Farewell...

Friday was the longest day ever. I woke up early to get breakfast because my group was leaving at 11:45 and I knew I was going to get hungry today.
Then I triple-checked that I had packed everything and started to clean my cabin for my required final inspection. I put it off until after 9 because I wasn't feeling up to facing the fact that it wouldn't be my cabin anymore, but finally I got my clearance.

I hung around in midships until about 10:30 and then I went to back to my cabin to grab my luggage and turn in my cabin key and get my passport from reception. I was with a group of about 30 people leaving on that day so the reception was filled with bags waiting to go down to the cars. I had been told that the lunch line would be open early for those who were leaving (it normally didn't open until 12), but at 11:40 we were still waiting for them to let us in so I finally barged in the dining room since my old team was working that day and everyone else followed me. We all scarfed down our food and were pretty subdued...I hugged a couple of people goodbye and then it was time to go down to the dock.

The dock was madness, there were people everywhere since there was such a large group leaving. I really hate goodbyes so I had trying to stay aloof the whole day but then I some one else was crying and that started me crying and then everybody was crying! I stared at the gangway and said, "I really just want to run back up the stairs."
After a few sad moments we got corralled into a car and started off. My laptop bag almost got left behind since I was too busy eating and sobbing my eyes out to supervise the other people packing bags, but they found it right before the last car left so they threw it inside.

We actually made pretty good time to the ferry considering that it was the middle of the afternoon and we had a huge convoy of about eight cars. We got to the ferry at 1 but it didn't leave until 2 and it was just..sitting there right in front of us for a hour. We weren't even allowed to get the cars on early. (Oh, Africa) So I hung out with some people at a little cafe nearby. Once onboard I stayed inside the ferry because it passed right by the ship and I didn't think I could handle anymore sad thoughts for the moment.
We got to the other side and I squeezed into a taxi and we took off towards the airport.

Security in Sierra Leone is quite different from anywhere else I've been. My checked bags were opened but the security man looked at me and said, "Mercy Ships?" and I said yes. He smiled, kinda poked my stuff and quickly closed it again. (I saw some non-Mercy Shippers bags get examined much more closely). After my bag was checked I had to fill out my immigration paperwork. I apparently filled it our wrong and the lady behind the booth disgustedly shoved it back to me and pointed to the part I missed. I filled it out and then she stamped my passport without even looking to see if I had corrected it. (Oh, Africa!)

We arrived at the airport around 3:30 and by the time we had gone through the whole pre-boarding process it was only 4:00 and out flight didn't leave until 8:00. So we got to hand around the airport for four hours! the airport that had barley functioning air conditioning! So much fun!

When it was time to board the plane we had to have out carry-ons  looked at and then we had our body searched. When I was retrieving my bags a man and woman started to scream at the security personnel. I have no idea what the matter was except the man was yelling, "I am Salone too!" (Salone is Krio for Sierra Leone) and the woman was yelling about people being jealous and I was right between the man and the security officer so I wanted to get pout of there.

We had stop over in The Gambia for a hour which turned into two when the found some mechanical problem. Even though it was a overnight flight they wouldn't turn off the over head lights until after midnight, but luckily 'The Smurfs' movie was so horrible it put me to sleep.
Once in Brussels I said goodbye to even more people and left for my gate with another girl who was flying home through Chicago. My flight there was very uneventful. In fact, the plane was so empty I got my row to myself and I was able to lay down to sleep for a few hours. Very nice, especially compared to my flight TO Brussels. When we started to land I stared out my window and thought, "That's America!" and I got a little teary.

It turned out the girl and I both were leaving from gate C so we got to go through customs and security together. Our gate number were at opposite side of C so I said one last goodbye and I was alone. I guess I had some mental break down while waiting for my plane because I started to notice how many white people there were around me and all the advertising for unnecessary first-world stuff and it freaked me out.

I slept most of the way home smushed between two guys who seem to take advantage of the fact I'm a small person and invaded as much of my space as possible.

And then I was home.

Long day, long post

Yesterday was a pretty tiring affair. I met up with Roses from the Dental Team and we were supposed to meet a day worker down at the gate at 10. We ended up standing there for a hour (along with some little boys who thought my hair was a wig...) before she came.
Luckily there wasn't too much traffic (there is always SOME traffic in Freetown), and we made it to the wedding on time.

