Crossing the Border

Its been over a year since I’ve last seen the beautiful country of Sierra Leone.  Being here in Conakry, we are only 4 hours from the border & another 4 hours to Freetown. A group of us decided that that was close enough for us to go for a visit. 



Our taxis

A little pit stop on the side of the road

We needed to find a taxis that would take us across the 8+ hours to Freetown.  That wasn’t a problem, per say, plenty of taxis go back & forth every day between the two capitols.  We went to the big market in town to the taxis stand, & found a car going our way.  Problem was that it wouldn’t go until all 9 seats were full!  We bought 4 seats for the 3 of us (usually the car had 2 seats in the front, 4 seats in the middle & 3 seats in the back & we wanted to make sure we had plenty of room for our 8 hour trip)

Three hours later, our car was full & packed sky high.  We left Conakry behind us & with only a couple stops to put water in the radiator, we made it to the border after dark.  No problems crossing the border, all of our papers were in order & we arrived in Freetown later that night.

We arranged to spend 2 nights at the Hope Center, where we had stayed the 2 weeks we were on field service all so long ago at the end of Gateway.  The place looked exactly the same- down the colorful tie-died sheets.  Donald, the care taker, took excellent care of us.

Relaxing at the Hope Center

It was a weekend traveling down memory lane.  We surprised our friends at Yams Farm by showing up to see what changes have been done.  The school was still on break from the holidays, but Pastor Mark rang the school bell & soon we were surrounded by lots of familiar faces of the children.  They proudly showed us around the completed school.  The roof was on, the floors poured, with a walk way between the buildings, the walls were painted the school’s colors & gave it a nice finished touch.  Now instead of 6 classes in one small room, each building had 2-3 classes in it, with the nursery class still in the church building.  The school size almost doubled since we were there, they now have a secondary school in the afternoon.

The kids welcome us back

Between the church & the lower building

After spending an enjoyable morning at Yams Farm, we went shopping at Waterloo market, a typical African market where you can buy anything from chickens to a cell phone & you have to barter for everything.  A couple of the teachers from the school took a break from grading papers to help us in the market & arrange rides for us to & from the market in the local public transportation, Pouda Poudas- vans that hold about 15 people but have the African mentality that there’s always room for one more!  We bought supper of street meat (really yummy meat that they grill right in front of you), bread & oranges on the side of the road & walked down the bumpy dirt road to the Hope Center.  We had a relaxing evening sitting in the gazebo eating & enjoying the views.

Shopping at the market

The next day we enjoyed the great Sierra Leone beaches at a place called John Obey.  We had never gone there when the ship was in country, but friends told us that the place was amazing.  The village, called Tribe Wanted, was an eco-friendly community right on the beach.  They recycle, compost, raise their own food & have farming & health classes for the locals.  To help with income, they have a resort atmosphere with little bungalows for rent.  We spent the entire afternoon relaxing on the beach, enjoying the sun & waves.  A typical African lunch of rice, cassava & fish was served & they killed some chickens for us for dinner.  We slept in a mud hut that was anything but roughing it.

It's a hard life

The perfect spot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our mud hut

Inside our mud hut

All to soon, we had to say goodbye to Sierra Leone& return to Guinea. It was hard to leave again a second time. It was nice to see friends again& know that I will always have connections in a beautiful country like Sierra Leone.

 

Blessings