Freetown - the first night.

I think Freetown defines the word “Chaos”. It’s an impulsive, crazy, dirty city which must have car accidents on average about every 20 seconds.

When we first landed at the airport we were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a beautiful African sunset, with a big orange sun setting over the jungle. There were abandoned planes all over the airport - which must’ve been leftovers from the civil war.

After getting through customs, we spent a while bartering with the locals for a taxi ride to the Ferry. When I say bartering I should say yelling/abusing - every conversation seems like a heated argument, and when you can’t speak the language you’re sure that they are about to start punching on with eachother. BUT, we squeezed into a couple of cars and headed off to the ferry.

Once onboard we had to drag all our luggage up these rusted stars - chaos struck again - people were yelling at eachother ALL over the place, cars were beeping trying to get onto the ferry, women were carrying MASSIVE baskets on their heads and the locals got very angry if we tried to take photos..

We spent about an hour on the ferry crossing from Lungi to Freetown - on the ferry there was an entertainer who basically keeps the crowd happy and laughing - he spent most of his time on the ‘first class’ deck - which is the area where people sit that isn’t on the bottom with the cars.

The entertainer told us his name was Akon (like the singer) and he asked James to swap shoes.. we looked down at his feet and he was wearing these MASSIVE basketball shoes - at least 10 sizes to big for him..

Just as we were pulling into the fort, all the entertainers were leaning over the balcony yelling out stuff to the crowd.. and all of a sudden I hear “HEY YOU WHITE GIRL! I LOVE YOU!” The whole ferry cracked up laughing (200 africans) - a bit embarassing but all in good fun..

Once we pulled into the docks we had to load 207kgs worth of luggage into our ‘taxi’. Gaby and I were sharing the front seat whilst the guys sat in the back of the van. The fumes from the petrol were insane and it wasn’t till later that I realised why..

We stopped to get petrol, and after driving for about 2 minutes the car breaks down.

The driver tells us that the people at the petrol station mixed the petrol with water (to get more money), so they had to bleed the petrol out of the van and start again. It wasn’t until then that we realised he is pumping petrol into the car manually, from a big bucket next to our seat.

AND he was smoking a cigarette whilst doing so.. no wonder the easiest way to die in Africa is in a car accident.. NUTTERS!

Driving through Freetown at night was a shock in itself - all the stores on the side of the road are lit by candle light or kerosine lamps - very little electricity exists in Sierra Leone, even in the main city.

We finally got to Allentown (in the poor side of Freetown) and made our way up a pitch black rocky road to the Safehouse.

It was pitch black inside the safehouse too, and of course due to my organisational skills I had no torch - luckily Gaby had a couple.

A young boy answered the door and showed us to our room - on the way down the corridor I peaked into some of the other rooms and saw 10-15 bodies crammed onto two double sized mattresses.

We were shown into our room and I think my jaw dropped to the floor.

Our room was empty except for a dirty mattress on the floor and a mosquito net. Thats it. Nothing else. Nada. The floor had no tiles, it was just dusty concrete, and there was a candle sitting in the corner.

We were shown the bathroom (which had no running water) and shown how to flush the toilet manually with a bucket of water.

The dirtiness and the smell was pretty overwhelming. Coming from a western country were everything is IMMACULATE, I was in shock about how filthy it was. The stench of urine was so strong, and the 30 degree heat and 80% humidity didn’t help much either. That was definitely one of the things that took the most adjusting too.. the hygiene.

After not showering for about 48 hours I lay down on the mattress and wondered how on earth I was going to fall asleep - I was SO HAPPY I’d brought my pillow.. my pillow saved the my life and I fell asleep relatively quickly..

I woke up in the morning to African’s singing Islamic prayers and a rooster going off it’s head. I chucked on some new non-sweaty clothes and wandered outside to the balcony.

I was greeted with about 25 black little faces staring intently at me. Another shock. They were all a little shy and hesitant, as was I.. but once we started giving out donations they livened up a lot.

I’ve got some amazing footage of giving out the second hand clothing to these children. I’ve never seen kids so excited by gifts before.

EVERYTHING they got was a treasure - they were so grateful for everything they recieved. Gaby gave one of the girls a skipping rope which had a button on it that played music - one of her family members was going to throw it away because a piece of plastic had broken off it.

The girls took it and spent hours holding the button down playing the song over and over and over and over. It just showed the difference between the western attitude and their attitude. When they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, I don’t think it could be any more true than in Sierra Leone..

They also recieved a wind up radio which was a huge hit - now they can listen to music!

I was a bit regretful that I hadn’t brought over more donations - I recall looking at toy cars at a one pound store in London, going oh no they won’t want that. What I didn’t realise is that they have nothing. And when I say nothing - thats literal. No toys, no ipod, no shoes some of them. Nothing.

To recieve second hand clothing from Australia is one of the best deals around. These kids are the lucky ones.

Most of them were rescued from the streets after the war ended - Steve showed us some of the places - many were sleeping in an abandoned rusted ferry (I have footage of that too) or under a bridge were a massive slum is located.

As a result they’ve grown up very quickly, and a lot of them seem much older than their actual age.

So from my first day/night - I loved Africa - I was excited, enthusiastic, and thrilled about the upcoming adventure.. we only stayed in Freetown for one night, and then we headed up to Kamakwie, a remote village in the Bombali district. When I thought Freetown was poor I was somewhat mistaken..

BUT! More on that later.. One bit at a time

Goodnight!