We left the UK with a frost and overnight temperatures below zero. The arrival at Freetown Airport in early evening saw balmy temperatures above 30 c to greet us. In fact there was rawness about the atmosphere as we stepped off the plane into the heat. We were met in the baggage hall by Pastor Yatta. The heat and noise here in the baggage hall is intense as over 200 people all seemingly with the maximum baggage allowance try and position themselves next to the short conveyor which has room for about 40 at most!
Having secured bags it was now off to the car, driven by Pastor Eric and the short “race” to the ferry. Unfortunately the airport is on the “wrong” side of the estuary and so a half hour ferry ride is taken in order to get to Freetown. However when flights are full there are never enough places on the Ferry – hence the race to get there! The queues to the ferry were long and they provide an opportunity for local traders to sell their wares to new arrivals. This provides an intense, sweaty and heavy atmosphere with shouting and music equally matched. The general darkness with only light from candles makes the atmosphere both intimidating and yet spontaneous. The ghetto blasters play very load afro music (after all Freetown is the home to the “afro” part of “afro-Caribbean”).
Sadly we were informed the ferry was full which increased the anxiety and sense of adventure in equal measure (as boys this added to the “fun”). It was agreed that we would go as foot passengers with Yatta whilst Eric selflessly waited with the car and our luggage until the ferry retuned long into the night. Incidentally Eric kept asking about the Bishop who played cricket but we were not sure who he meant. The ferry docked on Freetown city side just before 10.00 pm at which point Yatta disclosed that we were unlikely to get a taxi to our guest house which was about 6 miles away in “Aberdeen”. We braced ourselves for a 2 hour walk. Fortunately Yatta knows just about everyone in Freetown and so he managed to get us some places in a minibus arranged to meet some American Missionaries off the same flight as ours. We finally arrived at our guest house just before 11 pm to be pleasantly surprised by the power, air conditioning and opportunity of some refreshments to close this long day (all big improvements on Richard’s previous visit in 2004).
Richard and Joni Bayfield
