2011 has been another exciting and interesting year for Laura and I. In January 2011 I was still only four months into self-employment (after quitting teaching - see Leaving Teaching blog) and our priorities were to be able to pay the mortgage on our lovely house. In fact our house was on the market for half the year as we looked to downsize. In February, Laura, me and our friend Sam headed off for a big adventure to one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone
It would be fair to say that Laura press ganged us into this particular trip, she was determined to visit this unlikely tourist destination which up until 2002 was consumed with a devastating civil conflict. In fact when we told people where we were going the immediate response was
"Isn't there a war going on there?"
Whilst my concern was having enough money to cover the mortgage, after researching Sierra Leone, Laura longed to visit and the trip was split into two. Firstly we would visit a community project in the north of the country which had been set up by the brother of a teacher at one of the schools Laura visits as part of her work at The Methodist Church and then it would be down onto the coast for a beach holiday. Sam had never been to Africa let alone this far off the beaten track.
We landed in Lungi in the early hours and after a long delay got a mini bus the 400m to the hotel. Even though we could have walked it, we didn't know it was that close and it's not advised to walk around many places in Africa at night. We checked into the hotel and found ourselves in a damp ridden room. In fact some of the hotel walls were literally bleeding water. Having been to Africa a number of times before, Laura and I are not flustered by such things and have our own saying "T.I.A." which means "This is Africa". The only thing that really bothered me was the fact that this hotel was very expensive (they have many NGO workers staying so can charge inflated prices) but it had a pool and a bar with Sky Sports so for a few days it was ok.
Two days later it was time to head to the town of Kamakwie in the north of Sierra Leone. We were met at the hotel at 11.00am by Rev. Alusine who had travelled all the way from Kamakwie to meet us and to take us back. Then the fun really started.
We had to get transport to the port in order to get a boat to Freetown. For some inexplicable reason, the airport was built on land across a dangerous bay in Freetown. Every traveller has to make the trip across the bay. In recent years the helicopter has dropped into the sea twice. We chose a boat. Our cab to the port had a boot that didn't close and had more dents than a well used stock racing car. Upon arriving at the port we were hassled by locals trying to earn a buck by offering to carry our bags. At this point we didn't know how we would be crossing the bay, we assumed the normal passenger ferry where we were warned to be extra vigilant with our bags. As we moved further and further into this small village though it looked less and less like a port. Suddenly I realised we were at the waters edge of a fishing village and we would be using local transport. Access onto the boat was not via a traditional jetty, rather it entailed two men carrying people through the water and throwing them into the boat. Worse was to come however. Upon sizing up Sam and I, the worried looking men pleaded for a third to help carry our Adonis like frames to get us into the boat.
Despite no life jackets, any form of shade and the fear that my bag would be ruined in the water coming through the holes in the boat, the 40 minute ride was quite enjoyable, especially when I started up conversations about English Premier League football. Everyone in Africa tends to support Chelski, The Arse or Man U so I was delighted that they had heard of Tottenham Hotspur. We faired a little worse with Notts County and Southend United. Disembarking was literally an uphill struggle. We pulled up next to another boat which we needed to climb through in order to get to a steep concrete slope. Our bags were ahead of us with locals, we struggled to get out and up but eventually found ourselves in another busy town with people hassling us for money. Thankfully Rev. Alusine spotted the car that would take us by road to Kamakwie and I was relieved to see it was a VW Golf.
Relief was short lived. As quickly as we got in the car, we had to get out. It had a flat tyre. Coincidentally the group of youths who had been standing around the car for a while had the tools and were able to change the tyre for a small fee! After the locals changed the tyre we were off. Approximately 2 hours into the journey we were entertained by a loud alarm going off in the car. It didn't stop. In order to make it stop, I turned my ipod on loud. This of course didn't stop it for Laura and Sam but at least I was immune. A further hour into the journey and we had to pull over. The driver looked at the engine. We started off again, alarm sounded, we stopped. Some stops were longer than others. We had to get water from houses along the roadside. Often we had to find a 'hand brake' which took the form of large rock placed behind a wheel. Sometimes we could go for 20 minutes but that was mainly freewheeling down hill without the engine on. Eventually Rev. Alusine got through to the provider of our vehicle and arranged another car. Somewhere on the way to Makeni we swapped cars and got in a taxi. The next two hours were great, unless we hit a bump in the road which sent shudders up our spines. And this was on tarmac.
