Lakka, Freetown - Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary

Dear friends, I have officially entered the world of crazy. As in these past days have been crazily fantastic!

One minute im in the guesthouse, and hoping onto a pick-up with the EFA staff, travelling towards east-Sierra Leone...The road was bumpy and quite bad at some places, but the government is slowly taking care of that, and at some point we found ourselves driving on a new smooth road, worthy of the Swedish highways people admire so much... The other minute I get the honour of experiencing another world...by the side of the road one sees glimpses of how life is in the countryside of Sierra Leone... I keep thinking everything here is so different, but with some minor details, I observe the same as anywhere else.

Life. Children running around, playing, smiling and waving, an old woman getting water from the well, a girl sitting on a chair and another fixing her hair, men carrying wood to make a fire or sell, chickens, goats, huts, mud, earth, plants, bamboo, palm trees, forest, mango trees EVERYWHERE (its mango season!)... I did not sleep one minute. Tommy said I had to see it all. And Im glad I did.







We stopped for a while are Bureh beach, where T is building a beautiful house by this amazing beach...








Later on, some 4-5hrs later we start stopping in a dark city called Bo.. people everywhere, children asking for money, no electricity, candles everywhere, music and life in the street... Soon enough we stopped at Lois' home (Tommy's sister). I got to borrow the bathroom (I tell you peeing in the dark , it's a true adventure! hahaha). We were fed Lois' wonderful Sierra Leonean rice (when cooked its white with purple lines, and tastes healthier than white rice) and really yummie hot sauce with chicken (It's my personal mission to get used to hot pepper here hehehe!). Then I got emotional for being taken into this family with such warmth, in my first easter away from my own family, they smiled, teased me for being scared of cockroaches and Lois gave me one of warmest and most comforting hugs I've ever gotten. Boiima, her daughter, has for sure one of the prettiest smiles in Salone, and we´ve promissed eachother to go out dancing when I get back (everyone seems surprised that i love and like dancing so much ahahha, but you guys know me, I cant resist the rythm ) (oh and by the way, Salonean music is GREAT to dance, I will bring some back with me for the next party!)

After the short but sweet visit, we left for Tiwai...and if not Lois' hug, I dont know what could have prepared me for what was coming next... When you tell me forest, I think of the Swedish forests, pine trees, wild hares and rabbits, deer and maybe even moose... all of a sudden the road starts getting narrower and narrower, and we start seeing less and less villages by the road-side, and around the vegetation starts getting thicker and thicker... and Tommy says that we are driving to the end of that road, until the river, to cross to Tiwai...

No lights anywhere, we arrive in a village full of huts, more curious children looking through the blackness of the night at me with curious expressions...And then the car goes to short but even bumpier stretch of road until the river. Across the smooth waters a great mass of vegetation rose like the enormous living creature it is. And something dawns upon me. This is not a forest. This is tropical vegetation...This is JUNGLE!!!

It was such an incredibly exilarating feeling, the mixture of fear and nervousness and fascination... This industrialized girl being taken to the bush ahahahaha... So there I go with my bags on my back and the laptop on my hand, praying for the boat not to turn over so the laptop doesnt get wet, and laughing out of all the emotion inside... after some minutes of riding in the quiet black waters, with the locals driving through the pitch black night as if it was the palm of their hands, we arrive at some side of Tiwai Island. No lights. Nothing. Hand lanterns (torches) show me glimpses of a hammock tied on trees, and thick tropical vegetation. In the dark I follow these men, Mika, Momodu and Ibrahim, which I would later learn are experts in the forest, the trails, trees, animals, primates in the area, etc...We walk for some minutes through the darkness, surrounded by all kinds of sounds, crickets, birds, monkeys, grass, wind, earth, water, rocks, dew... It was so beautiful.

We arrived at the clearing where EFA has their settlements and set up a tent for Tommy while the locals brought me a ready-made tent with a matress and pillow inside! I tried to go to the bathrooms but realized that the strange bugs and roaches would make me go out in the wild... Isnt that strange? I rather pee out there where they all live than in a bathroom where I find one or two bugs! Go figure...












So yeah, I slept listening to the song of nature, with a candle outside my tent, and just savoured every second of it...

...you guys, if you ever have the chance, please go sleep in a tropical forest. Ive never rested so well even though I slept very little...

Here are some pics of the sweet kids on the village close to Tiwai, oh, and the girls here tie their babies on their back in the sweetest way, to be practical and for comfort and safety... here you can see it a bit:







Enough for today. I arrived to Liberia yesterday, am now in Monrovia getting a whole other list of experiences, but I will blog about that next time...

Im good, happy and thankfull.

Bless you all in this easter sunday, may you all enjoy the day surrounded by your loved ones...

G.