I woke early this morning to the sound of the call to prayer. The mosque was 10m from where I slept. After packing up and doing a bit of reading, the border post opened and the 100 or so cars that had built up overnight started to move off.
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Category: Africa
2015 Motorcycle trip from West Wales to West Africa and back.
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Day 70: On Tow
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Day 69: Going nowhere
After packing and leaving my hotel my plan was to limp the bike 30km across the border into Senegal where I had the correct money plus parts would be easier to get. The chain lasted all the way.
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Musings: Animals on the road
Throughout Africa I have been dodging wild and domestic animals wandering on the road.
Each of these animals has a different character and needs to be approached and passed accordingly.
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Day 68: A great day but a worrying one
Why great? Well just look at the pictures of the road and scenery. New tarmac one minute, jungle tracks the next, then dirt roads. All through some of the most stunning unspolit mountain jungle.
Why worrying? Because… -
Day 66: On my way home
Yesterdays visit to the Sierra Leone Scouts was the last meeting I had planned for this trip. I will spend the next 3-4 weeks travelling home.
I had a slightly later start this morning and after a half hour fighting through traffic amd markets I was back into the countryside. By mid day and after having my temperature taken at every town’s Ebola checkpoint, I was at the Guinea border.
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Day 65: Sierra Leone Scouts
My plan was to leave Makeni early to get to Freetown by midday. I had been told about a great camping spot on the beach. Just as I was about to leave the heavens opened and it was pouring with rain.
It eased after a while so I headed out thinking it was not going to last. It last.. and lasted… and lasted. It did stop raining… Just as I arrived in Freetown. By this time I was soaked so I decided to head straight for a hotel.
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Day 64: After Ebola
My third day of visiting Street Child projects was to a village south of Makeni. I have done a seperate blog for that.
In the evening Rashinda, Alfred (both work for Street Child) and I went out for a meal with some people who work for the International Medical Corps.
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Pate-Bana Marank Village
A pregnant lady came to the village of Pate -Bana Marank and fell ill. The baby aborted and the woman died. The villagers were sad but in a rural area such as this it was not uncommon.
Then the women who had attended the sick lady also became sick. So their families cared for them, wiped sweat from their brow, until all these women also died. Their carers also became sick and died. Can you imagine how frightening this must be for the villagers? They had not even heard of Ebola at this stage.
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Day 63: More Street Child Projects
I went out with Sheku, another social worker today. We started in Yelisander village where he asked the teacher at the school to send the Ebola orphans down to the community hall to meet me. I started walking down the road with about 4 children. Another joined us, then another. By the time we reached the community hall there was about 20 children in the group.
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Dora’s Story
Dora is a grandmother who is believed to be 102 years old. She looks after her four grandchildren aged 5, 11, 12 and 14 because their parents died from Ebola.
She is at a time of her life when her children should be caring for her, instead she has suffered the loss of her own child and the hardship and hard work involved with bringing up 4 small children.