A hour and a half later the wedding actually started. I should have guessed how the wedding would turn out when I saw that there were six officiating pastors. The wedding was long and I got really hungry so the ceremony was sort of a blur, but I'll try to write down what I remember.
Regina was supposed to walk down the aisle while we all sang a hymn, but the flower girls refused to budge and we had to sing the song twice while some adults herded the girls down the aisle. There was one little girl dressed in a little bridal outfit and the program listed her as 'Little Bride' but I never found out what exactly that was about.
The part I disliked the most was that Regina and Anthony (the groom) both sat facing the altar and the wedding party sat in a semi-circle around them so you never really were able to see them. This also meant the photographers were constantly walking around them trying to get good shots.
Then the main pastor gave a declaration of purpose, another pastor read the legal declaration, the main pastor led the vows and the giving of the rings. We sang another hymn, then they proclaimed them married and Anthony unveiled Regina, and everyone got up and danced and sang and came up to congratulate them. Then Francis, who works on the ship, sang a song.

Another pastor got up and gave a message. A long message. During this part it started to rain heavily outside. Even though we were inside the room had windows that couldn't close and the wind pushed the rain inside the church right on the side I was sitting. Everyone quickly packed themselves onto the other side and we stayed that way until the message was over, when the rain finally stopped and some bridesmaids mopped the floor with rags.
Then Regina and Anthony stood up by the altar and everyone got up and gave them money. Then they had another offering for the pastors. After this the bride and groom left briefly to go sign their marriage papers along with five of the pastors, various family members and other witnesses while Regina's nieces sang a song. A group from Anthony's new ministry then sang a song.

By this part I was ready to go, and so was Roses. When we got down to the road the wedding party came out so we stayed for a bit longer to take some pictures then we left to go back to the ship. And I scarfed down the sandwich I had stowed in my bag as I hadn't eaten in almost eight hours.
The wedding was about four hours long, later I found out that in Sierra Leone the wedding ceremony is very long while the reception is very short! We also passed by several other weddings that were happening on the way back to the ship.

I got back right before dinner, so I showered and ate then crashed for a hour. I got up and went to the library and saw Roses there. She showed me some of the pictures she had taken and then I went back to my cabin and went to sleep as I had to get up at 6 to work today.

I bet you are wondering how I spent the last couple of days, eh? Well, I'll tell you!

On Wednesday I went out to visit one of the agricultural farms that the Mercy Ship team helped set up.  We rode out there with a couple of the Academy classes. It was pretty impressive what they had accomplished in the 10 months that the ship has been here for. They had diverted part of the river to irrigate the plots. They had lots of plants growing already. And they did everything with only a few shovels and other hand tools. And, even more impressively, most of the workers were elderly women! On the way back to the cars we stopped by a school to say hello to the class and introduce the Academy kids briefly.
I am really glad I didn't have to work that day because the ship had a function with the 'important people' from Sierra Leone as a good bye. There were some ambassadors and the Minister of Health came as well. They had a special lunch set up and the galley and dining room were going crazy trying to make sure that everything went smoothly.


Thanksgiving was...odd. Maybe what I mean to say is the lack of build up to it was odd. No Black Friday commercials, no sales on turkeys, nothing. My cabin-mates are all Americans so we talked about it, but we all were pretty busy with other things so it wasn't a huge deal.
We had an ice cream party for the day workers since it was their last day. For dinner we had a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but I was feeling a bit down so I ate really quickly and didn't linger over it. Then I went on a engine room tour of the ship. It was pretty neat! The ship is a refitted train ferry, so it's not built like a normal ship. They also have all the water filtration equipment down there along with the sewage system.
Our water is  probably the safest not only in Africa, but pretty much any ship anywhere since it goes through three filtration systems and, according to the engineer who was giving us the tour, most ships only have one or two.
Right after the tour ended it was time for the Thursday community meeting, and then they had apple pie for everyone. I went to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas with a bunch of other people in the Queen's Lounge and ate pumpkin pie! (Pumpkins are not easy to find around here, just so you know) So at least the day ended well.

