Blogs from Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa

Difficile viaggiare in Africa Occidentale. Quasi ogni stato richiede un visto d'ingresso che puo' venire a costare dai 15 ai 100 euro, la cronica assenza di dormitori e camere singole costringe spesso a spendere anche 20 euro per una sola notte; aggiungiamoci l'instabilita' politica, il caldo soffocante, i mezzi di trasporto caotici: facile capire il perche' della pressoche' totale assenza di turisti da queste parti, fatta eccezione per i pochi, rari casi di incoscienti, spavaldi, noncuranti, chiamateli come vi pare. E' percio' difficile incontrarsi lungo la strada ma quando cio' accade risulta poi naturale unire le forze e provare a sfruttare tutti i benefici che se ne possono trarre. Innanzitutto la condivisione del costo di una camera ma anche la maggiore rapidita' nel riempire un taxi collettivo, la conoscenza di un maggior numero di lingue autoctone ... read more

arrival in Freetown and after some health forms & temp checks for Ebola screening it was time to face my fate armed without a visa receipt, they didn't like it,one of a group of chinese guys had made the same omission though I think a bribe sent him on his way fairly quickly. I was left with the unsurprising option by head of immigration (on the day) to pay 120usd for a new receipt, after a short wait I was allowed to return to the airport with a paper copy of the receipt in exchange for my passport, knowing full well there must be a printer in here somewhere, we ( legendary sweed Daniel) had 3 hours to kill anyway,i left Dan with the luggage in a relaced position talking to the most friendly airport security, ... read more

At some point this day or the day before, Danny DeVito got a text from the President's people requesting to meet the Marathon ladies. Mark was offended so went back to Makeni and Em, Martha and I got very excited that he wanted to see us again. Mondays seem to regularly start in Freetown. We went to a place called Arabika to work – another place that Danny DeVito owns. It had wifi so we were able to get on with some work. I also had a lunch meeting with the man himself who has decided to be an official Marathon sponsor and donate all the chickens required for when the international runners are here! What a great man! We tried to get to the Hash early to make sure we had sign ups for the ... read more

Monday started in Freetown again – went back to Flash to tidy up after the party and take advantage of the wifi! Later on in the day we went to the Hash which this week started at Danny Devits's house. Each week it starts at a different location. Because my foot still hurt from a couple of weeks ago, I looked after the house and his monkey whilst everyone was out on the run. He has a little monkey called Sheeta. She is on a chain which is sad in a cage, but since we have met her, Danny has kindly lengthened the chain as she seems to enjoy her little life. She never gets locked in the cage so she hides in there when she is scared, and other times she wonders around as far ... read more

Dear All, Thank you again to those who have written. It is great to hear from home. We last blogged in Dakar, whilst staying with an ex-pat friend, and we are now in a similar situation in Freetown, staying with an old school friend of Jo, Lynn and Tim, who have been looking after us royally! thank you! We are spending a few days in the city before heading to Masanga at the weekend. Jo has been trying to meet as many of the four physios that work in Sierra Leone as possible, and we have visited the national rehabilitation centre and the military equivalent, as well as doing a few touristy things, and we have met a whole bunch of interesting people so we are feeling up to speed with politics, mining, religion, traffic laws, ... read more