Last night I decided to read before falling asleep, and since I was almost done with my book I decided to try and finish it. Unfortunately, there was more left than I thought so I ended up staying up pretty late trying to finish it. At about midnight I was still up reading when I read voices getting closer and saw a flash from a flashlight. I looked out the window, and three men with lights were walking toward the house, but they were whispering and had their hands over their lights to hid them a little. They walked up to our house and one of them stayed while the other two left, and I could hear the one try to open the front door. When he couldn’t get that open, he went around to the kitchen door and came in. It was really freaking me out, and I didn’t know who it was or what they were doing, and I didn’t know what I should do. I ended up just laying stiff as a board in my bed trying to listen for any noise. I thought maybe it was a worker who left their phone here in the house, and that they would go soon. And I figured that even if it wasn’t a worker, that the screen door from the kitchen to the rest of the house was closed and locked with one of those metal sliding locks, so they wouldn’t be able to get into the house anyway. But then I heard that door creak open really slowly. After about ten minutes of silence, I started to calm down. I finally decided that they were either gone or hiding somewhere and sleeping. I slept horribly though.
In the morning I found out that it was John, from Nigeria, who has been living here for some time, but has been away in Freetown since I got here because he’s been having trouble with his passport and they sort of locked him up for a little while before it was verified that his passport was okay. He finally got back late last night and didn’t want to wake anyone, so he tried to come in quietly. Turns out I was scared because one of my housemates was trying to be polite.
We got up early and left early for Freetown and the beach. Elizabeth decided not to go, so the rest of us pilled into the car for the three-hour ride down. The countryside is so beautiful here, it’s amazing. And yet people pollute the land with trash, just tossing it wherever. They seem to take no responsibility for what happens to them. Charlotte said that she believes some of that stems from the religious beliefs. Every service is all about God’s will being all powerful, and that you just need to hang in there. So if they get thrown from a motorbike, it’s God’s will. If they paint a prayer on the side of their car, God’s Will will protect them, rather than doing maintenance and taking care of your vehicle.
Anyway, in Freetown we went to the market, which was all wood carvings and fabric, and all the traders were really pushy, telling us we had to buy from them, and even taking our hands and pulling us to their booth when we were already looking at another booth. They also kept saying “I give you good price, because it’s your first time, cheap cheap price.” I just kept thinking “yeah, right!” After the market, we went to the Crown Bakery, which is the hang out place for breakfast and lunch for all the NGOs and Expats, basically all the foreigners. We had a quick bite, then found an ATM for Clem and drove by the cotton tree on the way to NRC, which is a place where they make prostatic legs and arms for amputees. Charlotte had decided to sponsor the purchase and therapy for a boy who had his arm amputated at MCH. The total cost was $150.00 U.S. When we got there and paid for Abdulai, we also talked to Issa, who had been sponsored by some other girls who had stayed here earlier this year and has received his prostatic leg and can now walk fairly well with it. It was great to see.
After that we drove a long way out to a resort that Erdi loves called Francos, which is a hotel and diving school and a restaurant. We drove in and it was just beautiful, like stepping into another world. Here at the hospital, it’s so sad and the people seem miserable so much of the time, but here their were beautiful rooms to stay in and a wonderful view of the beach and ocean, and the restaurant was right on the water, you could even site out in the sand under the palm trees and eat. It was so wonderful, we went out and played in the sand a big, and some friends of Erdi happened to be sitting near us and kept sending us bottles of wine with our dinner. Everything was so good, and it was like we were on vacation for the afternoon.
On the way home, we took the mountain road with it’s wonderful views and huge bumps. We saw the U.S. embassy, which was actually kind of disappointing in that it was a large parcel of land just separated from the rest of Sierra Leone by a gigantic and unnecessary white brick wall, and looked large and overdone it was kind of sad. We also saw the Sierra Leone military base, which was dwarfed by the U.S. embassy.
When we got back, we dropped by the house to get Elizabeth and drop off Nicole and Charlotte before heading back out again to a party that Steve, Erdi’s friend, invited us to. It was on the Apex compound, which is a company that grows sugar cane for bio-fuels. It was so much fun, just hanging out with people who speak English in air conditioning and drinking beer while Marty, an older guy, hit on us all night long! I know I will sleep well tonight!
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