Yesterday we had the big farewell to our Sierra Leonean day workers. We had a big African lunch set up, and I did have to work that day so...We had 200 day workers come on top of our 250ish regular crew members eating. Pretty tiring. I managed to stay awake until 10 (which is the time I was going to call home) by watching The Office with one of my cabin-mates, Jenny. (SHE fell asleep though)

Today I am going to Regina's wedding. I'm pretty excited to see a African wedding. I'll have more to write about tomorrow!

Also excited to: take showers longer than 2 mins, sleep in a room without other people in it, be able to drive myself places

You may remember I mentioned that our containers were delayed back in October...well they finally arrived this week. Apparently our frozen container (which holds important stuff like: all of our meat!) has been held hostage in the hopes that some bribe money could get squeezed out of us. The Purser's department has been trying for the past month to get the containers out and finally they used their smooth negotiating skills and now we can eat some other meat besides tuna.

The end of the field service is looming.
The Hope Center closes tomorrow, along with the Dental Clinic. The final surgeries have been scheduled for the last week of November. The day worker's last day is Thanksgiving.

The end my time here is looming as well.
A list of arrivals and departures hangs next to the Purser's office and the other day I looked and saw that I will be leaving with a bunch of other people. I dread walking up to my cabin door, afraid I will find the departure paperwork attached to the door that means I will have to really start thinking about leaving. I am not exactly upset to go home because I really do miss the family and I'm REALLY excited to spend Christmas at home, but that also means that I will have to go back to 'real' things. This ship is a world unto itself. It is a bubble both from the West and Africa. It will take me some time to get my mind back into that other kind of mode.

On Friday I watched a Dutch reality tv show that was filmed on the Africa Mercy back in May. The gist of the show is people get picked to go somewhere, but they aren't told where. They think that they are getting a free vacation, but they end up working in some third-world country. The show was pretty interesting because the two guys they sent were pretty much the Dutch versions of guys from 'The Jersey Shore', but they actually worked really hard in the Hope Center and they ended up being really touched by the work that they did in the end.
After the show we were told the guys actually singed up to do some other mission work next year! Apparently the show runs on a Christian channel too.

This month is just flying by! How can I only have 17 more days left??

Remember, remember the 5th of November

As of right now there is a Guy Fawkes Day celebration happening across the room from me, and a very ornate fireworks display is being played on the BBC. Those Brits really know how to turn a failed assassination plot into a party!
For dinner we had a barbecue on the dock, which feels really weird to do in November. I am so happy that I didn't have to work today because it looked really hard to manage. There were dining room staff going up and down the gangway pretty much constantly.

Yesterday night I went out to help with the Jesus film. It travels around to different parts of Freetown and shows every Tuesday and Friday. I ended up in a place that was only about 15 minuets from the docks. When we got there we set up the sound system and attached some hooks to the roof rack of the car to hang a cloth, then they projected the movie from the back of the car.
The movie was quite long, about two and a half hours and in Krio. I managed to follow along pretty well since it follows the book of Luke and I learned a few extra Krio words.
There was a pretty big turn out with lots of little kids and it was fun to hear the crowd's reactions to the movie. There was a lot of cheering at the Resurrection!

Welcome to Africa

There is one thing that every person on the entire ship has a fear of. It's not pirates, or malaria or even the wireless network going down.

It's the Mango fly.

Mango flies maybe the most creepiest creature in all of West Africa. I noticed that the Wikipedia article doesn't include a picture so let me paint one for you: imagine a horsefly with bright red eyes and white stripes. Imagine this thing laying eggs on your bathing suit or towel when you are hanging out at the beach. Then think about those eggs hatching and maggots burrowing into your skin. Awesome, right?

I don't know of anyone personally who has gotten Mango fly'd (as I like to call it), but I know that it's happened. Mango fly maggots are now my group of friends answer for every physical ailment. It's even replaced malaria as our go-to medical answer.
Your foot itches? It's a maggot. You have a cough? A maggot. That's not a sunburn, it's a maggot.

A couple weeks ago I was in the dining room having just finished my last shift of work when I saw Matt sitting in a chair. He was twisting around trying to look at the side of his foot; when I walked up to him he immediately said, "I've got something stuck under my skin in my foot." He lifted it to show me a little black spot and said, "It's either a rock or a maggot." I wasn't very interested in looking too closely at it.
Luckily, Rhoda, who is a nurse, came by and helped him extract the object (which did turn out to be a rock). I was both disappointed and relieved that it wasn't really a maggot. I seem to be lucky in the fact that the Mango flies aren't as attracted to me as bees are.

