The Freetown airport is actually on a small island off the coast of the mainland. Whoever thought this was a good idea clearly owned a boat transportation operation. It is not in any way convenient. There are 3 ways of getting to the mainland: helicopter, water taxi, and ferry. The helicopter was the most tempting option, but also the most expensive ($80) and the least safe. The helicopters are from the ‘70’s, and are known for crashing a lot. The ferry is the cheapest option, but it also only runs once a day, and not at 3 in the morning. So myself and the other interns I was with chose to take the water taxi. After waiting around for the water taxi to drum up enough business and fill all the seats, we finally left the airport around 5am.
After a 20 minute boat ride, we arrived on the shores of Freetown. Unfortunately for us, it was still dark out, and we had no idea where to go, or how to get there. Eventually, around 7am, a guy showed up and said he was from Timap, and that he would take us to our guesthouse. As it turns out, our guesthouse (and the Timap office) was just down the road. The guesthouse we’re staying in for now is called “Diana guest house” and is apparently named after Princess Diana. Our rooms are pretty standard for an African guesthouse. There’s a bed, and a fan, and that’s about it. We do have a “shower,” but there’s no hot water. Which is actually okay because with the heat and humidity here, a cold bucket bath is actually the best thing in the world. It is unbelievably hot here, and the humidity is almost unbearable.
After dropping our stuff off, a few of us were too excited to nap, so myself and 2 other interns found a driver to take us to a bank to get our American money exchanged for SL Leones. When our driver pulled over, he pulled over not to a bank, but rather to a guy sitting on the side of the road. We had about 2,000 dollars we wanted to exchange, from all the interns, and the guy didn’t even blink when we said that. He pulls out his giant bag of cash, and started counting out Leones. This was all happening without us even getting out of the car. It was one of the most hilariously shady things I’ve ever been a part of. After a few minutes, we rode off with 7 million Leones in our laps. The biggest Leone bill is 10,000, so we literally had stacks and stacks of money. I now know what it’s like to be a drug dealer.
Once we were back at the guesthouse, I fell asleep for a few hours before going back out. There were 7 interns traveling together. There are more Timap interns, but they are arriving at different times, so I haven’t met them yet. The 7 of us got a driver to take us into downtown Freetown so that we could buy cell phones. The city itself is actually not very big, but our guesthouse was still a few kilometers away from the city center. After trying to stop in a few stores, we discovered that most shops had closed for the afternoon. Not to be discouraged, we kept walking until we found some people hanging out that had cell phones to sell. The thing I like most about getting a cell phone in Africa, is that they are always really old. Which means that they always have old school snake on them. During my time in Africa, when I had an old nokia phone, I used to play snake obsessively on it. I think by the end, I had the highest score of anyone in the world. I was that good. Anyway, alas, my phone this time around does not have snake on it. Instead, it has some game called Hanoi which is officially the lamest game in the world. But I do have a phone number now, so you can call me if you want. Just email me and I can give you the number.
