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The last few days have been fairly busy, but the kind of busy-ness that doesn’t make for good prose. I ended up working a FULL 24-hour watch day, as Johnny Kamara had gone up-country to meet with some village chiefs, so I was pretty useless the next day and spent much of it sleeping.
On Saturday, I was at a restaurant (Alex’s in Aberdeen) and met John, the Welshman who is the engineer for the new ferry that arrived at the Government Wharf a few days ago. The old ferry caught fire and sank not long ago, when it ran out of fuel not far from shore. People brought fuel in buckets and the boat caught fire. Everyone ran to one side of the boat to avoid the fire and the ferry capsized. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, as there were already so many other boats around the ferry and everyone was rescued quickly. The new ferry is a very sleek looking semi-hovercraft that just arrived from England and the engineer has invited Amistad’s crew to come aboard for sea trials and we’re all looking forward to it.
On Sunday, I attended Zion Methodist Church on Wilberforce Street. Zion is one of the oldest churches in Freetown, dating back to the 1790s. I’ve been doing my best to visit as many churches as possible and was very pleased at the warm welcome that I received. The sanctuary reminded me of some of the African-American Baptist churches I’ve attended, painted a rich teal and with the chancel windows painted with Biblical scenes. It seems odd to me, though, that in this African church, Jesus and all of the other people in the paintings were VERY white.
In the evening, those of us who weren’t on watch went up to IMATT and had dinner with several of the soldiers there at the Africa Bar, which had the slowest service of anywhere I’d ever been. The pizza was mediocre, at best, but the company was great. I’ve got a lot of respect for the men and women who are deployed here, doing their best to help Sierra Leone develop a professional military. They’ve got an uphill battle as they fight against tribalism and institutional culture, but they’re making progress and they’re making a real difference in building a new future for this country.
This morning, Heather and I went shopping. I was the designated schlepper of the propane cylinder that we were taking to get refilled, but also had the chance to show off my negotiating skills as we haggled with black-market money-changers for a rate of exchange between US dollars and Sierra Leonean leones: (2,925 leones to the dollar) – not bad, since the published rate at the official currency exchanges was 2,900 leones, with a 15% surcharge.
Over the last few days, we’ve had several more groups of people coming out to visit the ship and it has been great to get the chance to explain the Amistad story and its relevance to modern life. Mostly, we’re inviting people aboard who have been connected with our stay here in Sierra Leone, like the staff from the Aqua Club and Bala and his family from Tacugama. It has been especially fun to see the faces of the children who have come out, watching as they light up when we come racing across the harbor in our Zodiac. Drew has been particularly good with the kids, too, giving them a chance to throw a heaving line and to use the boat falls to lift heavy objects.
Drew’s girlfriend, Alison, joined the ship as a volunteer crewmember a couple days ago and Barry left us at midnight last night, so our composition is changing. Also, Cia and Vincent, our two Sierra Leonean assistants, have swapped shifts, so Cia is spending the days with us and Vincent is here overnight. The rest of the crew for leg 3 of the trip should be arriving in the next week or thereabout, so we’re in the last few days of calm before everything starts ramping up. I’m really excited about heading up the coast to Dakar!
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