Local Church Visit

Carol 1, Erin and I were invited to a local church by one of the local day workers, whose husband was the pastor there. The couple picked us up from the ship and took us to the church, which was quite a drive but a lovely experience. The building was “being worked on” and looked like very little on the outside. In fact, it was hard to imagine anything happening in the building as we drove up to it and parked.

 

Inside was a different story. Every Sunday, people come very early to decorate and have Sunday School lessons long before church actually starts. Inside the building is a bunker area which has a new door, and the chairs and decorations are locked and stored inside that room. The church comes alive with color each Sunday thanks to Eroro and other ladies of the church. One side is filled with little children in their Sunday best, the men have very handsome suits on, and the women are resplendent with colorful, clean dresses and matching headpieces.

Carol brought a wall hanging of Noah and the Ark with animal attachments (with sticky stuff on the backs) and, as she told the story of Noah, God, the animals, and the rainbow, the children each got to come up and name and place the animal pairs wherever they wanted near the ark. Some of the animals were placed in strange places and the giggling ensued.

After church and a small birthday party there, we were driven to the highest spot in the Freetown area, where we were able to see for miles. It was a tad overcast but a nice view.

We drove to Aberdeen Beach and walked along the sand a little, mostly walking through dozens of soccer games being played along the beach. No time for swimming and we weren’t dressed for it anyway. We stopped by another church which was having a special celebration. It was incredibly hot inside and there was NO air circulating inside. I let myself out and started walking back to the ship. It was further than I realized so I did something I had wanted to do almost as long as we have been in Freetown – I hailed a motorcycle taxi! These things are crazy, zipping through traffic (which doesn’t have any rules to begin with) and I’m not even sure there is any rule as to whether a taxi driver must have a license to carry people or, quite frankly, even a license to drive the bike in the first place. But it was fun, it was cool and refreshing, and I loved it. When we got to the ship gate there was no one there to get a photo of me on the bike, so I don’t have one; I will definitely have to arrange to get a photo of me on one of those at a later date.

This coming weekend is the long 3 day working weekend; it's grueling and I'm too exhausted to blog. I will have to get back to you on Monday about how I had my head completely braided like a local...

Beach Day!

Saturday, a day off work, and SO needed to go somewhere different and refreshing! Carol 2 planned an outing to Aberdeen beach and a couple of local Aberdeen shops. A local on board the ship set up a boda boda driver and vehicle. A boda boda is a (was) a van will all the normal seats taken out and replaced with 1x4s screwed onto old metal pipes to make bench seats for way too many people than a van that size was ever made to carry. The boda boda driver, Mamoud, turned out to not know where anything we wanted was actually located even though he had told the local on board that he did know where these things were located. We finally found Aberdeen beach and one of the shops. The beach didn’t seem that special so we continued onto another beach that we believed was near Aberdeen.  Photos are of a sign for the (Princess) Diana Hotel, the Aberdeen beach, a condo being built on the beach where I wouldn’t mind if I otherwise had to live here, and 15 people stuffed into a boda boda.

After Mamoud argued and tried to demand more money, which Carol 2 handled very well, he drove past the entrance to the next beach, Lakka Beach, twice before finding it. It was well worth the hassle after all the drama. It was weird driving there because we drove down a succession of dirt alleyways which were actually driveways to peoples’ huts and businesses. When we exited the van several business people emerged and tried to convince us to come to their location. One guy was practically throwing a giant, still living lobster at us to show us what his restaurant had to offer. It was a tad confusing but it turned out that each of these businesses controlled a small section of beach and their huts made money off of cooking for, cleaning up after and basically providing a nice, safe haven for groups of beach goers, and the beach goers paid them for their hospitality. We chose a buffet lunch selection and took up the chairs and lounges in front of that particular hut; we could leave our stuff there with relative safety and swim, walk, soak up sun or whatever we wanted while they took care of us or left us alone, whichever we chose to do.

Even on the beach we couldn’t escape the vendors who constantly wandered down the beach trying to sell their wares. Later in the afternoon, a group of dancers/musicians and a voodoo medicine man dancer slowly traveled along the beach, entertaining the groups. The main guy would do a crazy dance with somewhat impressive gymnastics, then writhe on the sand, eat the sand in handfuls, make weird noises and seem to think this was worth donations. His cohorts had their legs wrapped up in material and then surrounded with chains of little metal dangling pieces which made lots of tingling noises when they danced, while the rest of the traveling show play hand-made instruments. That part was kind of interesting, I thought.

The water was quite warm, especially compared to the SoCal Pacific beaches, very salty, and WONDERFUL. The food was a buffet of fried chicken, shrimps on skewers, barracuda on skewers, some rice, cottage fries and cold sodas. Even though it was created in a very simple “kitchen” environment, it was very clean, plentiful, very reasonably priced, and very good! We even made plans with them to come again in a couple of weeks for another outing, this time later in the day. The next trip will have lobster, crab and more food AND a bonfire. I can’t wait. (No seriously, I can’t wait – the plan is keeping me going for the next 2 weeks while I slave in the galley.)

The drive back to the ship was rough because of traffic but as we went through Aberdeen again we stopped for ice cream at a little shop. The beach area had picked up somewhat and didn’t look to bad after all. I numerous spots a restaurant would be on one side of the street and then that business would have a platform area directly across the street, on the beach, with tables and chairs and some other amendments, maybe a small band area or something like that. The ice cream shop was actually a restaurant in and of itself, very clean inside, a pool table, and a whole corner section devoted to frozen treats. It also had its own platform area across the street. Since the whole beach scene had picked up a bit since we had first driven through it was definitely more interesting looking and worth coming back to on another trip sometime…

Man, did I need that day!

