A Mother's Day like no Other!

What to do on Mother's Day in Freetown, Sierra Leone??? I didn't receive any gifts this year (although Andrew informs me that he asked a day worker to find him some fresh flowers, which he couldn't) and my day was decidedly different to any other Mother's Day before it. We booked a land rover to go out and went out as a family. "Alone" for the first time since Janurary! We tried to find somewhere to eat but nothing was open but we found a supermarket open and I got a Snickers ice cream-Happy Mother's Day to me! Then as we were driving around and we witnessed and photographed the poverty surrounding us, it occured to me that to the mothers of Freetown I am incredibly rich and incredibly fortunate and have had more gifts than they could ever dream about!

A typical street in Freetown.

Almost wherever we go in Freetown from the ship we have to go through this junction. It is always chaotic and there is always something to look at!

Street vendors.

Gotta get the washing dry somehow!

Don't know of you can really call this a park. Grass is in short supply in Freetown. The only grass we have seen is some brown, crunchy stuff at the golf course.

Traffic mayhem.

A calmer, more open street. Streets that contain Government buildings are usually more well maintained.

You saw this famous landmark-"The Big Cotton Tree" in a previous blog post but here it is, undecorated, in all it's glory. It is huge!

Everywhere we go there is evidence of Sierra Leone's British heritage. Above is an old British phone booth. Spotted around the place are a British post box, British taxi cab and British buildings.

Street vendors are everywhere! The dismal traffic conditions prove to be a bonus for these vendors as they peddle their wares alongside your car window. Everything from seasame cakes to pirated televison series.

How about some nice new furniture?

So many buildings are in a state of disrepair.

On the way back to the ship we encountered a house fire. This lane is the way back to the port. The fire drew the stares of several hundred onlookers making it impossible for us to get through. Luckily a crew member was walking past and helped us do a ten point turn in the land rover so we could turn around and go another way. The whole journey ended up taking us around three hours and all we ended up doing was going to the supermarket. TIA! (This is Africa)