Hotel Mariam Freetown

... to a song I knew from church in America. In Guinea speech is often punctuated with "Inshallah" (if God wills it), "Grâce à Dieu"(Thank God), etc. The same thing is true in Sierra Leone except it's done in English which for me, at least, makes it more obvious. West Africans are so fatalistic so they see God's hand in everything which is also a reason, in my opinion, that it's hard to get any kind of commitment to anything because who knows what God has in ...

... and, of course, Maltina, the ever-so-loveable 5-foot statue of a malt liquor bottle with arms and legs and an adorable button nose. Gather round kids, let the fun begin. who needs a pinata, when we have Maltina! the trick was with all of this, i still had to keep one eye on the road, because sometimes that canvas bag you were about to run over, scratches its fleas and saunters away. i even saw someone doing yoga (kind of). the person looked strangely ...

La capitale on y passe toujours pour faire des visas, mais c est rarement le coup de foudre en Afrique. Toujours plus moche les unes des autres. Heureusement les gens sont tres sympathiques. J ai pris 2 heures avec l aide d un habitant de Freetown, entre 10H et minuit, avant de trouver un hotel de libre pas cher sur Freetown. Et tout cela gratuitement pour aider les blancs.

... most fertile, the produce is all sent back to Freetown to sell, so fresh anything was quite hard to come by there. Since we have been back in Hertfordshire, we have bought pineapple in Tesco for less than a pineapple in SL costs. Potatoes and tomatoes are the same (they are priced at about 35p each in Freetown). There was little else fresh that could be found in Freetown and nothing in Bo. We overheard a woman in one of the two food shops in Bo ...

... people that seem to party at all hours of the - with no windows to speak of you can hear everything! The people of SL are amongst the friendliest I have known, everyone says hello and wants to talk and they really seem to appreciate what the VSO and other development workers are doing. A week later After a week or so we are beginning to get used to the heat and much of the training is very helpful if somewhat long. The stuff on the history of Sierra ...

... they are given a new dress to wear symbolizing their new life as they return to their village without shame. The impact of this program is too great to express adequately. Our next stop, ConNaught Hospital - the only tertiary care hospital in SL and government run. This was offered as the best care available in the country. We met with the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Bayouh who told us that during the war, the rebels destroyed most of the operating equipment and ...

... amputees including the volunteer chairman (such a regal man despite his double arm amputation. He now wears 2 hook type prosthetic devices)of all the amputees in SL and serves on the GGM-SL advisory board. Also from the advisory board was a man from World Bank, a man with an NGO working on research of infant and mother mortality, and several pastors from various communities. We were treated as the guests of honor and everyone was introduced and had ...

... with a young man who was a team mascot, not an amputee himself but friend to all. He kept asking for a photo with only her. As it turned out he had a very edematous foot and in discussion with Jim (Dr. JIm) it was discovered that he had been diagnosed with sarcoma of his foot. He has been living with the disease for at least 4 years and it has spread to his knee. He had been told that the only treatment choice is ...

... hasn't finished h** couscous. Still on arrival in Freetown we had a few kilometres of walking to get to the nearest hotel, which was prolonged a couple of kilometres when we got lost a few times. Aft** the first few hundred yards walking, we noticed that that Thomas' Rastafarian look was creating quite a sensation as most people would stare and ev**y 20 seconds someone would yell out as loud as they could from across the street 'Hey Rasta!'. Then as he has a beard as ...

... some other passengers boarding during this time. So we ask you to sit back and relax and enjoy this one hour layover before the 8 hour flight to our final destination, Johannesburg." ...kshht... That was a little bit of a bummer... to realize I wasn't even halfway there . The rest of the trip I slept.