Arrived

Sorry for the one day delay, but the internet was not working in most areas of the city yesterday.....pics are coming next tim, no time yet....pussar!

It is Monday, 8.15pm and I am sitting in my hotel room, where I will spend the first two nights and try to kind or organize my mind which is stuffed with millions of pictures and first impressions. Well, maybe I will just try to talk about my journey a bit and by doing that I can find a way to express what I have felt so far.
Leaving Germany was somehow a bit easier than two and a half year ago when I left for Botswana, although this time I knew I wouldn’t be picked up by another German girl I would share an apartment with (miss you, Cat and Kathrin, have a great time in Berlin). But maybe I just had no time to be scared or to feel any kind of fear. Instead I tried to think in a pragmatic way and prepared myself for the first couple of days as well as possible. Anyhow, my flight from Düsseldorf to Casablanca was fine and I figured out that there was another guy who had checked in his luggage until Freetown. I found him in Casablanca and we started talking and he turned out to be a Sierra Leonean living in the Netherlands and he gave me his own personal view on the situation in the country. Also educated in international relations and about to start his Master in peace studies, he explained me a lot and we will definitely meet another time while his stay in Freetown.
After a short stop in Liberia, where some people got off and others got on we made our way to Freetown and eventually landed there 5.30am. Dead tired but extremely curious I walked into the airport building where a guy was already waiting for me to help with the immigration forms and who managed to get my passport through in seconds while others had to gently forgot some money at the account officers’ desk for causing any kind of progress. While I assumed that he was one of the organisation’s interns, he later introduced himself as police officer who was sent by the guy from CGG (Campaign for Good Governance – my organisation) to help me out there and it worked – I did not even have to open my suitcase. Outside I met the guy from CGG and felt very sorry for him, since he was waiting for seven hours since the last ferry from Freetown left at 22pm the night before and he had to take it and spent the night at the airport. However, I managed to change my first 100 US-$ which gave me about 290 000 Leones and we grabbed a cab which drove us to the ferry port where I got a SIM-Card and at 8am we took off from Lunghi Airport and crossed the Manu River. By then, the country had already started to impress me big time. It is just beautiful with all the palms, the fisher boats, the white beaches and the blue water. The people are very nice and not one single second I felt irritated. They are carrying incredible bunches of food or just stuff on their heads and I have never seen Papayas as big as here. However, the poverty is dramatically high. I saw shelters and other characteristics of living situations I haven’t seen in life yet besides in books and movies. Hardly any comparison with Botswana possible.
And hell yeah, are there many people…….when we left the ferry and entered the actual city of Freetown, I was speechless. Used to the rather empty roads of Gaborone, where you would meet the same people walking every day, Freetown is more than crowded. Millions of street vendors selling everything from bananas to work out machines and most of the stuff is directly sold to people sitting in cars without even coming out there. After a short “discussion” with the police which did not make the cab driver extremely happy and dropping off of two girls who had joined us for our trip from Lunghi to Freetown, we eventually arrived at the CGG office where I was introduced to almost everyone working there. I guess I met around twenty people, so it seems that it is quite busy. The building is just fine on a green compound and apart from a lack of running water, it is well-equipped with electricity and usually also internet (which was not working during my first days though).
I am supposed to work in the programme section, but Christian – the programme manager, is in Spain and not back before Wednesday. Instead I was chatting to the two other international intern from the Netherlands and UK, who could give a short insight in what is going on there.
After lunch at the UN World Food Programme building, the CGG driver dropped me at my hotel where I eventually could take a shower before I headed downhill again to get some water and some food for dinner which turned out to be crackers. Internet was down in the entire city or even country, but I hope it will work tomorrow at the office and I can manage to upload this post. Later on I called the guy I will move in with and tomorrow I will just go and pay my rent before I will move most likely on Wednesday to my new accommodation where I will stay until I leave.
That’s it so far – I am extremely tired and exhausted but still very curious and excited and can hardly believe that I am actually here. I have already seen couple of things which made me extremely sad, but also things which made me laugh and must be seen as signs of hope.
More details will follow later!

Happy birthday to Nicola – Alles Gute zum Purzeltag! and
Happy birthday to Josi – hope to see you in London next year! I hope you both had nice days with families and friends and have a drink for me when you celebrate this weekend.

Thank you all for your good wishes and hopes, I hope you are just doing great!
Miss you all and take care!