In Town Again

I’ve been walking in town on my days off regularly now, for a week. Sometimes I get where I’m going on purpose; sometimes it’s not. I went back to the Big Market again today using different streets. I was looking for several specific things: the UPS store on Rawdon St; the Crown Bakery on Wilbur Force St; and Wilbur Force Street in general. I’ve tried a couple of times to find it previously, with negative results. It’s one of the most famous and one of the busiest streets in Freetown. It was named for the Dutch man who was a major contributor for freedom from slavery for the people of Sierra Leone, and the reason behind the name “Freetown”. When I finally found it, with some help, it turns out I had been on it before but street signs are few and far between. I was told about the Crown Bakery by someone on the ship; it was described as an ex-pat place with a guard at the door and a/c inside. As it was very stifling by the time I got there and was allowed in by the guard (I guess I looked acceptable) I almost passed out as I entered. The air was fabulous, the sodas were ice cold (although no Diet Dr. Pepper), and the waitresses were in lovely dresses for uniforms; even the patrons were stylish and clean. It almost seemed a different world than everything else I had witnessed so far in the town.

I’m going to stop visiting the Big Market. I always go there with high hopes but end up having a miserable experience. The shopkeepers hound patrons so badly, it’s impossible to enjoy any of it. I was able to pick up a nice shirt for Hunter and some insanely cute sandals for the baby. I finally remembered to bring my camera along for this trip and took some photos walking to and from the Big Market and the bakery. There are very few “stores” as you and I know them. Almost everything is done on the street and even the shops themselves are very small. The vendors are out all day during selling hours and some of them take naps (or were they passed out…?) right at their table. Their families may be right there with them, and several children hang out under the make shift selling table. One little naked guy was being fed by his big brother. There are some apartment buildings on the main street and some of the people live in the shanty from which they sell their goods or are directly behind the shop. There are streets more quiet and relaxed, but they are not any nicer and are usually dirt alley streets. Even many alleys that join the main streets have vendors on them also. Along with the throngs of vendors, shoppers, walkers, buses, cars and motorcycles, may be any manner of carts, wheelbarrows, homemade scooters and animals, that you can imagine but probably wouldn’t have. Dogs wander and sleep anywhere they can find shade, and they all seem to have some Jack Russell Terrier in them (hmmmm…). Chickens run loose around the tiny houses on the smaller streets. One guy, trolling along on one of the busier streets, not only was dragging along 2 goats but he had several dead ones in the wheelbarrow he was pushing. Now, that was odd, at least to me.

One peaceful area that is right outside the gates of the port is a community garden area. It is nearing the bottom of the hill, and the end of that street, and uses water that has been dribbling down the hill in the drainage ditches on either side of the street. Manmade trenches are used not only to separate crops and pathways, but also to send the water along down the hill towards other crops. Women are out there every time I leave the port, often helping the trenches to be useful if necessary. The bottom of the garden is the beginning of the sea. There are no houses or businesses right there and it’s relative quiet, pretty, and smells a whole lot better than anywhere else along the walk to/from town back to the ship.

Pizzas

For last Saturday’s dinner we made Pizza – 50 of them and sheet-cake sized. The dough was hand-rolled (mostly by Michelle and Ernie) and fabulous. I made one or two of them but manipulating dough is definitely not one of my fortes. We had cheese pizza, veggie pizza, pepperoni pizza, ham & pineapple pizza, and alfredo chicken pizza for those allergic to tomatoes. 7, 8, 14, 15, 18, 17

The pizzas took ALL day, a lot of people in the kitchen, a lot of craziness going on, and was a HUGE hit downstairs in the dining room. Even though we have a dinner or lunch working at any given time, we are also responsible for salad ingredients, cold cuts  of some time, a hot veggie, and a large amount of fruit, which must be vetted, washed and displayed in the dining room at least twice a day. Just before dinner was served, we were seriously running out of places to put pizzas until we could get them down to the dining room! Then, we get to clean it all up! 19, 21, 20

We have: 1) main cooking and chopping area with oven (which works) and steamer/convection oven (which does not), fryers, huge cauldron-style pot, 6 stove tops and a giant fry top; 2) another chopping area with sinks (where I spend a lot of my time), and a bakery in the back with steamer/convection oven that does work; and 3) the sinks where 99% of the washing is done and where I spend most of my time. Everything must we cleaned and put away and the floors must be scrubbed and squeegeed before we leave for the evening.

Each team works every other weekend and every weekend the galley laundry must be done: wash clothes, towels, aprons, shirts (worn by day workers while they are here) mop heads, and anything else dirtied during the previous week. I did laundry this last Sunday, which meant going back and forth to the laundry room and doing 10 loads while still chopping and washing in the kitchen, and helping Josh with the brownies (which definitely has its perks, as you can imagine). Now that we have patients on board, it’s getting even more packed in the galley as tasks are always being added, certainly not subtracted. We’re now up to about a 12 hour day, with short lunch and dinner breaks. I tend to skip dinner and start immediately on washing what we’ve dirtied while cooking, and then start on the dinner pots & pans as they begin being sent back up to the galley shortly after dinner begins. The longer I wait to start the dishes, the longer I’m in the kitchen that night. Sometimes, the day workers will come in after their dinner and either help me or take over the dish washing. Nobody leaves until everything is cleaned and the check list is completed! Since dinners are now a half hour longer (because there are so many more people to feed) that means we are still getting pots & pans after 7pm or so from the dining room staff. They do all the regular dishes, flat where & cups, plus scrub the serving area and the dining room itself.