SL 4: The road to Bo...

... Was non existent :)  Ok, there were patches of road here and there, but I don’t want to get ahead of my self.

So leaving Freetown mid-day was like driving through Tijuana...  Loud cars & people, street vendors, the only difference is that everyone was carrying stuff on their heads instead of in carts (and the people aren’t Mexican).

But then we went up the hill from the city to try to avoid rush hour traffic and it got a bit more peaceful.  There were street vendors and dilapidated buildings... but a lot of new concrete construction as well.  Our Claudius, our WV guide,  pointed to this fortress on a far off hill and said “that’s the US Embassy.”  It’s one of the newer buildings, our should I say compounds... huge and white and surrounded by walls and guards... just then we passed the EU Embassy and he pointed to the UK embassy off in the distance... and that’s when he said something that really put it all into perspective, “This is the affluent part of town.”  I have video of “this part of town” and affluent is not the term that comes to mind.  I suppose it is affluent because some of the buildings are made of concrete blocks instead of mud (I still don’t understand how the mud houses don’t melt in the rains) and many of the houses had tin roofs as opposed to thatch... but needless to say it did not look affluent and it really opened our eyes.

A couple hours later we stopped out in the country to stretch our legs and have a snack in this beautiful green hilly area.  Of course we ate standing up because there were all sorts of creepy crawlers on the ground.

(Oh, side note, later that night when we were getting out of the car, Michael pointed out a bunch of cockroaches that were apparently living under my seat... let me tell you how excited I am to get back in the car tomorrow!)

So as we stood eating we noticed his woman walking by up a path in front of us... she was carrying her baby on her back.  She just kind of stopped and stared at us.  Claudius, our World Vision guide pointed out how malnourished the child looked.  Of course I Immediately asked If I could give her my sandwich and Sam and Michael added the rest of their lunch as well.  So our guide walked over but quickly discovered she spoke a bush language that he didn’t know (he speaks Creole like many in SL) He then showed her he had food by taking a bite then handing it to her.  She immediately handed her child a french fry (I know, there are a million things wrong with that statement, but the kid was starving so...:)

Soon her husband walked up carrying a large hoe-like tool and stopped to talk to his wife.    Sam asked if we could take a photo of them and something got lost in the translation.  We wanted candid shots but Claudius posed them prominently displaying their styrofoam containers of fried food.  And odd dichotomy considering they were clearly native tribal folks who had likely never eaten fries before... not the photo we wanted, but the irony makes it an interesting one to say the least.

It was heartbreaking driving away knowing that meal would likely be their last for some time.  

The rest of our drive to Bo was painful to say the least (and we hear the ride to Kono is much worse).The road is basically a series of potholes.  You occasionally come across a small patch of pavement, but just when you begin to relax it’s back to off roading.  And to think,  I used to off-road in high school for fun!

So we arrived in Bo, and were briefed at the World Vision headquarters in town. It was another dilapidated concrete building with a generator to supply power and three simple rooms filled with tables where the staff works diligently.  I must say I am in awe of these people.  The work they do with the minimal resources available is incredible.  I truly believe everyone should have he opportunity to witness this first hand.  

So from there it was off to the “hotel” in Bo.  As we laid in bed that night squished under one mosquito net Sam and I thought longingly about the dirty hotel in Freetown.  At least that one had a clean toilet.  Yet little did we know our world a about to be rocked and this creepy crawly Bo hotel room would soon seem like a 5-star to us.