A Long Way Gone

I've just finished reading this book today. It was given to me in Sierra Leone by Yeniva and her students. This book tells such a powerful story!

Overlander

A brief summary of my overland journeys in the past 2 weeks:

• Bamako, Mali to Conakry, Guinea by bush taxi, 24 hours
• Conakry, Guinea to Freetown, Sierra Leone by minibus, 15.5 hours
• Freetown, Sierra Leone to Monrovia, Liberia by bus, minibus and bush taxi, 2 days
• Monrovia, Liberia to Abidjan, Ivory Coast by bush taxis, motorbike and bus, 2 days

All but one of the vehicles were without a working dashboard.

I love street food! (1)

In Sierra Leone, a plate of rice served with cassava leaves, plus a bag of water (500ml), under US$0.5

"Grow what you eat, eat what you grow"

This is seen on billboards everywhere across Sierra Leone.

Today I stood in front of a group of schoolchildren in Freetown

I went to an organisation called Excel in Freetown today. It is started and run by a very nice lady called Yeniva from Santa Monica, California. Her family is originally from Sierra Leone but move to the US. She had come to Freetown in 2008 and set up this place with her own savings. The aim is to provide a place and an opportunity for the Sierra Leonean children to have a creative and more engaging way to complement their everyday schooling. She allowed me to volunteer and work with the kids there.

I dropped in and introduced myself to the staff and children, and I was given half a day to stand in front of them and sit among them to exchange my knowledge and experiences with them. It was a 2-way learning experience. We talked about China, the Chinese languages and geography and its one-child policy, current economic and political situations in the region, the brutal war in Sierra Leone, how its people have reconciled despite of all the unthinkable atrocities during the war, how Sierra Leone is developing rapidly and its government is going down a positive path to rebuild the country...

It was so much fun and of great pleasure to talk with the next generation and the future of this country! I totally loved every minuted spent with them!!!!!!

I was embarrassed in Freetown, but I'm happy for that!

Yesterday evening I was standing in front of Freetown's famous landmark, the Cotton Tree. I was peeling a couple of oranges and casually chucking the peels on the ground (I've only been doing this since I came to West Africa, because everyone does it and there are no bins to dispose of rubbish anywhere). But soon, 3 passers-by embarrassed me by telling me to pick up the peels. So I picked up the peels. But I was at first very surprised, because I would not have littered had I not seen locals do it before and even if I wanted to properly dispose of rubbish, there were no bins. But I soon realised how comforting and wonderful this embarrassment was. This tells me that Sierra Leoneans DO care about their country, which is vastly different from other West African countries I've visited. This brought me great joy and from it I saw hope in this small country that has only emerged from a brutal civil war a few years ago.

This is just one of the things I've seen or experienced that make me dare to think that Sierra Leone, if it can continue or even improve its current governance, holds a more promising future than other West African countries I've visited. I salute its people and their compassion!

So I crossed into Sierra Leone, turned around and peed back into Guinea

Just kidding, no peeing :)

I took a minibus from Conakry, Guinea to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The distance should be less than 300km, but it took 15.5 hours. Because: (1) the roads are very bad, some are paved but are scarred with big potholes, some are just dirt paths (so much dirt and dust when I took a shower and washed my hair in Freetown, it was like mud dripping down my face) (2) the car is in such bad shape that it broke down nearly every hour and it usually took an hour or so to bring it back to life again. (3) the driver was nuts! (4) checkpoints where soldiers stopped and made us pay. I had to pay GF5,000, GF2,000, GF1,000 and GF2,000 on 4 occasions.

Leaving the Guinean border was straightforward, I even took the exit stamp out of the official's hand and stamped the passport myself. The Sierra Leone border consists of 3 different barriers. First is the customs where I was made pay GF5,000 to pass. The second is the security check where an official wrote down my passport info in a big book and said to me "what can you offer for your security?" I knew immediately that he was asking for money. But I would not let him have it so easily, so I shrugged my shoulders and said "I'm a student, I pose no security risk to anyone". Then he said to me with disappointment "OK, go now". That's right, bitch! The third is the immigration where I filled out a little form and was let pass.

 Now I tell myself that I will never want to repeat this kind of journey again. And I hope the roads from Sierra Leone to Liberia and further on to Ivory Coast will not be as bad as this.