Unity, Freedom, Justice!

Untiy, Freedom, Justice-the proud motto of Sierra Leone and it's people whom we were honoured to share in their celebrations of Sierra Leone's 50th Independence Day on April 27th. This day marked Sierra Leone's 50 years of independence from the British. Celebrations are going on all year but special celebrations were conducted during the week 24th-30th April. Above is an icon of downtown Freetown, The Cotton Tree. It is HUGE and here it is all decked out with the colours of the Sierra Leone flag. Below are celebrations at the Freetown National Stadium (where the first screening was held). We were advised not to attend these celebrations due to the high risk of theft. Traffic flow was even worse than ever with many parades through the city and an expected influx of approximately 300,000 people into Freetown.

Inside the Africa Mercy dining room where the dining and galley staff went all out. They even made several huge cakes in the flag colours of green, white and blue.



The crew surprised the Sierra Leone day workers by spontaneously singing their national anthem over lunch. The day workers joined in with great enthusiasm and gutso. After we sung, the day workers continued to passionately sing another patriotic song for us!

SIERRA LEONE NATIONAL ANTHEM


High we exalt thee, realm of the free;
Great is the love we have for thee;
Firmly united ever we stand,
Singing thy praise, o native land.
We raise up our hearts and our voices on high,
The hills and the valleys re-echo our cry;
Blessing and peace be ever thine own,
Land that we love, our Sierra Leone!



Colours of the flag dominated everywhere as the crew and day workers came to the party.

This guy really went all out!