First Impressions of Sierra Leone - Part 1

Since I had not started my blog when I first went to Sierra Leone, I am going to post my updates that I had written then.  The part one of First Impressions of SL was first written on the 9th September 2012 - 5 days after I arrived in Sierra Leone.  So here goes.

Freetown is very congested even more than Nairobi.  The topography is hilly and swampy.  But being a coastal town you can understand why it swampy.  There are small small islands here and there and streams passing through peoples' backyards or frontyards.  

Being a coastal town makes the weather so hot and humid and I hear it is not hot yet.  It is yet to get hot.  I hear I have just come at the end of a rainy season which lasts six months and likewise the dry/hot season.

Where we are (Aberdeen) is an island but there a bridge that connects us to the rest of the town and a road stretch which also connects our little Aberdeen to the main land.  The airport is also sort of in an island so I came via a water taxi from the airport.  It took me 20 minutes in the water taxi get to Aberdeen.  I think there was high tide because there were waves and it felt just like turbulence in a plane.  The water taxi comes straight to Aberdeen and it is faster and more expensive but there is a ferry that goes to the main town.  That takes about 45 minutes to get to the east side of Freetown.

Was so surprised to get out of the airport to find the road that we took to go board the water taxi was not tamacked.  I mean, a road from a major international airport?  But then you can expect a country which has had war to have poor infrastructure.  The roads are terrible.  Potholes everywhere even for the tamacked roads.

The funny and interesting thing about the city life here is that the town has shops and it is a place where people live at the same time.  Meaning there are no designated places where people live like apartments or flats or even a place with just houses or even like in some other places where the ground floor of building is a shop and the upper floors are residential houses.  No, that is not how it is here.  Here you have a shop here and then the next one is someone's house.

The people are really nice.  They are welcoming and generally courteous.  But many of them are idle.  They don't like to work I hear.  They like getting grants.

Their currency is very worthless.  A bottle of 500ml water is two thousand Leones.  For you to do some good grocery shopping you have to have a million Leones with you, he he.  One US dollar is worth 4,500 Leones.

We are 3 hours behind Kenya and so that means four hours ahead of New York.  I think we are on GMT time here.

Food, am okay with it.  They eat a lot of cassava and potato leaves or what they call in their local language (Krio) pehtehteh.  That is like their collard greens for them.  I have eaten cassava leaves but yet to eat pehtehteh leaves.  I like it actually.  When I first heard they eat them, I was not looking forward to eating them but they make them in a way that they come out nice.  They also put a lot of pehpeh (pepper) in their food which I lehk (like).  There is also a lot fish in their meals too.  Almost every meal has bits and bits of fish here and there.

And in case you haven't noticed, I am learning Krio very fast, he he.  Well, I have to if want to go to di makit (market) and not get charged big big moni (money).  If you see me use words twice twice from now on, know where it is coming from - na dis Krio language (from this Krio language).

A wan go slip nao.  (I want to go to sleep now).  Will tell you about my accommodation here and my work in part two of My First Impressions of SL.

Wetin ehls yu wan sabi?  (What else do you want to know?).