Americans, Waterfalls, Climbing and the Beach

Last week I was able to go to Freetown with the last big team to visit this summer. (I did pick up two more Pumois to bring back with me, but it is not like the past groups). This team consisting of Cale, Amanda, Sarah, Kayla, Kelsey, Elle, and Maggie has been with us for the past 5 weeks. So really they arrived not too long after I did and we have been together ever since. It was now time to say goodbye but first we had to have one last adventure together and that it was.

We left Bo early in the morning only to have a vehicle that just didn't want to cooperate with us (hhhmmm that's nothing new around here) so about half-way to Freetown we decided to switch vehicles. This worked great. We arrived at the guest house, unloaded our things and headed out to Suzanne's Bay. This is the slum I mentioned in a previous post. The team is supporting a woman and her family to move out of the slum, start her own business, put the kids in school, and hopefully be able to provide a better future for her family. We were able to meet with some members of the community and the children. We also got caught there in the rain for sometime.

Now in true American form we left this area and went straight to the fast food restaurant. It was not really thought about or planned this way- but seems a little ironic as I write it. It was some fine food in an air conditioned place- not bad. From here Joe and I left to meet the arriving guests at the airport. This journey is not really one of my favorites but one I am more than willing to make. You have to go wait for the ferry- then travel across, get transport to the airport and wait for the guests. Then it is rush back to the ferry and wait again, then transport to the guest house. We are always playing this HURRY UP and WAIT game. You don't want to miss it and in turn are hours early. Good lessons in patience for me.

Now comes my favorite day of the trip. We slept in before getting ready to head to Charlotte Falls. I had taken a few friends here with me shortly before leaving Salone last year and was anxious to go back and this time with other people who enjoyed water like I do. We needed to hike in a bit through this Creole village. It is a fun walk and beautiful too. Last time we had come you could feel the mist from the falls long before ever reaching- not this time. This is the beginning of the Rainy Season so the falls are not as full. This provides it's own fun though as now we could climb up the falls. They were not small, but not too bad to climb. I will say that going up is a lot easier than going down. We spent a few hours here before we packed up to head to the beach. More water- that suits me just fine.

The beach had some pretty big waves. Cale and I tried our best to ride them but they were moving just too fast for us to really catch them. It was a bit scary for some so not all swam and we really didn't stay all that long. I was able to soak some of the caked on dirt off though.

Being here for some time I have come to have some favorite places so this evening I decided we should take the group to one of my favorites in Freetown. It is this little snack place that has the best chicken around and for cheap. They have hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, other sandwiches great french fries- all good food and it is not at all expensive. We all enjoyed and to top it off they now have soft serve ice cream as well. What more could a girl ask for.

The next morning I headed back to Bo with our new guests and the team got ready to head home to the states later that evening. I have really enjoyed getting to know this group as I only knew Kayla before they came.

Thanks for the time and all the fun. Maybe we'll meet again- if not in Salone then back in the corn-filled state of Iowa.