Africa Day 1

Here we are, my first day in Africa. After 30 hours of traveling and waiting, we finally arrived in Sierra Leone. The moment I stepped out of the airplane, I was in a completely different world. First of all, it was hot and humid! It reminded me of being back in Japan during summer time. Second of all, it was dark! There were hardly any lights around here. In Sierra Leone, there's no centralized power plant (or if there is, it's not working), so people need to use generators (fueled by gasoline) to get electricity.

(Click on the images to see the actual size)
This is inside the airport in Lungi. We were waiting for our luggage and boxes at baggage claim. Next to me is Daniel Massey, senior in high school, and behind him is Dr. Lawrence Czer, father of my good friend Peter. Peter introduced me to Dr. Bob, who organizes this trip every year.

Going through the airport was a bit interesting... and frightening. We found all our luggage, and were about to leave the building. I was behind everybody else, and was pushing my luggage past an officer, or someone with a name tag who looked like an officer. All of a sudden the office stopped me and asked, "Excuse me, are you not going to declare your money?"

"I'm sorry?" I was puzzled.

"Well, how much money do you have?" he asked.

"Uhh... Maybe $50 to $100 dollars?" I lied. In fact, back at LAX, Dr. Bob had given me $1000 to carry and give it back to him once we were in Freetown, so one person didn't carry a huge sum of money. But I dared not tell him the truth since I didn't know why he was asking me this question, and the money didn't belong to me.

"What? $50,000 dollars!?" a guy next to the officer leaned in. He also had a name tag, so I suspect that he was some kind of employee at the airport. All of a sudden he seemed interested, but that's probably because he misheard what I said. (In Sierra Leone, if you speak normal English, or American English, people will have hard time understanding, I eventually learned to talk with their "accent")

"No, about $100 dollars." I corrected him.

"Ok, then come with me please." The officer gestured toward a booth next to currency exchange. We started walking towards the direction, and the other guy followed with him. At this moment, I didn't know what the heck I was getting myself into, and I knew I would get in trouble if they found out that I was actually carrying a lot more than I said. Then I realized that I was falling behind the group, so I said quickly,

"Oh, but I'm with a group. See, over there." I pointed toward the exit where my group was. "See my name tag?" I pointed toward my name tag I was wearing. I don't know why I thought that would get me out of this situation, but some how it worked. The officer hesitantly said "Oh, OK..." It seemed as if he didn't really know what he was doing. So he just let me go... or I just left and they didn't stop me. I wonder if they were trying to get some money off of me or something. I imagine they would say something like, "Oh, you can't take that much money with you. You have to leave some here."

The exit was only few feet away, and it only took me few seconds to get there, but during those few seconds, I was approached by at least 4 other people saying, "Helicopter? Helicopter's this way" or "Hovercraft? Hovercraft is this way" and trying to take my cart to push it for me. These were the porters who earn money by pushing carts for people and getting tipped. I guess we have those in nice hotels back in the States, but here they had 50 of them in a tiny airport. To get to Freetown, the capital city, from the airport in Lungi, you had to take either a helicopter, a hovercraft, or a ferry across a channel. I knew we were going to take the ferry, so I just kept walking towards the exit while saying, "No. No. No..."

When I stepped out of the airport, another guy approached me and told me to leave my bags here and let the guys take care of it. I was like, yeah right! I thought he was another one of these porters that I've been avoiding for the last minute. Then I realized he was white although a bit tanned. He pointed toward a bus and told me to get on it. I saw that the rest of the team was standing next to the bus, and he mentioned Dr. Bob's name, so I knew I could trust him. So I let go of my bags and got on the bus. Later I found out that he was Pastor Ralph (or Pastor Buddy is his nickname). He went to Bonthe with me.

Here's us on the bus, the first of many long bus rides... The guy right behind me in blue shirt is Philip who was also on the Bonthe team. The bus took us to the ferry. It was so dark everywhere... There's no light! No electricity... What a culture shock. On the way to the ferry, the bus stopped in the middle of the street for a few minutes. While we waited, kids gathered around the bus, and they started begging right out side the windows! They begged for water by gesturing with their hands. They pointed at my water bottle, so I showed them that it was empty. But they kept begging, and I realized that they wanted my bottle. Usually I don't hesitate to give to the poor or the homeless, but it was so overwhelming... There were too many kids, and I couldn't help them all, and I didn't know what to do... I decided to just ignore them because that's what everybody else seemed to be doing. I felt bad that I didn't and couldn't help them. Yeah, I could have given away my water bottle, but to who? There were too many kids begging, and I couldn't just give it to one kid. I felt so helpless. Soon the bus started moving again.

We got off the bus, and got on the ferry. The bus got on the ferry after us, then the truck with all our luggage followed.

This was on the ferry. There's Philip again on my right, Patricia on my left, and her dad Dr. Ralls next to her. We were all on the Bonthe team. During the boat ride there were three clown-like people. Well, I think they were clowns or entertainers. They did some kind of a skit, but they spoke in Krio (English-based Creole) or some heavily accented English and some tribal language, so I couldn't understand much of what they said. The natives were laughing, so they must have been funny.

That's the truck with all our boxes and luggage. Our bus was right in front of it. People from the Door Church came and helped us carry our luggage. Actually, they didn't just help us, they took care of all the luggage. After the ferry ride, the bus took us to the hotel.

After 32+ hours of traveling, we finally arrived at 5|10 Hotel (some call it Five and Dime). It reminded me of Hotel Rwanda. It was as if I was in the movie. Notice that they have TV! But they only have like 3 channels: CBS News, soccer, and "off" (black screen). Everything here was powered by a generator, and they only run it from 7pm to 7am. I had my back pack in front of me because there were pick pockets and thieves all around us when we got off the ferry. Also, there were many kids begging for coins at the port.

That's Dr. Bob sitting on the counter in the hotel lobby. He talked for a bit, prayed, and we all went to our respective rooms. I roomed with Jonathan Ramos, a senior in high school. Jonathan also went to Bonthe with me.

The room wasn't too bad. Each room had a TV, air conditioner, toilet, and shower. There was a water heater, but it wasn't working. It didn't matter though, because the weather was so hot that cold shower felt nice. I finally went to bed around 2AM.

To be continued...