This morning we got up at 7h30 and packed our backpacks with snacks for the road and the beach and were ready to sit and have breakfast and wait for Dr. ABD, who was undoubtedly going to be late. When we got to the main house, we found Erdi busy in the kitchen making us scrambled eggs with ham and cheese! I was so excited! She had heard me mention the night before that I missed good breakfast food, and said, “Hey! We can do that here!” and made it happen for us! It was so good!
By about 8h30 or 8h45, Dr. ABD arrives and told us that he’d had a flat tire on his car that needed repairing before he arrived. We started discussing what car to take, and realized that we would have five going down but nine coming back, so we needed to take a second car. Dr. ABD called about three different drivers, and none of them answered. Then he asked Marcel or Dr. Abel and his family if they would join us and possibly drive, but it was too short of notice. So Dr. ABD called the friends that Gay had gone to Freetown and Bunce Island with and asked them instead of meeting up with us and dropping Gay off with us if they could take some of us and follow us to Makeni, and since they had borrowed Dr. ABD’s car anyway they said yes. On the way down I interviewed Dr. ABD about HIV and Hep B for my research project, and talked a lot about the state of health care in terms of HIV and Hep B in Sierra Leone, it was very interesting.
When we got to the Freetown area we decided to take the road that sort of goes up and around Freetown to get to the Bay Road and take that to the beach rather than getting on Bay Road in Freetown and following it all the way to River No. 2, our destination. When we got there though, there was a giant traffic jam and we had to turn around and back track all the way to where the Bay Road starts in Freetown, adding two hours to our journey. After being nice and sunny, but not too hot, all day it started raining about 30 minutes before we got to the beach. We sat in the little restaurant hut the entire time and enjoyed the view and ate really amazing shrimp and rice. A meal and two drinks cost me $10.25, and the meal was big. It was ten huge shrimp on skewers that had been seasoned with a little spice and grilled perfectly, with rice that had been fancied up with a little tomato sauce and spices, and a little sauce on the side that was sautéed onions and carrots that was also seasoned really well. I mixed them all together and it was delicious! I was so sad that I couldn’t eat it all, but I got so full after half of it that I knew I would be sick on the ride home if I ate any more. There were guys walking around selling wooden carved stuff, and so I bought a goofy little bracelet off of one of the guys. It appears fine until you really look at the design that he carved into the sides. Little hearts that say, “I love you,” inside them. I figure that this place is a little goofy, so a souvenir that reflects that is perfect.
Gay finally met up with us at about 15h30, and Dr. ABD was very happy because he was antsy to start home. However, Gay and her party explained that they were hoping to stay in Freetown for the night and then head back to Makeni in the morning. Dr. ABD was a little upset but said, “Okay, I guess we all have to fit in the car!” We ended up with two in the far back, which really only fits one, and four in the middle. When we were all trying to fit, John asked if he could sit up front because he’s the only guy and he felt a little awkward about squeezing in with all us girls, so I told him he could since I’d sat up front on the way down. He got in though, and Dr. ABD told him to get out and let someone bigger sit there so that it would be easier to fit four people in the middle seat, and told me to sit up front. I was happy to have the front seat, and I am much taller and unlike John who is very thin I have my big woman hips, but I was a little sad that Dr. ABD thinks ‘da body be fat fat’ as the locals would say here. I made a joke about it, and he said, “No, my dear! You have body!” Which is like telling someone that they have a fit or athletic frame.
On the way back Ashley interviewed Dr. ABD about the hospital for a paper she’s writing. Apparently all she has to do is write a paper about something dealing with her POE, which is international healthcare, and she gets four credits for it! Lucky bum! It was really interesting to hear about all that it took to start the hospital, and all the speed bumps there have been along the way.
When we got back in the evening, I decided to organize my things and figure out what I’m leaving here for the hospital and what I’m taking back, so I started sorting through things and sort of packing things that I know I wont use this week. Taylor told me I was crazy, but ten minutes later they were all doing the same thing. When we were finished we took the stuff over to Erdi, who was happy to have it, and deiced we should watch the rest of “The Sound Of Music” that we started Friday. I can’t believe I’ll be home in four days!
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