Home Sweet Salone

Post by Lara

20 Jun 2012

Well, we have arrived in Sierra Leone and had a few weeks to get settled before we were able to put up a post. We have tons of thoughts to send your way, but we’re going to split them into several posts to try and achieve some measure of consistency.   Also, we’ve been typing posts in word documents and then planning to upload them several at a time, so sorry about the in consistency.

The trip from Philadelphia to Sierra Leone took us something like 48 hours: a bus from Philly to New York, 6 hours in JFK, a flight to Brussels, 6 hour layover there, and a flight to Freetown. We arrived in Freetown at 7pm which is nightfall, and were quickly shuffled from the plane to the VIP Lounge in the airport. Once we got our bags, we piled into 2 buses and rode to the Freetown ferry, crossing over to Freetown well after the sun had gone down.  Driving through Freetown was quite disconcerting for us, because street lights are uncommon and the only lights we tended to see were small lanterns and LEDs.  We drove to the National Stadium Hostel, where we would stay for a week.  (Look for post by Kevin)

Our week in Freetown gave us a quick introduction to Salone food (generally rice with a soupy, spicy meat and vegetable sauce on top), first Krio lessons (Q: Aw di body? A: Di body fayn!), and early interactions with Sierra Leoneans, primarily school kids who gathered in the stadium to play football (read: soccer) or sell snacks.  

We also learned some interesting cross-cultural lessons involving how we are perceived by Sierra Leoneans. First, we look WEIRD to everyone, especially small children (Pumoi! Oporto!). Second, most of us look so much alike they can’t tell us apart (Kevin and I were stopped by a man in the stadium one day who asked us if we were twins).  Also, the fact that our skin turns colors (pink/red mosquito bites, purple bruises, etc) is a frequent topic of conversation, as is our hair.  

We spent several days in Freetown before continuing on to Bo, where our 10-week training will take place and we will live with a host family.  We’ll get into some of that in following posts.

If anyone is interested in having our phone numbers, you can contact our parents or siblings who have them. If for whatever reason that’s not an option, email one of us and we can send it out.  It is free for us to receive calls and texts and we would love to hear from you!