I still have 27 days left and every day that goes by brings another chance of  Mango flies getting me or someone I know, so we'll see what happens!

Halloween was pretty much a non-event on the ship. Dates are mostly unimportant here, so most people forgot that yesterday was the 31st anyways.

Here are some things I learned this past week:
-Playing Cranium with non-native English speakers is pretty hard
-Vikings are real
-Toilet paper is the greatest invention in the history of mankind
-South African television is terrible
-My Krio is slightly better, but I am forgetting proper English now (When I was chatting with Melissa online I forgot the word 'little' and nearly typed 'small-small' several times)

Yesterday was my two-month anniversary of being on the ship and I celebrated by working and being sea-sick.
Whoo.
I've actually not been feeling well for the past few days, and combined with working ten hour days all I want to do is sleep. I thought about going off ship today but I couldn't get up the energy or enthusiasm so I scrapped that idea and am letting myself rest. Tomorrow I am going to a community church service so I won't feel like I wasted my 'weekend'.

Aw di bɔdi?

Yesterday I went out to River #2 with a group of seven other people. A day worker got us our own poda poda to rent for the day! It was nice to not have to squish into one, especially as it turned out the beach was about a hour and a half over the foothills on nearly non-existent roads. They were actually doing roadwork which really surprised me because this was the first time I've seen that the whole time I've been here. Part of the deal with out poda poda was that they would wait for us while we hung out at the beach, and that turned out to be a good thing since it was so remote I don't know how long we would have had to wait to get another vehicle when we wanted to leave.

Unlike Burah beach you had to pay to get onto this beach. I heard from another Mercy Ship person that they used the money to better their community which is really cool! They even had some solar panels there! AND they had toilets!!! (Working toilets are maybe the thing I miss the most about home. Even the ones on the ship aren't totally reliable) The beach was quite a bit more crowded that I was expecting. So many white people! I feel odd when I see white people that I don't recognize now.
The beach was right where River #2 intersects the Atlantic Ocean.  I walked into the river to see if it was colder than the ocean (it wasn't) and nearly stepped onto some fish. I was afraid I'd end up being chomped on by a barracuda so I got out of there fast!
We spent a nice afternoon there and my legs got really sunburned the whole way around, so wearing pants for work tomorrow will be interesting.

This morning I went to the church of one of the locals who I work with in the dining room named Regina. I wasn't sure how far it away from the ship it was but it turned out to only be a short (crowded) poda poda ride away. It was on the top floor of some building..I think it was an apartment building at one time. The windows didn't have any covering so the breeze was nice a cool. The attendance is small; Regina is both the worship leader and treasurer. I had some trouble understanding the message because the pastor's accent was pretty thick and I honestly couldn't tell some of the time if he was speaking English or Krio.

My team leader, Kevin, is going back to Togo for a little while soon and is trying to force me into his role. I'm not really sure I have the right temperament to be team leader...I get annoyed pretty easily if things don't run correctly.  Then again, if some one else became team leader it would be pretty disastrous and I would enjoy that even less.
A couple days ago I ran into him in the dining room a little while after dinner had finished and we talked for a little while about it. He told me that the secret is who you have on your team. He said, "If you have a team like a couple of people we currently have...I will pray for you!" And he laughed.
So we'll see how that goes.

Apparently a British Princess is coming to visit Sierra Leone next month, and they are trying to get her to visit the Africa Mercy. It would be pretty interesting if she did end up coming here!

They're Liberian, not Somalian.

Well. I mentioned pirates in my last post and that night we spotted pirate ship! It wasn't near enough to make the ship concerned but we reported it to the Port Authority anyways. I didn't even hear about it until dinner time the next day.

The past two nights they have been waxing the dining room floor. Which is one floor above my cabin.
When I say 'night' I mean they've been working from 6:30 pm to about 3am. They usually didn't even get to using the machines on the floor until after 10.
And in the morning they have been doing something that requires a lot of grinding. For nearly two weeks, eight hours a day, five days a week.

Grinding.

