Our field service in Senegal has come to an end and before we set sail for our next stop (Sierra Leone), we head home to New Zealand for a short three weeks…. but its for an ‘unmissable’ celebration… 😉
We fly back into Tenerife just in time to sail the ship to Freetown, Sierra Leone…. the Global Mercy’s first field service in Sierra Leone; the last time Mercy Ships was in Sierra Leone was 12 years ago with our other ship, the Africa Mercy.
We leave our berth in Granadilla and head up the island to refuel in Santa Cruz. Wildfires have devastated the national park and forests leading up to the volcano Mt Tiede. As we refuel, we watch as rescue planes continually zoom overhead, picking up water from the sea and dumping it over the bush.
After a very smooth sail of seven days, we arrive to a great celebration in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone and the ships’ home for the next 10 months.
Sierra Leone was founded in 1808 and takes its name from the Lion Mountains near Freetown, the capital city. Originally named Serra Leoa (Portuguese for ‘lioness mountains’) by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra in 1462, Freetown was founded as a settlement for freed African American, Afro-Caribbean and Liberated African slaves. Their descendants are known as the Creole people. Although English is the official language, the majority of people speak Krio, the Sierra Leonean Creole.
A brutal civil war which ended in 2002 took its toll; also during this time there was an Ebola outbreak and then the subsequent Covid pandemic so the country is still recovering from this period.
We take a keke ride into town and drive past the Cotton tree, now just a stump remaining following a heavy rain storm in May 2023. The Cotton tree was one of great symbolic importance when enslaved African Americans fighting for the British during the American Revolutionary war, settled the site of modern Freetown.
We visit the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary found approximately 40 minutes from the ship. The sanctuary was founded in 1995 by Bala Amarasekaran when he was allocated 100 acres of prime rainforest by the government of Sierra Leone. Over the years, captive or abandoned baby chimpanzees were rescued and brought to the sanctuary with now over 120 chimpanzees in residence. There are several enclosures set up to progressively prepare the chimpanzees for release back into the wild.
We take a hike through the bush, across a dam and enjoy a swim in the waterhole. How wonderful to see greenery again and what a great bunch of people to spend the weekend with.
One of our last outings was to Franco’s, a lovely seafood restaurant not far from #2 River Beach, about a 45 minute drive from the ship. We dine outside, on the sand, watching the beautiful sunset. Thanks to Sarah, Thomas and Taylor for your company.
We say our final farewells to our dear friends on the ship. We know this is not goodbye but ‘au revoir’, until we meet again.
Our next brief stop is Morocco… so watch out for the next blog.
So interesting. Those people seem to have continual challenges just to live.
The cotton stump is something else.
By the way I’m having my 80th birthday on October 15th with a bit of a bash at a local bar/cafe.