Freetown:First Impressions and Lots of Comparisons

Hello everyone!  Or should I say, Una Kusheh!  I feel like I have been out of touch for a long, long time, which is partly true (if you count five days as a long time) and has mostly been a good thing, at least so far.  Not being connected for the first days here was actually great because nobody could sit around talking to people online, and instead we spent all day, every day out and about Freetown, getting to know our new home.  However, I must warn you, I think this may actually be the longest blog post I have ever written, due to the fact that we have been so busy the last few days and because there is so much amazing stuff here to talk about.  Also, for those of you (like my father) who get confused about where in the world I am or what I’m doing here or who I am with (as I myself sometimes also get confused), I am in Freetown, Sierra Leone with Tim, Alie, and Kelly, who are all fellow IPCR graduate students, and we are here to intern with Heifer International for the next six weeks.  Also, I do plan on going through and adding pictures to this (so that you will be more enticed to read it, or at least look at it), but none of my cameras are working, so I have to wait to take Kelly’s pictures from her (the good news is she has an awesome camera and is a really talented photographer, so the pictures will be good).  Okay, ready?  Here we go…

Let me first say how happy I am to be here, to finally have gotten a little bit of rest, and to have some Internet access (although it is quite slow and temperamental).  I had a pretty hectic week leading up to this trip, which included staying awake for up to fifty consecutive hours (more than once), and a three hour flight delay that left us literally running to make our connecting flight to Freetown.  All things considered, I made it to Freetown safely, if not entirely soundly, around nine o’clock at night on Friday.  The first thing that hit me when I stepped out onto the tarmac was the humidity.  I was used to the heat, coming from Tanzania, but I was not prepared for the thickness of the air.  My hair immediately started curling and getting bigger right before my eyes (which was to be expected).  The heat wasn’t unbearable at all, but it was certainly warm and tropical feeling. 

My first impression of Sierra Leone was that I loved it, and it happened in somewhat of an unconventional way.  We took a quick shuttle ride from the tarmac to the arrivals “terminal” (more like small area), and I was dreading that long, exhausting customs line you have to go through.  However, that is not the case in the Freetown airport – they hustle you through (they kindly hustle you through), and you get your stamp and form collected almost immediately, while being smiled at and politely talked to.  Not the norm for airports, and I know, as I have sat through many a customs line in this past year alone.  It was great, incredibly quick, and maybe somewhat efficient.  I thoroughly enjoyed my brief time spent in the arrivals terminal.  Side note: right where we came through, UNICEF has a little booth set up with polio shots and I think other vaccinations that people need in the country, which I found to be a very good idea, and had I needed any shots, I totally would have gotten one there – high five to their public health initiative!

The next step in the airport was baggage claim, which was the part I was most worried about.  I think we all felt the fear that our bags would never arrive, or would arrive empty (which is a legitimate fear, not one that is unprecedented, and we had been warned by more than a few people to beware of this).  Luckily, Kelly and I got our bags right away, which immediately assuaged our fear of six weeks spent in the same outfit.  Unfortunately, the same did not ring true for Alie, and two of his three bags that were checked did not make it (update: he is currently on his way back to the airport because, after four days, his bags finally made it). 

Freetown’s airport is on the edge of a peninsula, so rather than driving around the long way, people utilize other means of transportation to get the six miles into town.  We took a ferry (although you can also take a helicopter, which I might do on my way out of here in December…), and were lucky enough to have one of Alie’s best friends, Foday, pick us up (in a sweet Mercedes SUV).  We got some of our first glimpses of life in Sierra Leone on the fifteen-minute drive to the ferry, and the most noticeable aspect is definitely how dark it is, even darker than Arusha.  Lots of people were outside hanging out in their tiny tin and wood shacks (I don’t want to use the word shacks, but that really is what they are), many of which were lit up with bright candle flames (in most parts of the country, the government turns the power off after six thirty every night).  It looked really friendly and peaceful.  We made our way to the ferry entrance, and here’s where I learned an important Sierra Leonean lesson: connections will get you everywhere, and it’s all about who you know.  We were in an incredibly long line for the ferry, and then all of the sudden completely bypassed the line, because Alie’s mother’s brother works for the ferry.  After negotiating a price (and we got a better price, again, because of the connection), we got in line for the ferry itself, which was also long, and we could see that the boat was essentially full.  We all kind of assumed we would be sitting for well over an hour (while we waited for the ferry to take its full load across and then make its way back), but low and behold, we literally watched cars back off of the ferry and we somehow made our way onto it.  The people who worked for the ferry and (hilariously) helped direct cars on and off of it, were extremely funny and nice, told a lot of jokes and laughed a lot, and welcomed us onto the ferry by bouncing our car up and down for a nice laugh.  We were wondering how long we would have to wait for the ferry to leave, but when we asked, the guys laughed because we had already been moving for about ten minutes (we thought we hadn’t left yet because the back of the boat was completely open, and we had thought that maybe they would close up the back, but clearly not).  Anyway, we got out of the car and went upstairs to the front of the ferry to enjoy the rest of the ride, which was lovely and smooth.  We looked out over Freetown, which looked really cool; it is right on the water, and the moonlight was bouncing off the water, and much of Freetown (the nicer parts, actually) are up on a big hill (that actually has power), so the houses were twinkling and lit up. 