So I've had a interesting night's sleep the past couple days, and haven't been able to nap like I normally do on work days so I've been slowly going crazy.

What else? Well, the containers that bring us food has been delayed by at least two weeks so we have been eating....interesting combinations of food. And even more rice than normal!

Did I mention.....Pirates?

My past few weeks have been very quiet. I haven't left the ship lately so my days are divided between work and recovering from work.
I worked the past two weekends, so I am looking forward to having this coming weekend off. On Friday there is a showing of 'Pride of Lions' on the ship, and on Saturday I am going to River #2.

I getting close to my two-month anniversary aboard ship. Most days I can't believe I've really been here this long. In fact, I often have a hard time believing I live on a ship in Africa!
The current field service is starting to wind down...the last of the surgeries are scheduled for next month, then the ship gets ready for sailing. I leave a couple weeks before the sail to Ghana so I won't be experiencing that. (I hear there are quite a few pirates hanging out between here and there!) I am actually pretty glad I won't be on board because I get sick from the rough weather that we have just in port. (Also: pirates)

Fakes-giving

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. I asked a couple Canadians that I know about the origins of Canadian Thanksgiving and got some vague answer about harvest-time and being thankful for food or something. Then they admitted it was mainly a excuse to eat. We had turkey for dinner and all the Canadians sat together to eat.

Afterwards, I went to the Hope Center with a bunch of other people. The Hope Center is where all the post-OP  patients and patients that live far away stay at. It is right up the road from the dock where the ship is. It also houses the dental clinic. My two of my cabin-mates did a quick puppet show (I just held up the sheet that covered the performers), and then we all spent a lot of time taking photos.
The patients at the Hope Center are used to having their picture taken, and if they see you have a camera will demand that you 'snap' them (quite a difference from the people in the rest of town!). "Where is your snapper?" a girl asked me. "I want a snap!" I managed to get away with only taking a couple and then quickly put my camera away, but one of my cabin-mates got stuck taking photos for fifteen minutes straight.

The children at the Hope Center are very aggressive and will fight the others if they think you are paying too much attention to anyone else besides them. However they can be very sweet as well. I met a little girl today who was maybe three years old. She had a cleft lip and couldn't really talk, but she came up to me and just started dancing with me. We danced until I had to leave.

You say goodbye, I say hello

One of the strangest things about being on the ship is the constant flow of people coming in and out. It often makes it difficult to get to know anyone because as soon as you do, they are getting ready to leave. I've already had one close coworker leave and tomorrow one of my cabin mates is leaving.

It's a bit hard to make friends with the newer people because you get burnt out constantly introducing yourself. And  while I feel bad about it since I had gone through this myself with the people who had already been here for a while when I first arrived, it's pretty much unavoidable. Even the extremely outgoing (which we all know I am not) have this happen to them. Constantly repeating your name, home country, department and length of service gets really old.

So, let me go ahead and address something you may have been wondering about: photos.

People in Freetown really, REALLY do not like getting their picture taken. No one on the ship is really quite sure why this is. I've had people suggest that the photographers that came during the war left a really bad impression, but I can say for a fact that is the reason. Outside of the city people are a bit more willing to let you photograph them, but unless you walk up to them and ask for permission first, be prepared to have some very angry people.

On my first trip out of the ship I was warned about this and the 'rules' of taking pictures in Sierra Leone: wide shots are usually ok (though some people have still gotten yelled at when they weren't taking pictures of anyone in particular), ask permission for shots of individuals, and don't even look like you are taking a picture anywhere near a police officer or government building.

One woman I know was just taking a picture of a street scene and a police officer happened to walk by. The officer came over and demanded to see the photo. Even though the officer wasn't even visible in the photo she demanded that the photo be erased.
Another person told me as we drove though the government center that if the guards there see you with a camera, they would probably smash it onto the ground.

I have taken some photos that I've posted onto a public Facebook album (for some reason Blogger just times out when I try to upload anything), but this post is sort of to explain why this blog is text-only.

In other news, I injured my foot in the pool last week so walking around was really painful and I got sick so I didn't really get to do anything on my days off. I went back to the church in Waterloo that I had gone to on the first week I arrived, but aside from that I lay around and tried to not move around anymore than I had to.

