War don done

I travelled to Freetown overland from Guinea where I am serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. A group of us went for one week for New Years. Freetown is a very cool West African city. After two years living in Guinea, it was a step up going to Sierra Leone. Even after 10 years of civil war, they are doing alright. They are still very poor, but people are very happy that the war is over (in Krio -- war don done man!), and everyone has a story and are fairly willing to chat about it. At a new year's party on the beach I was even slapping high fives, "war don done, pis don come!" (the war is over, peace has come).

Sierra Leone was an English colony, and it was a breath of fresh air to speak English after two years of awful French.

Freetown is a relatively clean city compared to Conakry. The beaches are a fine white sand, and hardly any trash lying around. There are alot of beach bars and the beers are cheap. I drank a lot of a local brew called Star, which was very tasty. Sierra Leoneans also know how to make some mean fried chicken and you can find it easily throught the city. One of the best places to eat downtown is Chicken Champ, where you can order by the piece. There are also women who sell it on the street at night. There is a fairly large christian population, so you can find pork also if you want. The seafood is excellent and not expensive. We spent a lot of time just sitting at one of the beach bars eating chicken, drinking Star beer and chatting with locals. The war just ending officially last year, so tourists haven't yet begun to return. The locals are very friendly and happy to see you for the most part. I even had some approach me in the market and say "You are safe here with us, noone here will harm you".

Freetown has a lot of cool nightclubs that attract a wide variety of people. The most popular is a place called Paddy's. It is an open air pub/restaurant/dance club. Lebanese buisnessmen, UN workers, Guineans, Liberians and a good mix of Sierra Leoneans frequent the place.

The architecture of the Krio dwellings was one of the first things that caught my eye. Two and three story clapboard houses (in Krio, Ode bode house) with brightly colored paint are found throughout the area. It almost felt like I was in the rural southern U.S. People also are okay with pictures. There weren't a lot of policeman standind around ready to confiscate your film.

We also spent three days at a beach called Number 2 River. It is tourist beach with a small hotel, situated on a tidal estuary. It was formerly (and still is) a fishing village, that was developed for tourism before the war. People are starting to return, although it is still mostly NGO workers. There are a lot of things to do besides sitting on the beach. You can walk upriver during low tide (little kids will accompany you), and see many birds and mangrove trees and a beautiful range of mountains behind. We went hiking in the mountains one day with a local guide, and saw a very nice forest and ate local plums. You can also take a pirouge to the banana islands, although it is expensive (100 dollars). Some volunteers from a previous trip did this and said it was very pretty.

There are many places to buy local fabrics and wooden carving and such. These are pretty much the same items you'll find in all of west africa, although the masks differ according to the tribe. The one thing made only in Sierra Leone are the colorful blankets. They resemble blankets from Mexico or someplace, the kind you'd throw around your shoulders. They are of excellent quality, and I was commissioned by several volunteers in Guinea to buy them. They are not expensive. The sellers will start high (120,000 Leone), but you can get them down to about 75,000 Leone (about 25 US dollars).

All in all I really enjoyed my time in Sierra Leone, and plan to return after my service is done in March. I like to fish, and next time I'm going to Number 2 river with my rod in hand and try to catch some white snapper.

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