At Makeni the tarmac stopped and 4x4's are generally the vehicle needed. We had 60 miles to travel to Kamakwie on a dirt track in a Nissan taxi. The time was 6.30 pm. The rest of the journey was very bumpy and long. With 6 miles to go we got to a concrete bridge which ripped into the underside of the car and pulled the exhaust off. We had to get out. It was 9.30pm, pitch black in the jungle. I couldn't believe it. What a day I thought. Resourcefulness however is a great trait of many people in Sierra Leone. Using scissors we provided they cut off the rear seat belts and used them to hold the underside exhaust up. We limped into town after 10pm travelling at 15mph but sounding like an F1 car. Laura's contact Richard came to the guest house to meet us and have a beer. It was one of the most enjoyable beers I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. We thanked Rev Alusine for collecting us. On top of the one way journey he had done with us, he had done the return earlier too!
I thought it would be a good time to present him with his present from the UK, a Tottenham Hotspur shirt. He seemed pleased as you can see in the picture. Little did he know that there are many similarities between the journey we had just shared and following Tottenham - basically being immense frustration and endurance.
We spent 3 days in Kamakwie, visiting the market, the elders, the Community Centre, schools and a vocational college. Laura's amazing photo at the vocational college has won The Guardian's Travel Photography competition for 2011 and can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2011/dec/28/been-there-photographs-year-2011#/?picture=383572093&index=10
More photos can also be found at http://www.lauracookphotography.net/travel-adventures
Information on the Sella Community Project can be found here. http://www.sellacommunity.org/charity/
One day Richard took us out to the land he has bought and showed us his mining operation. He runs a gold mine as an ethical enterprise and is currently mining in the swamps before starting on the hills. It is an impressive operation due to the amount of work he has done setting up schools, the micro credit scheme, employment he has provided and how valued he is in the community. It was quite an experience.
Kamakwie itself was a very peaceful town where a culture of entrepreneurship is prevalent particularly amongst women and where foreign visitors are not approached for money. In the next few years a tarmaced road is expected to be built between Makeni and Guinea which will pass through Kamakwie. This will also bring more tourism to the three national parks that Kamakwie is close to.
The most amazing part of travelling to such a remote area was meeting and speaking with Rev. Alusine about the civil war that raged in the 1990's. We heard horrific stories of murder, rape and torture which led us to ask how the place was so peaceful today. His answer was profound.
"It is about forgiveness"
He went on to say that people who had murdered other peoples family members were living side by side now.
"Without forgiveness we could not move on, and it is God that allows us to forgive and have love in our hearts".
When our time was finished in Kamakwie we got a cab back to Makeni (an old Peugeot Estate with massive tyres attached) and were met by a driver from www.visitsierraleone.org in an air conditioned Land Rover and started our 'holiday'. First stop was the amazing Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary http://www.tacugama.com/ near Freetown and then we spent two nights on the coast at the beautiful River Number 2.
From there we moved to Franco's place which was also beautiful and is renowned as one of the best places to eat in Sierra Leone.
