Lungi Airport Hotel to Freetown to our FINAL destination, BO.... FINALLY!

Saturday

When we woke up at Lungi Airport Hotel we reloaded the bus and headed to the Ferry that took us to Freetown. I couldn’t believe all the people that were waiting to get on the Ferry with all of their “goods” to sell at the market. We saw everything from fresh vegetables to live chickens!
We were all exhausted and running on nothing but adrenalin at that point. The ferry ride was about an hour long. Sierra Leone is a beautiful country. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to take the ferry over because it allowed me to see some of the beautiful mounitans and beaches Sierra Leone has to offer.

Once we got to Freetown we got back on our bus and picked up a few of the CRC college students that just got out of school for break. They took us to the market where we did some shopping. I had a great time bargaining with the vendors—if it wasn’t for those college students I wouldn’t have had clue as to what to do. After getting some help at the first vendor I quickly became a pro at getting the vendor to agree to the price I was willing to pay.

After spending a good amount of time in the market we then had a DELIOUS lunch at the Crown. Laura and I shared a great cheese pizza. I am craving it again it was so good. When we finished lunch it was time to get on the bus to head to Bo.

It took FOREVER to just get out of Freetown. I felt as though I was back in Northern Virginia because of the traffic jam we were sitting in. Not fun, especially in a VERY jam packed van! We finally got moving and it took us about 3 hours to get to the CRC in Bo. Of course a road trip cannot be complete without some sort of excitement. When we were about an hour outside of Bo we saw a HUGE brush fire. I was scared to death because we were about to go through a thunderstorm and the winds were picking up so the wind kept pushing the fire across the street. I was sitting on the window side of the van and Laura grabbed me and I dunked on her lap. We could feel the heat the fire was so big!

On a good note we only went through one police check point. With all of my worries leading up to that part of the trip, it ended up being nothing. They said hello and waved us right through. During the last part of our trip we went through a pretty big rain storm. I didn’t think in rained in Africa, especially during the dry season, which is the season we are in now.

When we finally arrive at the CRC we unloaded the van and ran next door to see the kids. I couldn’t believe how nice of a place we were staying. When I use to go on mission trips to Sneedville Tennessee and the places we stayed there can’t even compare to this. It is clean, comfortable (minus the heat), and a safe place to stay. It amazed me how excited the kids were to see us even though they didn’t know some of the team members. They immediately ran up to us and hugged all of us like they have known us their entire lives.

We then came back to have dinner (rice and chick) and unpack. Every night at 7:00 the children have VESPERS where the children sing and read a bible verse/have a bible lesson and sing some worship songs and a “goodnight lullaby.”

Before it was time for bed after an exhausting day, Kate took me to the lab so I could touch base back home. I was feeling very homesick!