I never had much time to really think about was Freetown was going to be like, or what to expect from it.  Here’s what I did know: it was a post-conflict country whose civil war had ended less than a decade ago, and on the Human Development Index, Sierra Leone ranks eighth from the bottom.  This would be the poorest, most underdeveloped country that I had ever been to.  Given that, I was really bracing myself for the hardships that I thought I was going to encounter, but never really thought about how wonderful it could potentially be, until that moment on the top of the ferry.  After only having had been in the country for about an hour, I was filled with so much excitement and happiness to be there; I wasn’t thinking about Human Development Indexes or poverty or safe drinking water or polio, but for the first time started thinking about Freetown on a personal level about the people I would be meeting and how great the city would be.  I felt like I was in exactly the right place, and that I was about to have an absolutely incredible experience.  We docked, got off the ferry, and drove through Freetown as we made our way to our residence.  I loved that we came in at night, and came in on a Friday night, and got to see lots of people who were out and about in Freetown; it was a warm night and everyone out seemed to be in a great mood, there was good music in the background, and it made us even more excited to be there.  Even though we were just driving through and were incredibly jet-lagged and exhausted, I got a great feeling and you could tell the city has an awesome vibe and lots of character and flavor. 

We were taken to our residence, which is in the lavish Hill Station neighborhood (this is the neighborhood where the President lives, as well as many high-level government officials, ambassadors, and basically anyone who is wealthy), and is the home of Alie’s uncle (also named Alie), who is the former Ambassador to Ghana and is a major power player in Sierra Leoneans politics (none of which I understand yet).  He is actually the leader of the current opposition party (but I will get into SL politics at another time) and is incredibly well known.  (We actually haven’t met him yet, because he has been away, but we will be meeting him tonight.)  Hill Station is up on the hill that I saw on the ferry in to town, so we meandered our way up the winding slopes and eventually turned into his neighborhood.  There were signs that we saw on the way with arrows that said ‘Mabereh’ house, and after a few minutes we realized that the signs were pointing to our house (this guy is, apparently, renowned enough that his house has signs pointing to it, which we couldn’t believe, but I decided when I get back to Eldersburg, I’m planting signs around town with arrows that point to ‘Chiaramonte place’).  We got to the house, which is really more of a mansion, and saw five cars in the driveway, two of which are silver Mercedes SUVs.  Freaking crazy.  The house was really awesome (even though it was nighttime so we didn’t see too much), and we went around the back to our set of rooms.  There are four of us, but only three rooms, so Kelly and I are sharing the largest bedroom.  Coming off of the tiniest bedroom in Arusha, I thought my room was a palace (which it isn’t, but it certainly is large and the bed is huge).  It felt incredibly nice to stretch out and get some much, much needed sleep.  I barely remember unpacking or even falling asleep, but luckily I was tired enough to pass out, because it was hot.  (Side note about how awesome the house is: the next day, we ran errands all day, and came back and a bunch of people were outside in the front of the house; we found out that they were a bunch of actors and actresses filming a movie and they use Mabereh house to film.)

