Una Kushe (hello to everyone!), from Sierra Leone, Obviously, I got in ok, right off the bat I want all misspellings and incomplete words forgiven due to spotty internet. Now to important business, I was able to "smuggle" (*note to FBI, NSA, IRS, et all, use of quotation marks hereby connotes that I did declare this with US customs and therefore did nothing illegal), a full $16K in USD on my person, 12K of which went via miracle bra, the other 4 in a money belt. Without setting of any of the 6 metal detectors I went through or getting it stolen. It is now safe in our Fortress of a guest house (seriously, it has barbed wire and glass shards on the 10 foot walls that surround it). So I am no longer sweating my a$s off in two layers of unnecessary t-shirts. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the aforementioned padding:)
On the way here, the highlight of my journey was visiting the International Criminal Court in The Hague. I got to sit in on 2 hours of the trial of the former warlord, I'm sorry I mean president, of Liberia, Charles Taylor, who is the top level dude responsible for the war that started in Liberia and spilled over to Sierra Leone, which is why SL is still a total mess now. He was just right there, ok, behind glass, but just sitting there plain as day. His attorney was badgering a Liberian reporter who was thrown in prison 3 times for writing articles that denounced the Taylor regime. Based on the superbly irritating back and forth badgering of the defense attorney, asking the same question 90 thousand ways, I can see why this trial has been going on for almost 3 years now. I was disappointed to find myself one of 4 or 5 (people came and went, mostly press I think) in the gallery. There were 4 other trials going on at the ICC that day. Most of which were African, when I was leaving, I caught someone on the stairs and with broken French, managed to suss out that he was there for a trial involving war crimes in the Congo. And I think one of the other ones was for Uganda, but I'm not certain.
Then I had a day's flight across the continent, from Kenya to Freetown. I flew over Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was able to follow where I was via lonely planet map and large rivers/lakes/mountains for a while until the expanse of forest in the DRC got me pretty lost. What I thought was pollution was actually the Harmattan winds (tiny sand) blowing south from the Sahara. They basically make everything look a little smoggy. Then we hit the Atlantic coast, stopped in Accra to change passengers and finally landed in Freetown.
Freetown's airport is actually very far away and separated by a large body of water from the city itself. There are 4 ways to get there. 1. Russian Helicopter (death sentence), 2. Ferry (our choice, more on this later), 3. Old fashioned speed boat with wet landing (for 30 cents US someone will carry you though) or hovercraft and 4. Taxi (about a 4 hour drive, not economical). The ferry was my real introduction to how daily life operates in FT. Conveniently, all of one's shopping can be done during transit. For example, planning on preparing a nice chicken dinner with cucumbers for the family tonight? Just pick up a live (total Golden Child moment) chicken and some cucumbers from the appropriate vendors while seated on the ferry, no sweat.
More to come, we're off to see the inauguration!
I de go now,
Maureen
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