Aug 26 (Finally A Description!)

Ok, so we have some free time before our Krio lesson today so I am going to attempt to describe my life and surroundings here. I'll start with where I live.

Me and Ben stay in a one room building, a little bigger than the walk in closet I used to sleep in at the Locust St. house. It is part of a small compound in town that belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, an older couple probably in ther 60s. Mr. Freeman is funny. He likes to have really random conversations in broken English and many times will forget most of what was said by the next day. Mrs. Freeman is a mother and caretaker of the highest caliber. She runs the compound. She also cooks authentic Sierra Leonian food for us every night, probably one of the best cooks in Freetown! Typical food is rice with some sort of "sauce" on top. The most common are cassava leaf, potato leaf, palm oil stew, ground nut (peanut) stew. I will have to take some pictures of the food later so you can see it. I am pretty sure I am losing weight but it is not because I am ever hungry, probably because we walk everywhere!

We sleep on foam matresses on a bunk bed that wobbles so much I made Ben sleep on top for fear that if I was on top I might break it and crush him during the night. We sleep with only a sheet over the matress and no covers and still probably lost a pound or so of sweat in the night. About 1/3 of the time we have electricity so when we are able to go to sleep with the fan on it is a welcome blessing. :) There is a bathroom with a real toilet which is awesome! We have to flush it by pouring water from a bucket into the bowl. We also have a shower which I am pretty sure if I had room that I could run under it without getting wet as it is really more of a fast drip than a shower. Hot water is definitely non-existent. We are just happy when we have water which is about 60% of the time. The first few showers literally took my breath away it was so cold but now one of the highlights of my day is a cold shower before bed. :)

The town itself is crazy and colorful. Motorcycle taxis zoom in and out of beat up taxi cars, UN and NGO cars, and potapotas (a mini van taxi that holds about 20 people, African style of course) in a seeming free for all that while it may have rules, they are definitely not any that I learned in Drivers Ed. :) Here pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way. Walking anywhere is like one big game of Frogger! Also, everywhere you look there are people carrying things on their heads, selling anything from toothpaste, watches, sunglasses, matches, candy, food, and underwear. (Don't worry mom I haven't had to buy any underwear off the street yet.)

Most of the houses are made of cement brick with corrugated tin roofs. There is trash everywhere. I think I have only seen maybe 3 trash cans in the city. There are animals everywhere! Stray dogs, goats, chickens all over the place! Even though up close everything looks very rundown and dirty, the landscape on which it is built is absolutely incredible, mountains that stop at the ocean and rivers with cascading waterfalls, palm trees and green everywhere. It seems to be a city of contradictions both ugly and beautiful.

Oh one more thing, I guess a lot of clothes they get here are surplus that wasn't able to be sold in the US or other countries and so some of the T-shirts people wear here are downright hilarious. My favorite so far was on that Anne saw a little old lady wearing that sad "I fart on the school bus." Haha we definitely find humor in some of the most unexpected places here! :)