Post by Lara
7 April 2013
If you’ve been following our blog since we got to Salone in
June 2012, then you have probably noticed a theme when it comes to traveling
outside of our site: it sucks. We try
not to harp on it too much since Debbie Downer posts aren’t really our style,
but really traveling in Sierra Leone, and apparently in much of West Africa, is
pretty much always rough and often makes for crazy dinner party stories (on
that note: we’re pretty sure we’re going to be unbearable to talk to at dinner
parties and other such events when we first return—starting every sentence
with, “well back when I lived in Africa…” – if that turns out true, we’re sorry
in advance!) The best way I can think of
to explain the unparalleled joys of travel inside Salone is to put it this way:
think of the worst travel experience you’ve ever had in the US—flat tire,
traffic jam, got lost, bad weather, accident, got sick, all of the above,
etc. Even that worst experience was
probably better than every travel experience we’ve had in this country. To illustrate this point, I outlined below
the details of our most recent trip to Freetown. The thing about this most recent trip is that
it was surprisingly pleasant and thankfully did not involve any catastrophic
incidents, but it was still miserable for 12+ hours at a time.
Home to Freetown
Miles: about 180
Total driving time: 9.5 hours
Total travel time: 11.5 hours
Cost: Le 73,000 ($16.59)
1:45am – Leave house on foot with all of our things
(including a spare back pack) packed into Kevin’s pack. Walk a little over 1 mile to the “park” to
board our vehicle.
2:30am – Stand in a semi-circle around the man with the
passenger list and one by one pay him our fare (Le 35,000) and board the bus.
Because we reserved our seat late, Kevin and I get the very back with no seat
back and in its place instead is a 1-inch wide metal bar that cuts right across
our lower backs. There are 30 passengers—5 people across and 6 rows (What’s an
aisle? Wasted space, that’s what!), plus
the driver, 2 apprentices, and one police officer in a mini bus that would
probably fit only 20 people in the states.
Also, there’s a goat under our seat and there are a number of chickens
in the bus with us (totally normal, except goats usually ride on the roof). Acknowledge that it’s going to be a long
journey, and nod off, but occasionally waking up to somebody lifting our feet
to put a 5 gallon jug of oil under us.
3:30am – Pull out and start the trip.
4:00am – Wake up to the sound of a hand jack underneath us
as they jack up the car and replace a flat tire. Drift back to sleep.
8:00am – Wake up to the warming sun coming in the window as
the bus stops for a break. Go outside and relieve ourselves at an African rest
stop (i.e. the bush). Re-board the bus, noting that bruises are forming on our
backs and legs. Occasionally, listen to
the goat bleating underneath us.
9:30am – After 6 hours of driving on roads that are in worse
condition than most “off-roading” places in the states, reach the paved highway
between Bo and Freetown. The last 10
miles or so of bad roads meant wincing every time we hit a bump, which is about
every 5 seconds, as the metal bar behind us cut into our backs and our feet
were stuck in one place, with our back pack pushing down on our laps and
sending shooting pain down our legs.
Once on the highway, the bumps came a lot less frequently and mostly
just the pain of holding the pack on our laps persisted.
 |
| The vendors at Moyamba Junction |
10:00am – Stop at Moyamba Junction, Salone’s version of a
truck stop. Buy a sandwich, some cucumbers, tomatoes, and water all the while
fending off the 10-year-old boy who’s trying to sneak our fares into a plastic
bag so he can charge us for it.
11:30am – Reach Waterloo on the outskirts of Freetown.
Traffic slows to a crawl from here on.
12:00pm – Reach Shell, a gas station where we can transfer
to a taxi or bus to go to the Peace Corps hostel. After crawling over everyone
to get out of the vehicle, we realize we probably could have ridden it a bit
further for the same fare. Oh well.
12:15pm – Board a surprisingly comfortable bus that
amazingly charges the same (Le 1000) to go across town as the incredibly
uncomfortable poda podas that usually
carry people packed in like sardines.
Ride this bus until its last stop, then walk a block to find a ride for
the last leg of the journey.
 |
| View from our seat in the back of the poda poda |
12:45pm – Board a
poda
poda (Le 1000) to the last stop, Congo Cross.
