June 10

A trip to town

Because today was a ship holiday, a group of us decided to walk into town. We started by going through the busy streets trying to make our way to the historic site of the Cotton Tree. Leaving the ship at 9:30 it was already hot and humid and the streets were packed with people and vehicles. For most of the trip we had to walk directly on the streets as the paths along side the road were either taken over by people trying to sell things or there were big holes in the concrete slabs which dropped 3 to 5 feet into what we guessed was the sewer system. Traffic in Freetown is very heavy during most of the day. Walking to the cotton tree took us somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour where as if we had driven the same route, it would have taken twice as long!

On the trek to the cotton tree we passed by the clock tower which I have nicknamed times square of Freetown as it has this huge tv and seems to be one of the busiest places in Freetown. It seems so out of place to be walking by all of these little shacks where everything is so primitive and then seeing this massive TV in the middle of the street!

We finally made it to the Cotton Tree. This is one of Sierra Leone's historical sights. This tree is over 300 years old and was used as the auctioning grounds during the slave trade. We went to the Sierra Leone Peace and Cultural Monument where a man named Peter gave us a tour of the monuments explaining the some of the history of Sierra Leone.

Peter explaining that the country was called Sierra Leone meaning land of roaring lions because of the mountainous coast line and the huge thunderstorms that occur during rainy season.

his picture shows the reconciliation that took place after the civil war in many small towns and villages. The man in light blue is one of the elders of the community. The man begging for forgiveness was a member of the community before the war. He cut off the limbs of many people from his own village, not recognizing them because of the drugs that he had been taking. Peter told us that this story happened the same way in too many villages.

After the memorial we headed to the craft market to do some shopping. When we finished with all of our purchases, we headed to Crown Bakery for lunch.

Lunch at Crown Bakery... sooo good!

After a much needed break at the bakery, we continued our walk back home. It was very hot and muggy out but we made it back to the ship and had a nice relaxing evening :)

A little friend we met along the way