I woke up the next morning feeling really excited to see Freetown in the daytime.  I also woke up still completely wiped out and exhausted.  I honestly had never really put a lot of stock in jetlag; I usually get enough sleep somewhere along the way to catch up, but the amount of traveling I did in the span of five days really took its toll on me, more than I have ever experienced.  When I woke up in the morning my legs were actually completely swollen, my back was killing me, and if I had the ability to sleep for another twelve hours, I would have done it in a second.  I was also starving.  The BMI flight the night before from London didn’t give us dinner, and it had been a long time since the last time I ate.  Luckily, going out for a breakfast was our first priority.  We drove into town and went to grab a bite to eat.  I loved that it was a Saturday, and the city was really energetic and filled with people.  We went to eat at a restaurant that is owned by the president’s sister.  It was a nice place, but when I say nice place, by Sierra Leonean standards that means it has a room air conditioner upstairs where we ate.  The food was good; we had the (somewhat usual) practice where the price of our bill was double what the price on the menu said (this happens frequently, I’ve noticed), and then continued around town running errands.  I could get into many, many details of running errands around town, which I won’t because you probably think my errand running is mundane, but it was actually the coolest, most interesting day.  We got to pound the pavement a little bit (while also being driven around in our Mercedes SUV), walk through some of the markets (every street is a market, filled with tons of people, and everything is sold there), and mingle with some people (Alie knows people everywhere, so people were frequently stopping us to say hello).  Everyone is incredibly nice, welcoming (everyone here tells you that Sierra Leoneans love strangers), and even though it is fairly congested, it is completely safe (minus petty theft).  It was also freaking hot outside – it is in the eighties during the days, but the sun is so strong, and it is so humid, and you are sweating so much and it feels significantly hotter.  On our way back home, we stopped at a supermarket in our neighborhood.  It is so ridiculous how crazy the prices are in the market – Kelly wanted to get an electric tea kettle, which was about 12 dollars in town, but was more like 50 dollars in the market.  If you want a can of Pringles, it’s seven dollars.  Crazy prices for the rich folk.  We picked up a few essentials (soap and toilet paper) and headed back to the house to relax and rest.

That night, we went to a birthday party for Alie’s cousin’s wife at her house.  It was very funny getting there, because Alie drove separately from us, and we drove with his friend (and our new friend) Foday, and his wife Rashida.  Foday had no idea where this party was or where he was going, and we stopped at least fifteen times on the way there for directions.  We would stop, ask for directions, follow the first direction, but then stop again and ask someone new.  I’m not sure if that is because people don’t trust directions, or if they need constant affirmation, but it actually was very funny, and Foday and Rashida have a very comical driving dynamic.  We finally made it to the party, which was really fun and, of course, filled with friendly and hospitable people.  I wish I was more of an active participant in the party, but I was more of a quiet observer on the side.  It was a mix of family and friends, and everyone was outside either sitting around chatting or dancing to the loud music blasting from the speakers outside.  I love hearing new music, and figuring out what the most popular song is (you can tell because everyone starts cheering and getting up to dance when it comes on), and I really like the way people dance here – they don’t take themselves seriously, and they have a lot of fun.  It’s a really friendly atmosphere.  After the party, we decided to try one of the Freetown nightclubs.  The story takes a somewhat dramatic turn here, but let me just say in a nutshell that we paid to get into a club that wasn’t actually a club, and when Alie asked for our money back they refused to give it to us, which would have been fine, but then there was some arguing.  However, we somehow secured ourselves a spot of the VIP list for when the club does actually open (which is this Friday), but who knows if we will actually go back.

We (thankfully!) slept in on Sunday, and had a much-needed relaxing day to unpack, get organized, and collect ourselves.  One of the houses in our neighborhood was having a party all day, and it was actually nice to have the sounds of their music in the background while we hung out all day (funny thing: there is one song right now that is the new, most popular jam, and they played it on a loop for eight hours.  Every twenty minutes or so, they would put on one different song, but then go back to old faithful.  I now know all the words).  Since I didn’t do much that day, now seems like a good time to throw out some random things I have been noticing or thinking about regarding living here in Freetown.  First, I know I said we live in one of the nicest houses in the entire city, and it definitely is, but even the nicest houses here have tons of problems.  We lose power sometimes (thankfully not usually longer than twenty minutes), we don’t have sheets on our bed so we just sleep on top of the one comforter on it, there are bugs (giant spiders, cockroaches, and other things that have been biting me) and we more than frequently run out of water.  Water is a huge issue in this country.  Our house has three big tanks, but it goes pretty quickly, and even when we have running water, the pressure is so weak in the shower that I just take bucket showers all the time.  The first bucket shower was a little tough – willingly dumping giant buckets of cold water on yourself is not the easiest – but subsequent bucket showers have been much easier to get through, and I have actually come to appreciate them.  The thing about all of this that I want to stress the most is that none of this bothers me, which is surprising.  I actually really think it enhances the experience here and when I sit there taking my bucket shower, I feel like this is part of what I signed up for.  In Arusha, we were pretty spoiled and almost always had a regular shower, and usually they were warm, or even hot, and it kind of builds up your sense of entitlement to such niceties.  I definitely don’t have that at all here, and I’m really happy about that.  Two other great things about the house – we have a kitten and a puppy!  We actually have two kittens, but only one of them likes us and hangs out with us, and we have two really cute, tiny, cuddly little creatures to hang out with when we’re sitting around. 

