Sandra and handing me a cell phone! It was Joseph!! He was calling me from the waiting area to let me know that he was there to pick me up and that the man who handed me the phone was a 'brother' there to help us with our bags.

We collected our baggage with no difficulty and prepared to leave the airport in the middle of our first African thunderstorm. We drove 10 minutes to a small hotel near the airport to spend the night. While it was not a Holiday Inn, it was clean, had electricity, and running water. After a much needed shower Josiah and I went to bed.

More to come in the days to come chronicling our trip to Sierra Leone.