Family Kingdom Resort Freetown

... English or more probably in creole which is a mix of English, French and Portuguese and sounds like a made up child's language, no offense. I wonder if the French feel the same way about Guinean french as I felt about Sierra Leonian English? To greet they say "Ow da body?" and the response is "Da body fine" or "Da body shinin'". We saw a sign in the park that read "Nor Pis Yah" translated as "Don't **** Here". We've had to watch what we say. We're so used to ...

... t make it any less painful as a runner who prides himself on being a "passer" more than a "passee," just because someone is wearing flipflops doesn't mean they aren't faster than you. there was no ipod on this run, just the sound of the ocean, and the universal sound, no matter in what language, of "wow, look at the white guy." as hard as it may be for some of you to believe, no Garmin GPS either. even without it, i felt like i was going fairly fast ...

I will not bore you with lengthy details but despite spending a couple of weeks back in Freetown trying to sort things out, things actually got worse, not better and despite Carolyn and I putting forward a number of different solutions, VSO, whilst recognising that they had made many mistakes, were not able to improve our security situation. Our problems were compounded by the unacceptable behaviour of one of our housemates. As a fair proportion of my ...

... pot-holes on almost entirely unpaved roads, numerous bribe-hungry   official and unofficial police checks (Guinea is, in all but name, a   police state), the lunatic drivers that shared Guinea's roads (more   lunatic than we have previously witnessed - which is going some) and   the unpredictable antics of dogs, goats and cattle.  Due to the skill   of our driver, the only real delay we experienced was a malfunctioning   hand-pulled ferry ...

We arrived as part of the largest batch of volunteers that VSO in Sierra Leone have ever received, although we did'nt know this until the next morning. What we did know was it was pitch black with torrential rain hammering down and we were in a hovercraft, dodging the lightning as we crossed the bay .... However, we arrived safely in Freetown, Sierra Leone on Saturday night at around 10.30pm. This was a little later than expected because of a delay in ...

... each NGO has proven to be of great benefit to our overall mission. Next stop was a visit to Mercy Ships (in this case a land-based surgical hospital to treat women with a common problem here of birth or rape-related trauma of the bladder/vaginal or rectal/vaginal structures known as a fistula resulting in chronic incontinence of urine or stool). But we are traveling by a rented Toyota Landcruiser. This requires some embellishment. Our expectations of a reliable ...

... learned that World Vision works only in the bush in the very remote villages. It was a good meeting with both of us learning a lot about each other. From World Vision headquarters were drove to the Children of the Nations school. We understood it to be an orphanage but soon came to find out that all of the children who had lived there had been placed in foster homes in their home villages so it now functioned as a primary school with the addition of ...

... needed. He welcomed any and all of our efforts for his country. Anne-Marie was so moved to tears that she suffered with nearly the entire day. While we waited for the Ministry of Land and Development there were so may people that there was no room to sit. Men got up to offer Anne-Marie and Lynn a "seat". The secretary behind a desk then had to stand, so Anne-Marie offered her to sit in her lap. A friendship was ...

... camp which still "houses" a few amputees and others. The poverty was beyond anything you can imagine and brought us to tears. They seemed so genuinely appreciative of our visit. You will see a photo of an amputee woman who started a coal business from a $100 microcredit loan from GGMUSA. This brought up the subject of solar cooking so a brief demonstration was set up for an ever growing crowd. They were ecstatic about the ...

... more by chopping off limbs and ears. The int**national community had to now do something and a huge UN peacekeeping mission was deployed, it even had an aircraft carri**! The RUF was disarmed in 2002 which marked the end of the civil war. Now huge amounts of cash is being pumped into Si**ra Leone but according to the UN it's still the worlds poorest country and the life expectancy for men h**e is 38. But since 2003 it's been pretty calm. As a result of all that history ...