A nauseating experience

My flight over was fine. Apart from dropping my little cheesecake on the floor. I was saving it from lunch on the plane and it fell off the seat! Anyway, I sat next to an interesting woman, Ann, who seemed very well connected, having worked and lived in Freetown sometime ago, and had written the former President's (Ernst Bai Koroma) biography. I'll try to catch up with her later this week.

The airport was small, but it worked well. The conveyor belt for the luggage was supplemented by a poor chap in the middle who had to catch the bags falling off the belt, to put them back on, and was beckoned from all sides to fetch luggage. My bag got through fine.

The next bit of the journey was not so straight-forward. Straight wasn't something that was possible on the water taxi that connected the airport and Freetown across th mouth of a river. It was a small boat, so small, it couldn't fit the passengers and their luggage together. The luggage went off on a separate boat. The boat sped along over breaking waves which meant we were launched into the air quite often, which ended up in a spine-breaking crack when the hull smashed back onto the water. I had visions of this little crack, getting bigger and bigger, until one last smash against a wave would cleave the boat into two. The Dutch medical student sat behind me didn't provide much reassurance when she commented on how flimsy the 'life jackets' were and said would grab me if we went overboard because she was a strong swimmer.

Thoughts of drowning were quickly dispelled with every churn of my gastric acid though. "Focus on the distant lights. Focus on the distant lights" It was the most nauseating 40 minutes I'd ever experienced.

Mohamed from Health Unlimited, picked me up and took me to the office where there was a room awaiting. The office is situated right next to the Vice President's house incidentally which means the local soldiers and police provide great security for the office too!

Had breakfast today, spicy fish and beans with casava and rice. Great stuff! Now I have to get on with my to-do list.