We thought we had to start work on Monday, but found out the day before that it was a holiday, and everyone was off.  Sixty percent of Sierra Leone is Muslim, and Monday was Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice (actually, the holiday was on Sunday, but since it fell on a Sunday everyone gets Monday off).  It was unexpected to have a free day, and we drove into town where people were celebrating with a lot of outdoor parties, food, music, and parades.  Roads don’t close at all, however, and it is crowded driving through town; however, it is freaking awesome at the same time.  We have some really cool pictures of people parading all around us, stopping by the car to say hello, take pictures, or sometimes yell things happily that we didn’t understand.  We actually did drive to an area that is significantly more dangerous, which is the eastern part of Freetown, and people told us to roll up all of our windows for safety purposes (this part of the parade got a little more aggressive, but was still incredibly interesting to see).  After a few hours, we drove over to Lumley Beach, which is right in town.  Because it is right in town, it is terribly crowded, so it’s not the kind of beach you visit to lay out and relax all day, but it was really cool to walk around the area.  There were tons of people on the beach, all very friendly and nice, and the sand was quite soft and the water, though warm, was still refreshingly cool.  There are more desolate beaches if you drive a little further away, but it’s wonderful to know we can get to a beach that is fifteen minutes away to go have dinner after work. 

                                       

A few more random things before I try to wrap this up, because I know this blog is getting pretty long.  I cannot stress enough how wonderful the Sierra Leonean people are.  I am really impressed with the character of the people, and continue to learn more about them.  There are many great things, like their friendliness and hospitality, but one of the best things is how secular they are.  The country is 60% Muslim and 30% Christian, but nobody cares about or is concerned with anybody else’s religion.  There is no animosity between groups, and people are extremely respectful and tolerant of each other and their differences.  Given this, more than a few people have mentioned how odd it is that Sierra Leone ever found itself in a civil war, because it is so uncharacteristic of the people here, so I am setting out to learn much more about that (from what I hear, one crazy man basically created an army of mostly children around twelve years old, cut holes in the sides of their heads, filled them with crack, and raised his army that way, which is incredibly troublesome).  I will probably be getting more into this in subsequent posts.  

Let me wrap this up with the only (hopefully) time I will be comparing Freetown to Arusha.  At first, I thought I would be missing Arusha terribly, because everyone told me that West Africa is so underdeveloped compared to East Africa, and that I would miss how easy life was there.  On one level, that is probably true (the showers, running water, and things like that did make life easy in Arusha for sure).  However, I am finding that I prefer everything about Freetown right now, which I feel is a little unfair to Arusha, but it is also true and I really cannot help it.  The people here are friendlier, it is much safer, there isn’t an elitist white expat population that drives me crazy, and in terms of the vibe or the character and vibe of the city, Freetown has it all over Arusha.  I have to stop comparing the two, and to be fair there are things I miss about Tanzania (I miss the people I lived with terribly, and I miss the familiarity of the streets and knowing some Swahili), and from now on I’m going to shelve that trip and take on Freetown as being completely independent from Tanzania.  That being said, even if I had never gone to Arusha, I would completely love Freetown – it is exactly my kind of place, it’s green and lush and warm and friendly, and it really reminds me a lot of Central America (which is obviously one of my favorite places to live). 

Okay, for real now, I’m signing off.  Sorry this was so long, and I appreciate anyone who cares enough to take the time to read it!  I will try to put pictures up since they are always the best part, and even though I started my internship today and have a lot to say about it, I will have that for my next post.

Bye Bye!