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...