Wednesday... Hump Day :)

Snuggled on one of my "cabin mates" beds, she is packing to leave after one month of volunteering as a dental hygienist at the dental clinic.  Dusti... she is returning to Charlotte, NC, but her husbands family is from Saratoga Springs so she will be by Syracuse and the farm for a visit in the near future... :)

So the girls and I went to Sussex beach over the weekend and spent two nights at an African resort called Franco's... Italian born Franco and his wife Florence, presumably African, have created a little space often frequented by tourists that is definitely luxury for Africa, but would rate a one star hotel by our picky American standards.  It worked perfectly for us... we aren't picky!  The time away was relaxing, but it was also nice to be outside of the city and see Sierra Leone life more rural.  And of course, any venture off the ship inadvertently creates some sort of story... so two come to mind:

1.  We hired a taxi to take us from the ship about an hour and a half, with traffic, drive to the beach.  Let me explain a "taxi" though... about 80% of those that actually own a car also in turn have a taxi... it's not like there are taxi companies or businesses, people just give rides to make money.  These "taxis" range in vehicle quality from not so nice to really not so nice (scary).  Our taxi was definitely on the really not so nice end of the spectrum.  Our driver and his sidekick in the passenger seat added to the already complicated task of getting around as neither of them spoke a lick of English.  Our driver was Krio speaking only and his friend French and Krio, asking us about 15 times if we spoke French, each time we kindly answered "no".  To make a long, adventurous story short... the first alarming moment came when we stopped to get gas and it took about ten attempts turning the key to start the car.  Just as the words "do you think we should get a different taxi?", came out of my mouth, the car was moving toward our destination again and it was too late.  Though the driver quoted us a price, and pretty fair, he didn't actually know where he was taking us.  About a half hour into the trip he started pulling over asking pedestrians if he should keep going to get to Franco's at Sussex.  The farther we got from the city, the narrower and dustier the red earthen roads became.  As we headed down a slight hill toward a bridge I could see a very large construction truck heading down the adjacent hill toward us.  The bridge was a definite one laner, so I started "uh, uh, uh-ing", motioning for us to pull over while pointing vigorously at the oncoming truck, but this did not matter, we carried on.  Sweat began pouring from not only the brows of us three girls in the back, but also from our local passenger seat friend!  I am confident that 99.9% of the driving population in the world would deem that there is no way our taxi could fit past the construction truck.  I kept thinking that we would stop and back up or the truck would start backing up and I think the driver of the truck was thinking so as well... I could see him moving towards the shifter to move into reverse gear, but there was no time to make a move, we just kept moving forward.  Holding my breath I sat with awe as we passed by the right side of the truck, the driver side side-mirror was sacrificed and the side of the car scraped... Marianne staring out the window bug eyed as she was sitting on that side of the car, but we somehow astonishingly made it.  We all sighed and then started laughing till we were crying and our toothless driver turned around with the biggest smile I will never forget.  About five minutes down the road we heard a loud "pop, putt, putt, putt........" Out of the car hopped our two friends, "kick, kick, clang..." and into the trunk went the muffler!  Onward forward... and yes, about fifteen minutes later we miraculously made it to Franco's.  Our friends really wanted to come back to get us and give us a ride home on Monday, we took their numbers and found another taxi to take home.

2.  It was so nice to be out of the city.  We took a couple long walks on the beach, but once the tide came in in the evening the beach was inaccessible so we walked into the local village.  I could hear birds and didn't have people bumping into every side of me.  We met a few local kids who led us around and we saw a few more views from the coastline that were stunning.  As we were walking along, just like in the city, kids would come running out to say hello and they always want to touch us.  It's sweet.  So a little girl, probably 7 or so, is smiling and saying the usual hellos... behind her is her mother holding her sister around 3.  The three year old catches a glimpse of us three white people, gets the most terrified look on her face and starts bawling.  She was frightened... I'm sure we look like crazy aliens to someone who has only seen black skin before.  The best part of the story though is the seven year olds response, she starts laughing hysterically and literally jumping up and down in place... humored to the bone by her wailing sibling.  The whole scene was so cute and fun... :)  It made my day. 

Life on the ship has been uneventful, but nice... the rhythm of meal times orders the days... we have been having difficulty getting a constant and reliable source of water to the ship and we use 92 tons of water a day, so we are in conservation mode... the laundry room is shut down, we are using disposable cutlery, plates, and cups and showers are only to be taken if absolutely necessary... when they are taken there are to be "ship showers"... two minutes long max... wet yourself turn off the water, soap up, turn the water back on to rinse.  :)  We all smell great!