1:00pm – Arrive at Congo Cross and decide to walk up the
hill rather than getting a taxi (Le 1000).
The Peace Corps compound is at the top of a very very steep and poorly
paved hill, about 300 metres from where the poda
poda drops you. You can take a taxi
up for Le 1000, but depending on the time of day you’ll be waiting a long time
for a car to come, so often we choose to walk it and generally regret that
choice about 1/3 of the way up the hill.
 |
| The Peace Corps hostel |
1:15pm – Arrive at the Peace Corps compound, greet the
guards, and walk up another 80 metres at something like a 30% grade to get into
the hostel.
1:20pm – Arrive at the hostel, drop off our things, jump on
a computer with internet in an air-conditioned room, and breathe a sigh of
relief—we made it!
Freetown to Home
Miles: About 180
Total driving time: 10 hours
Total travel time: 11.75 hours
Total cost: Le 117,000 ($26.59)
2pm the day before traveling – Have our friend Dennis call
the driver of the Freetown vehicle and reserve our place. He tells us to be
there at 6:30am.
7:30pm the night before traveling – Call 12 taxi drivers
whose numbers are listed in the hostel, asking drivers to pick us up in the
morning. 4 don’t answer; 6 say no; 1
says he doesn’t currently have a car; 1 agrees to meet us at 5:30am.
5:30am – Meet the cab driver outside of the Peace Corps
compound who drives us all the way across town to the park for Le 40,000. Big spending, but when it’s that early, we
don’t tend to care.
6:05am – Arrive at the park where 4 vehicles are already
waiting but not ours. Call the driver who assures us he’s on his way.
6:45am – Our car arrives and the driver lets us pick our
seats this time since we reserved the places early. We sit down in our spot after paying our fare
(Le 35,000 each) and negotiating the cost of loading our big bag under the seat
(Le 7000). As we sit and wait, the
vehicle slowly fills up and we occasionally have to lift our feet to have them
stuff something underneath us. This time no goat—but we have about 50 bottles
of baby oil and some bags of rice to prop our feet on.
8:00am – Leave the park.
This time there are 31 passengers plus the driver, one apprentice, and
the superintendent of police from our town.
9:00am – Stop in Waterloo for some unknown reason. Wait
while several people get off, buy things, and get back on. We pick up one more
passenger here.
 |
| A meat vendor at Moyamba Junction |
12:15pm – Arrive in Moyamba junction. Buy cucumbers, okra,
hot peppers, a sandwich, a donut, and a bottle of kerosene.
Fend off small child with plastic bags
again.
Repeat every 10 seconds that we
already have water and don’t need to buy it again.
12:45pm – Leave Moyamba junction.
2:00pm – Leave the paved highway and find to our surprise
that someone graded - or smoothed - the roads while we were gone. Drive on
passable roads (think American country gravel roads) for several hours.
4:00pm – Start dropping passengers off in small villages
along the way. Most passengers have
something loaded under our feet so when they stop we have to shuffle around to
let the people and stored items out. Several
people and bags exit through the windows instead of the door. We also pick up 3 passengers at one point.
4:15pm – As we near our destination, the driver opens a bag
of candy he bought in Freetown.
Small
children recognize the vehicle and come to the side of the road clapping and
chanting the name of the company. The driver throws candy out to the kids. We
feel like we’re on a 4
th of July float, and decide we really like
this driver.
5:00 pm – Turn onto the main road leading to our town to
find that it has yet to be graded. Drive for 15 miles or so on very rough
roads. Kevin’s rear end has been hurting for several hours by this point and
Lara’s calves are swollen. Almost home!
5:30pm – Reach the park in our town. A friend meets us with a motorbike and takes
the heaviest items back to the NGO office while we walk.
5:45pm – Arrive at the NGO office where dinner is waiting
for us. Chat with Dennis while eating yebeh
(potato/mango/fish porridge) and drinking cold soft drinks.
7:30pm – Walk to our house while a friend drives our
backpack on his bike.
7:45pm – Arrive at home, wash the inch of dirt off our skin,
and crawl into bed.
