Sunday, January 28, 2018

28 January 2018.  Today we had 19 children in Primary counting the little nursery age boys.  I took a snap of all of them because I am not sure who will be there next week for our last week and wanted a picture of this group. 
 Sister Mattu is a counselor in the Primary Presidency and a very talented lady.  She is a seamstress and she also made these beautiful wraps for me.  When she gave them to me she said, " I made these for you so when you make food for your friends you can wrap these around the food to keep it warm."  They put their food in big plastic bowls here and wrap these around the food to keep it warm and keep the dust and bugs out.  They they put the big bowls on their heads and carry them.  I was so touched.  She is the sweetest lady and so beautiful. She has the biggest smile.  I love her dearly and will miss her. 

27 January 2018 we rode down to Lumly beach.  This is pretty typical of the traffic and the streets in Freetown.  

 Lumley Beach.  It is really sad they do not clean up the country.  I think they could have a very good tourist trade if they did.  Their beaches are beautiful, but I would not dare swim here at this beach. 


This is the gray truck we get to drive for a couple hours on Saturday and to go to Church on Sundays.  Most of the time we just walk everywhere. 
 26 January 2018, we went for a walk up in mountain.  It is more like a tall hill. This young man had a pet monkey and let me take a snap of it. 

Everyone carries things on their heads, even the little children.  They were selling the things in their baskets. 
 These little ones let me take their picture.  We have to ask, because sometimes they like to charge and I mostly wanted pictures of the houses up there.  Below these two men called to me to take a snap of them. 


 Above, you can see how close the houses are to each other.  The children love to have their picture taken. 

                                                   More of the houses and the hillside. 

 Once I started taking pictures the children would come running. They all wave to us and want to say hello.  They call "white man" and then keep calling hello, over and over and they wave and smile so big.  I love it.   I didn't realize it until I looked later, but I also caught a young man, in the back, Yup, doing what you think he is doing.  That is really common place here because they don't have any bathrooms in so many places and especially up the mountain.  

I had stopped to dance with a gal and the children gathered around to watch.   They were all fascinated with Brent's hair.  One boy dared to touch it and then they all wanted to touch it.  Don't you just love those cute smiles?

 26 January 2018.  This is the cute scene I saw out the window when I left our apartment on my Birthday.  Our Elders had written this to me on the driveway.  You can't see the banana trees to well, but they are on both sides at the top  On the right is a bunch of banana's and a loaf of banana bread.  They do like banana bread and I have made buko, buko loaves for them.  I love to make it for them. 

 They left me a very sweet note that  made me cry. (I seem to be doing that a lot these days)  I do love these wonderful Elders! 

 Brent and I with Solomon Boima (above).  We call him the "Bee Man" because we buy Sierra Leone honey from him.  His family has bee's and a honey business out in Bo.  It is really good honey. 
Brent, Elder Jabanga, Elder Carlock and Me.  These are the Elders Brent and I are training to take our place in the office when we return home.  They are going to do a wonderful job.
 Our Sweet James.  He was a guard when we first arrived that helped Brent with his garden.  He has some schooling in gardening and was as excited as Brent.  James prepared the ground and helped with the garden.  The plants grew beautifully, but did not produce anything.  The red Greek squash took over the whole yard, but it never set any squash.  James said to us, "I am going to really miss you people."  We were all teary eyed. (usually African's do not cry)  It is hard to say good-bye to wonderful friends like James. 

Sunday, January 21, 2018

 This was a cool Mosque that we saw along the street while we were waiting for Ali to come and pick us from our day at Bunce Island.  He dropped us off and picked us up so we didn't have to worry about a car while we were gone. 

Above is a boat loaded with people going over to Lungi.  They can take the Ferry and it takes about 45 minutes and the boat above takes about  30 minutes.  They really pack them in this boat.  Below is Brent and I with Abrahim getting off our speed boat in Lungi. 

 This is the speed boat we rode in to Bunce Island.  Brent said it had a 40 horse power Yamaha motor.  This is the young man who drove us there and back. 

 So when we left the tide was up and we left from this place.  When we came back the tide was out and we docked closer to where the ferry lands.  We enjoyed the day and seeing Bunce Island. 

                                    Above is looking out to the ocean where the cannons were.  
 This was a cool Cotton Tree.  You can see how it grew around.  Abrahim and I are standing inside the root and it is like a little room.  The Grandchildren would love this for a fort. 
 The island was so quiet, it was hard to leave.  We have not heard the quiet so loud the past 2 years.  It was awesome!  We saw a couple of big lizards and several monkeys.  It was a beautiful place even though it had a sad history.  If walls could talk I am sure there would be many interesting but sad stories. 
 Above more of the ruins, below in a little cemetery that was a  little way from the ruins.  We could read a few headstones that were left there. 

                             Heading back to Freetown, we saw these young men fishing. 


              This is the Ferry we rode a few weeks ago.  It was on it's way to Freetown also. 
                  More pictures on Bunce Island.  These are the old cannons that were still there.  


                                        Close up of the Cannons.  They were all numbered. 


 Above you can see the walls of the fortress are all overgrown with trees and plants.  Below is me with our guide and the guy who arranged for the boat.  His name is Abrahim Sorie and he was a fun young man.  Behind us is the bottom of a Cotton Tree. 

Above is Brent and Abrahim in front of some trees growing on the wall of the fortress. 
                                                            More of the ruins. 
                                                      Below is another Cotton Tree 
An