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It is about 3 or 4 am on the day that just finished being Monday. We met at the office around 1:00pm. Greg and Kai packed items into our bags to bring to the ship. We went to JFK where we met Eliza, Dani, Toby and Logan. WE took a 7:00pm Air India flight to London, followed by a ride from Heathrow Airport to Gatwick. Breakfast at Café Gustau and then boarded for our 1:00pm flight from Gatwick to Monrovia, Liberia. We stopped for a short time in Monrovia (not leaving the plane) and then on to Sierra Leone. We flew over the Pyrenees and then over the Sahara, which my sleepy eyes might have caught a glimpse of during my nap. On the plane I sat near people working with a British NGO conducting medical work in Sierra Leone, as well as a woman who had worked as a missionary in a school her Church connected with in Liberia.
My first sight of Africa was the low lights of Liberia. Then, finally, after 7 years of anticipation, we arrived in Sierra Leone. We walked onto the ground. Friendly people were everywhere. It was not too hot (yet) as it was around 9:00 at night. As we departed the plane we saw some of the old crew, just for a second, as they prepared to leave and we entered the airport. I had the chance to hug Eve. The last time I saw her was when she arrived in Falmouth, England last summer; we sang Beatles songs together as we sailed to Liverpool, and then I departed the ship. Halfway across the world, and we had two seconds for a hug over a barrier we were not supposed to cross (as we hadn’t yet cleared customs). The air felt and smelt a little like the tropical air I once called home in Costa Rica. We got into a van, drove past shacks and through dark streets. I could see some people in the dark landscape; occasionally we past a light (either electric or lantern). I realized it had been a while since I have traveled to a country whose standard of living is drastically different than the U.S. We take things, like lights, for granted. Even in rural areas you will still see lights, electricity. Driving through the dark road I was reminded of the light I had come to expect, whose presence I wasn’t even aware of until it was absent. We drove onto a ferry, crowded with people, cars squeezed in tightly. We walked around, barely able to fit between cars. It was a sight to watch all of the cars make their way off the steep ramp of the ferry, various people shouting directions. I saw a man wearing a Santa tie. . . .I’m drifting off to sleep . . . .been up for two days.
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