We got a new roommate who just finished two years of service in the Peace Corps in Benin. I asked her why she decided to come here right away and she said, "Well, I've been away from home for 27 months, what's another 3?"

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Yesterday I went into town to Crown Bakery. It is very popular with people from the Mercy Ship since it is Western-style and it has good food. I've only been in Africa for about three weeks but I am already used to everything being run on 'Africa Time' so I was shocked when we received our food in less than a half hour after we ordered it!
On the way back we walked through the fabric market and it started to pour down rain. The market was technically on a street but it was so crowded with stalls that there was only a narrow, dirt alley to walk through that quickly turned into a small river. Occasionally there were some stones sticking up that you could walk on, but most of the time to had to trudge through the garbage-filled flow. We didn't realize that the street was a dead-end so then we had to walk back up to the main street.

We took a detour off the street through a patch of land owned by a church that was very nice. It seems that any spot of land that something can grown on has a bit of corn planted on it. I've seen corn growing right next to the roads out of town. The church yard had corn and potatoes growing on it along with some goats and chickens hanging out. And some huge spiders were hanging out in the trees, but they were off to the side and not overhead so I didn't have to worry about them trying to land on my head.
There were a couple of ruined buildings that I couldn't tell exactly what they used to be. One was mostly overgrown while another one was graffitied but otherwise untouched. Neither one seemed to be large enough to be an actual church.

We had a fire drill today as we do every other Thursday. I am a cabin checker so when I hear the alarm go off I have to walk to the aft of the ship (my cabin is forward) and grab a little yellow card off its hook. The card has the room numbers that I'm supposed to check on then write down if there is anyone inside or if the cabin was locked. I have to bang on the door and announce myself then walk inside and look around the cabins to see if there is anyone injured inside. If some is inside that isn't injured I only have to tell them to get to the emergency station on the docks. After I check my cabins I go to the stairs where I tell someone with a clipboard with all of the cabins in thier zone if I found anyone in the cabins. Then I have to walk outside to the dock and check in so they know I got off the ship and they won't have to look for me. And finally we have to hang around on the dock until every person who is supposed to be off ship is accounted for (the people who are on-duty in the hospital are exempt from the fire drill). This often takes a long, long time. We were lucky today as there was only one person missing and it didn't rain on us like last time we had a drill so we were outside for only about fifteen minuets. Almost as soon as we all got inside a thunderstorm started so I'm glad to be out of that! Other people on the ship keep telling me that the rainy season is supposed to be ending soon but so far we've had a storm almost everyday.

Getting around

There are a few options for getting around Freetown and the outer areas. If you have an idea of where you need to go it's not too hard to get there but if you don't, be prepared for WAWA (West Africa Wins Again).

1) Walking is of course the primary way that most people get around. If you got out in the middle of the day however, be prepared to get squished in the main roads. Kissy road is the road that runs horizontally through most of the town and it is almost always packed.  On the other hand, walking at night is a bad idea because there are no street lights and no sidewalks. And it will still be crowded!

2) Taxis are EVERYWHERE in Freetown. They are easy to find because they all have yellow sides. They aren't very expensive if you know how to negotiate and are good if you aren't exactly sure where you are going. If you take them out of the main part of the city you can pay them to wait for you, or ask them to came back at a certain time and they almost always will. (I say almost because the taxi we had arranged for today never showed up)
But you can also end up with a taxi driver who doesn't know where you are supposed to be going. This has happened to me both times I rode in one! The first time one of the other passengers knew where to go but today we were out of luck and never made it to our destination. They are also hard to find in the outer parts of town as they don't have a lot of business out there so they come up the hills very rarely. And they will get stuck in traffic.

3) Pudapudas function like a privately-owned bus system. They are much cheaper than taxis for long distances, but you need to know which stop to get off at and where you need to be picked up at. I rode in one for the first time yesterday and it was like playing sardines. The 'buses' aren't really buses at all but mid-size vans with rows of benches inside. When the benches are full they pack the little aisle and off you go! I have heard that it's not uncommon for there to be live animals on board but I lucked out on not having any on either of my rides yesterday.

