Back in Freetown

We reach our last day in Sierra Leone. Have had some interesting experiences in the last few days, including a warm send-off from Grace Community Church, and a few adventures getting back home from the centre of Freetown.

The team and Truth Mission staff

The most notable of these adventures was on Saturday evening. We were in Freetown for a farewell party that included an opportunity for us to comment on our experiences and share thoughts for the future. It is amusing that parties are planned to the minute – we saw the schedule in advance that read something like “2.00 prayer 2.05 Chris Jonah to speak 2.15 ask team to feedback” etc.

Our journey home usually takes just over an hour, and involves a taxi journey followed by a run in the “Puda Puda” – minibuses that cram people in like sardines and charge about 20p per journey.

The change from the taxi to the Puda Puda happens at a suburb called Lumley, and the atmosphere there is like nothing else. Pedestrians line the streets in their hundreds, cars and motorcycles swerve in between and vehicles suddenly decide to reverse without any notice. Street vendors flash eggs and bread in front of your nose, and to top it off, the departure point for the Puda Puda seems to change all the time, and so we never quite know where to look for it.

After asking a few people and being misdirected, we eventually found a guy who was going to the same destination “Oogo Farm” and he made sure we waited in the right place. Then when the Puda Puda came, a crowd suddenly turned up from nowhere and bundled in. People were even going in through the windows! We did get on, but Robin was without a seat so we got off. The guy who was helping us kindly followed suit and we waited for the next one.

If we thought the adventure was over – it wasn’t. The road between Freetown and Oogo Farm has long since ceased to be a road and the word “bumpy” wouldn’t quite do justice to the journey experience. However, on this night, part of the road was blocked due to flooding, and so we diverted along tiny side streets where the vehicle had to narrowly miss running over pedestrians, traverse through puddles the size of a small pond and negogiate rocks that stick up from the road.

To top it off, the driver had a Westlife tape blaring out of the speakers! Only in Africa…