The First Day

Oct 26

Freetown is a very crowded city! The population has quadrupled in the last 15 years. Roads are crammed full of dilapidated taxis and fancy SUVs all honking incessantly and jostling for position with the thousands of people walking along the shoulders and going about their daily business. Stray dogs are ever present, usually sleeping away the daytime heat, in whatever shade they find. Add to this temperatures around 30 degrees with an oppressive humidity that makes you sweat all day long.

Wherever we go we are an event, with people crowding around us trying to sell us merchandise, and many others just stopping to watch us, as there are very few white people in this country. After doing a black market deal with some money changers down a narrow alleyway in the city center, we had lunch and then headed down to Lumley Beach.

Within minutes of setting up on this almost empty, 3 mile, stretch of sandy beach there were about a dozen Sierra Leonean children setting up about 10 feet away. They proceeded to do cartwheels, call out to us and playfight each other, clearly trying to show off and get our attention.

The water was refreshing although we soon all got itchy. It turns out there were many dead jellyfish washing up on shore. Their poison was being released into the water as they disintegrated. We ended off the evening by watching the sunset while eating at a Western Style beachside restaurant.

R.W.