Sierra Leone

I have been visiting Freetown several times over the past 3 weeks. I have been making presentations for funding for the tax project I am doing and to meet my UNDP partner. More about this later. The trips are really tiring as I usually make it a round trip for the day and Freetown I find is incredibly congested and stressful, although Freetown is on the coast and is a bit cooler than Makeni. I have posted some street scenes of a market area where shoes are sold - all used of course.

Last Tuesday my luck ran out and the taxi broke down The car was an old Nissan with 300k on the clock when it was disconnected. It didnt look that bad from the outside though and past my sniff test. Having carried 7 squashed passengers and baggage for the first 50 miles or so from Freetown back to Makeni, the poor Nissan gave up the ghost and left us stranded in the middle of nowhere. Having walked back to a small town I managed to wave down a poda poda and for a huge bribe of $4 (2 times the normal fare) I gladly paid for the trip back home.