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| Travelling With The Locals |
Relief was short lived. As quickly as we got in the car, we had to get out. It had a flat tyre. Coincidentally the group of youths who had been standing around the car for a while had the tools and were able to change the tyre for a small fee! After the locals changed the tyre we were off. Approximately 2 hours into the journey we were entertained by a loud alarm going off in the car. It didn't stop. In order to make it stop, I turned my ipod on loud. This of course didn't stop it for Laura and Sam but at least I was immune. A further hour into the journey and we had to pull over. The driver looked at the engine. We started off again, alarm sounded, we stopped. Some stops were longer than others. We had to get water from houses along the roadside. Often we had to find a 'hand brake' which took the form of large rock placed behind a wheel. Sometimes we could go for 20 minutes but that was mainly freewheeling down hill without the engine on. Eventually Rev. Alusine got through to the provider of our vehicle and arranged another car. Somewhere on the way to Makeni we swapped cars and got in a taxi. The next two hours were great, unless we hit a bump in the road which sent shudders up our spines. And this was on tarmac.
 |
| Presenting the Spurs shirt, notice how filthy my tee shirt is |
I thought it would be a good time to present him with his present from the UK, a Tottenham Hotspur shirt. He seemed pleased as you can see in the picture. Little did he know that there are many similarities between the journey we had just shared and following Tottenham - basically being immense frustration and endurance.
We spent 3 days in Kamakwie, visiting the market, the elders, the Community Centre, schools and a vocational college. Laura's amazing photo at the vocational college has won The Guardian's Travel Photography competition for 2011 and can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2011/dec/28/been-there-photographs-year-2011#/?picture=383572093&index=10
More photos can also be found at http://www.lauracookphotography.net/travel-adventures
Information on the Sella Community Project can be found here. http://www.sellacommunity.org/charity/
 |
| Richard, me and Sam |
Kamakwie itself was a very peaceful town where a culture of entrepreneurship is prevalent particularly amongst women and where foreign visitors are not approached for money. In the next few years a tarmaced road is expected to be built between Makeni and Guinea which will pass through Kamakwie. This will also bring more tourism to the three national parks that Kamakwie is close to.
The most amazing part of travelling to such a remote area was meeting and speaking with Rev. Alusine about the civil war that raged in the 1990's. We heard horrific stories of murder, rape and torture which led us to ask how the place was so peaceful today. His answer was profound.
"It is about forgiveness"
He went on to say that people who had murdered other peoples family members were living side by side now.
"Without forgiveness we could not move on, and it is God that allows us to forgive and have love in our hearts".
When our time was finished in Kamakwie we got a cab back to Makeni (an old Peugeot Estate with massive tyres attached) and were met by a driver from www.visitsierraleone.org in an air conditioned Land Rover and started our 'holiday'. First stop was the amazing Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary http://www.tacugama.com/ near Freetown and then we spent two nights on the coast at the beautiful River Number 2.
From there we moved to Franco's place which was also beautiful and is renowned as one of the best places to eat in Sierra Leone.
Uganda
In July Laura and I led a team of seven people from our church to Uganda for a weeks outreach mission at Rock Baptist Church in Tororo, East Uganda. This would be the third year in succession that Laura and I had visited Uganda so each time we made sure we would see something new. After our experience in 2009 we had warned the team not to be too expectant of our accomodation so it was a lovely surprise when we found ourselves in The Prime Hotel. http://prime-hotel-tororo.com. It was clear that we had been blessed. The hotel is possibly one of the best ion Uganda and did amazing currys!
We also had a day off during the week so we visited Sipi Falls which was just north of Tororo.
After Tororo, on the way back to Kampala we stopped at Bujagali Falls in Jinja (left) and after a night in Kampala we headed to Kabarega National Park (Murchison Falls National Park) for a safari. We stayed in Masindi before entering the park and then at Red Chilli camp in the park.
http://www.redchillihideaway.com/.
During our first afternoon we did the boat trip up the Nile to see Murchison Falls and we were graced by hippos, elephants, crocodiles and a giraffe on that journey.
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| Laura and I, Bujagli Falls (2010) |
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| The Team - Stephen, me, Laura, Kirsty, Hannington, Lewis, Arthur, Andrew, Viv. |
Laura also visited Malawi, Mali and Uganda (again) during the year.
With regards to working, I picked up a lot of work in schools with a number of companies and am so happy that I made the decision to leave full time teaching.
2011 was great and I am very excited about 2012. Have just heard today that Laura has won The Guardian Travel Photographer competition and we have won a luxury safari trip to South Africa.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Happy New Year to everyone!
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