4) Motorbikes. These are the fastest way to get around aside from walking. The drivers can squeeze past traffic easily and usually can get you places pretty fast. They are a bit nerve-wracking to be on as they are usually driven by teenage boys. I also rode one of these yesterday, but is was out of the city so there was no traffic and my driver took it easy so I felt more at ease. The main problem with them (aside from being scary!)  is they can be quite expensive so they are better for short distances. 

(I started this post yesterday but I got interrrupted by a fire drill and had to run outside. When I came back all of the computers were in use so I am finishing it on the 2nd)

I walked into town yesterday with a couple of other people from my department to visit the supermarket. It's a 45 minute walk each way mainly because it's so crowded on the streets that you have to go slowly or you risk losing someone. I had someone attempt to pick my pocket, but I had nothing in it and I felt him try it so I turned around and scared him off.

On the way I saw one of the major landmarks of Freetown which is the Cotton Tree.The locals believe that as long as the tree is in good health then the country is in good health as well.

The store was rather expensive so I just bought some tea and a snack and called it good.
On the way back to the ship we got stuck in one of the heavy rain squalls. We got drenched and hailed a cab since we were still 30 mins away from the ship, but the cab driver had no idea where the dock was and started taking us completley the opposite way from where we needed to go.

I am working this weekend so I don't really have any time to get off the ship.

I was so busy yesterday I still haven't recovered yet. I have to get up before six to get to the dining room to set up breakfast. Luckily, my room is directly underneath the dining room so I don't have to walk across the whole ship early in the morning. (The bad part is that I can always hear banging from chairs and people walking around). I met my team leader Kevin who takes care of the dining room while the Head Steward is doing other things. He has a very thick accent (he's from Togo) and his English isn't so great so I have a hard time understanding him unless it's quiet and I listen really hard so I couldn't figure out what he was telling me to do.

 

I had met another person who works in the dining room named Uta the night before so I had to keep asking her what I was supposed to do. We get two-hour breaks in between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. I honestly don't remember what I did on either of my breaks yesterday. I had a meeting with the Head Steward Ernest at 3 so I really only had one hour to relax before I had to start getting ready for lunch.  

I had to leave dinner early because I had a mandatory new crew member meeting at 6. I was the first person there and I just collapsed into a chair to wait until the meeting started. The meeting lasted two hours and by the time I got out I was falling asleep while having coffee with my friends.

 

And I wasn't even able to fall asleep quickly when I did go to bed so I feel cheated!

I've seen only one stop sign in the whole city

I've made friends with the two other first-timers that I met on the way from Brussels. One is a anesthesiologist from Germany and the other is a dental assistant from The Netherlands.

Today we went off the ship with a group of people to visit the Country Lodge which is up in the hills. It's supposed to be the nicest hotel in all of Sierra Leone. Some people went swimming and then were at at the hotel's restaurant. A couple of the people ate barracuda. I kind of regret not tasting it but I have a few more months to try it if I want to I suppose. Then suddenly it started to down pour and people swam in the rain for a while before we left.
And then, on the way down the hill we got stuck in traffic. Let me tell you about African traffic:
Distance-wise if you look on a map at how far away from the docks it would only be maybe a half hour to 45 minute drive. But the roads are designed in such a way that the middle of Freetown is a huge choke point so it took us two and a half hours to get back to the ship. We were very lucky to get back in time to eat dinner!

Travel:1 Tiffany:0

I'm not sure how much sleep I've gotten over the past three days. I slept only about a hour on the flight from DC to Brussels because the people behind me decided THEY weren't going to sleep and instead were going to stand right next to my aisle seat and talk. And constantly bump into my seat. And my arms. And pull on my headrest.

I did, however, sleep most of the seven hours from Brussels to Freetown. We got onto the ship close to ten pm Sierra Leone time, then did some paperwork and ate then I finally got to go to my cabin. I had planned to unpack some stuff and take a shower but my body said "NO" to that and I ended up crashing. I am pretty lucky that none of my five cabin mates were in at the time because I don't think I was capable of rational thought.

I had a mandatory ship tour at nine this morning and I barely dragged myself out of bed in time. My body is trying to get me to take a nap but I'm afraid I will either a) sleep through dinner or b) wake up in the middle of the night tonight. I totally forgot an alarm clock and there are a lot less clocks on the ship than one might think. (I'm trying to find a way to blame the odd wording in this post on my jet-lag but I'm afraid this how I normally write)