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.
