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I spent the last couple of days in SL pretty ill: cold, sweats, rattling cough, aching joints - wasn't pretty. I drank tons of water and chugged lots of cough medicine. Herbert gave me thick honey with lime juice, which was outstanding, and Hirut introduced me to the wonder that is Guava.
Guava is possibly the traveller’s best friend. If you eat the fruit it cures constipation, if you chew the bitter leaves it cures diarrhoea. It's potent stuff. Better than Imodium.
I just find it a tad annoying that I end 2008 with food poisoning and begin 2009 with some vicious form of flu. I really wasn't in a good way. I think I overdid it at the beach, but I regret nothing!
By the 6th I was feeling stronger. I packed, and around 2pm we arrived at the ferry port. We decided to take the water taxi to the airport this time, for a change. They run a speedboat from Freetown to Lungi. There's also a hovercraft, but apparently that's broken at the moment.
Hirut's parents came with us, and Alhaji drove. It was a sad farewell at the dock. Her mum also gave me the dress I wore to the wedding party, which was extremely kind of her. So I'm sorted for any further formal occasions in Rwanda. I also picked up a promotional tourism DVD from the boat guy, which I'm hoping will show some of the things I've seen to my family.
The speedboat was really cool, and they had a little GPRS screen showing where we were and also what was under the boat - even the fishes!
The taxi arrived at a bar on the other side, where we waited for the joining bus service. It was all run by a group called Pelican, and they were absolutely excellent. Really nice service. I predict great things for SL tourism if they could just get the airport sorted out. It's chaos, and an uncomfortably hot place to have to stand in a static line for an hour, cramped like sardines.
We finally cleared check-in and it wasn't long before we were on our first flight back to Nairobi, with a 45 minute stop-over at Accra again. We left Sierra Leone around 5:30 and arrived around the same time Nairobi time. Had a Brendan Fraser fest on the way: Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Mummy 3. Very easy on the eye, that man ;)
That's when we realised we had a seven hour stop-over for our connecting flight to Kigali. Kigali's about an hour from Nairobi, yet we had a wait-over longer than Accra to Nairobi *rolls eyes*.
I tried to tackle the cash machine as I thought duty free shopping might cheer me up and I was down to my last $20 but, after more than a year, I hadn't a clue what my pin number was, so had to phone my bank. Although they were happy to send a pin reminder to a designated family member, they refused to give me it over the phone. So, shopping was out and instead we headed upstairs to the café I found last time I had a seven hour stop-over there. We ordered food, then passed out on the couches.
I slept pretty well, actually. Woke up when Hirut suggested we should go check-in. We headed downstairs and I sat on a bench whilst she grabbed a book at one of the shops. All of a sudden, I look up, and it's Cathryn and Els coming back from England! We all got seated next to each other on the Kigali flight, which was excellent. We had a good catch-up and a giggle.
Things got a little hairy when we started our descent. We were coming down through pretty thick cloud cover. It was grey on both sides. We got to the ear-popping stage when, all of a sudden, the plane gives a shudder and suddenly changes direction, climbing again. Everyone looks around a bit nervous, and a few minutes later we're above the clouds again with an announcement that, due to weather conditions, we've had to abort our first landing attempt and will be circling to give the clouds some time to clear.
We landed successfully about 30 minutes later, to great applause. It's traditional for people to clap the pilot when we land safe. Not that they often get it wrong. I think Kenya Airways has one of the best safety records of any airline, only one fatal accident in over 30 years.
Anyway, got there safe, got through baggage collection. Hirut and Cathryn shared a taxi and Els got one with me as she was headed to the VSO office.
The house was empty when I got back, but Sonya's stuff was still here, so I chilled out and tried to get my head back on straight. Then she and Els turned up together, both staying in town for a couple of nights to do some work. We sat on the steps chatting for a while, then they went off, but Sonya's staying again tonight. It's been absolutely tipping it down, major thunder and lightning all evening.
The cats are fine. Shue seemed a bit upset with me at first. Later, when Sula came in, she stopped stock-still in the doorway and stared at me like I was the return of the messiah! Think they thought I'd done a Mao and thrown myself under a car. Sonya said the first few days I was away they were running through the rooms looking for me, but then settled down.
It's great being back with them, though. Lots of kitteh cuddles :o}
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