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Apoto, apoto, apoto!! is one of the main expressions we heard the children yell as we walked through
Kabala, a city located 312km into the provinces.
Along with two friends, I took a government bus (for Le20,000 / $5) from Freetown to the provinces. The 6 hour bus ride that was supposed to leave at 6AM, didn't leave until 7:30AM. I should have known, could have gotten an extra hour of sleep. Anyway, the drive upcountry was beautiful! It's nice to see the scenery change. The more north you go, the more hills and mountains you see.
While in Kabala, we stayed at
Sengbeh Guesthouse, run by a really nice man, who sent us
bohku (a lot) of mangos after settling into our rooms. There's not much to do around town, since it's a lot smaller than Freetown, yet consider one of the top five biggest cities of the country. We did lots of walking, ate mangos and climbed one of Kabala's highest peaks, the Gbawuria Hill, where people travel from all over the country for a two-day New Year's Day celebration. O and people say Kabala is a lot cooler ... not the case!
De place hot!! 
Granut Paste
Making peanut butter @ KabalaAfter two days in Kabala, we took a taxi (Le13,000 / $3 per person) to
Makeni. Here we stayed at another fine guesthouse:
Lizmed Guesthouse and Entertainment Complex. It's nice and quiet and only about a 8-10 minute walk from downtown. Like Kabala, Makeni isn't too big so after some exploring of the town, we had some amazing
potato leaf for dinner (NOTE: Don't forget to ask for more
plasas, extra "sauce", it's common to ask for more if you run out), grabbed some
kanya for dessert and called it a night!
The next morning, it took us an
okada (motorcycle) ride and two taxis to get to
Port Loko, where we met up with from friends from
EducAid, so I could do some research in
Rolal and
Magbeni. I had great conversations with the people there about the education system in
Salone (Sierra Leone), the civil war and some of their experiences. It's incredible to hear some of the stories and to hear people's desire for change, especially regarding education.
On the way back to Freetown from Port Loko, we stopped for some
poyo (palm wine), freshly tapped from the palm trees.
From God to man, as
many of the locals will tell you! I don't know how many yellow jerry cans we filled! Maybe four or five? One jerry can costs anywhere from Le10,000-15,000 ($2-3.50)!
Upcountry is definitely worth a visit or five. Much quieter than Freetown and a lot cheaper fruits and veggies. And good wine 😊)
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Aaron
non-member comment
Palm wine and mangos!
Did you conveniently leave out the part where you describe what you did with the palmwine? As far as you remember, which is not much, of course.